Science Dec 14 Just Ask: How Does Sunscreen Work? As a cold front settles across the Eastern seaboard, we turn wistfully to thoughts of the sun for this week’s Just Ask! science post. This one comes from a reader, Amanda Teicher, who wants to know: “How does sunscreen work?”…
Science Dec 10 Cancun Climate Talks: Signs of Progress or More Stumbling Blocks? As the U.N. Climate Negotiations wind up in Cancun, Mexico, we asked a variety of experts and climate watchers what they make of the summit so far, and what its outcome could mean for the future of international climate policy.
Science Dec 07 Just Ask: What Would a Supersized Atom Look Like? If you expanded an atom to the size of a baseball, what would it look like? And how would the inside look if you sliced it open? The nucleus is the atom's central core and contains more than 99.9 percent…
Science Nov 30 Just Ask: What Makes Volcanoes Erupt? It's time for our weekly Just Ask feature, where the experts tackle your questions on science and technology. John Eichelberger, a volcano expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, answers the question, "Why Does the Earth Have Volcanoes, and…
Science Nov 26 China’s Internet ‘Hijacking’: Experts Take Your Questions // In April, Web traffic from tens of thousands of computer networks, including the U.S. Defense Department, the U.S. Senate and NASA, were diverted through China. A congressionally chartered panel concluded last week that China's state-based telecommunications company, China Telecom,…
Science Nov 24 Universe is Expanding, But Not All of It Regarding the expanding universe which recent observations shows is accelerating: I understand that not everything is expanding, just the space between galaxies. Is that correct? If so, why? -- Bill Ellena It's true -- not everything is expanding. The earth…
Science Nov 15 Harvard Astrophysicist Answers: What Is a Supernova? Robert Kirshner, an astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, answers the question, "What is a supernova?" A supernova explosion is something where you see a star that you hadn't seen before suddenly turn billions of times brighter…
Politics Nov 01 Mexico Dispatch: Authorities Jockey for Control in Violent Drug War Funeral for some of those killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Photo by Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images Less than a month before Mexicans celebrate the centennial of their revolution, some of them have the feeling the country is in a time of…
Science Sep 23 New Gulf Oil Spill Flow Rate Estimate Released In the early days of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, estimates varied wildly on the amount of oil gushing from the blown-out well. As spring turned to summer and the oil kept flowing, the government revised its calculations.
Science Sep 08 8 Key Failures Led to Gulf Oil Spill, BP Report Says In its long-awaited internal report on this summer's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP blamed contractors Halliburton and Transocean for many of the problems leading up to the country's worst-ever oil spill -- igniting anger from the companies blamed. No…