Science Jan 07 Photo essay: The bizarre, brilliant and useful inventions of Cuban DIY engineers Long walled off from world trade and modern technology, Cuba has developed a robust culture of DIY engineers who turn household items into useful inventions. Water pump motors propel bicycles, clothes dryers are repurposed into coconut shredders. Cuban artist Ernesto…
Science Dec 05 NASA’s Orion splashes down in the Pacific after flawless test flight Watch the Orion spacecraft launch live here on the PBS NewsHour.
Science Oct 29 There’s a giant spot on the sun, and it’s acting weird The giant spot on the face of the sun has scientists scratching their heads. By the time it rotated into our view, it was already 80,000 miles wide, big enough to fit all of Jupiter, big enough to lay 10…
Science Oct 07 Can you find the turquoise in Wednesday’s lunar eclipse? For 59 minutes early Wednesday morning, the moon will turn an eerie shade of copper red when it passes through the Earth’s shadow in a total lunar eclipse. And if the skies are clear enough and you look at…
World Sep 23 Making sense of this week’s climate change news What’s with all these climate protests? This week’s protests were timed to today’s United Nation’s climate summit in New York. The street demonstration in Manhattan on Sunday was believed to be the single biggest climate protest -- ever. More than…
Science Sep 09 The Earth and its birds are ‘running out of time’ More grim news about climate change comes in two separate reports out this week -- one on the alarming surge of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, and another on the effects of climate change on North American bird populations.
World Sep 01 What’s behind a ‘disastrously inadequate response’ to West Africa’s Ebola outbreak A third confirmed case of Ebola was reported in Nigeria’s Port Harcourt, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 16, Reuters reported on Monday. This comes after a doctor in that city died last week after treating a man…
Science Aug 27 How to land on a comet as it soars through space Earlier this month, after a 10-year, 4-billion-mile journey, the Rosetta spacecraft entered orbit around the rubber-duck-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now it must land. This is no helicopter landing. Imagine grabbing a mosquito by the wings. Except the mosquito is in New…
Science Aug 13 Why are so many lullabies also murder ballads? Judging by lyrics alone, the lionshare of lullabies are not sweet and soothing; they are dark and creepy and macabre. So why are so many lullabies murder ballads? And as it relates to their primary function -- to lull the…
Science Jul 25 Probing the creative brain "As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies creativity, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted and high-profile subjects over the years, but Kurt Vonnegut—dear, funny, eccentric, lovable, tormented Kurt Vonnegut—will always be one of my favorites."…