Mar 21 Genetic research has a white bias, and it may be hurting everyone’s health By Vicky Stein Around 80,000 years ago, a small group left Africa and radiated around the globe, taking with them a subset of their ancestors' genetic variation. Now, that subset dominates genetic and health studies worldwide. Continue reading
Mar 20 Which came first: society or a fear of god? By Nsikan Akpan Religion is a fundamental feature of humanity, but did our ancestors need it to form complex societies?… Continue reading
Mar 20 Watch 5:59 Can Uganda block Ebola’s spread from neighboring Congo? By Fred de Sam Lazaro, Sarah Clune Hartman Eastern parts of Democratic Republic of Congo are suffering from the second-worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in history, with more than 500 dead so far. Neighboring Uganda is watching with concern as the crisis unfolds, wary of allowing… Continue watching
Mar 18 Why everyone should stand still on an escalator By Lesley Strawderman, The Conversation The best way to ride an escalator isn't what you'd expect, but it's 27 percent more efficient. Continue reading
Mar 17 Watch 5:55 Uncovering the history of Earth’s climate By Hari Sreenivasan, Sam Weber, Connie Kargbo, Theresa Lewis To understand the history of climate change, researchers are digging underneath the ocean floor where organisms and plants have accumulated in sediment over millennia. Maureen Raymo studies this science of paleoclimatology using a vast collection of materials at Columbia University’s… Continue watching
Mar 17 Softer, processed foods changed the way ancient humans spoke By Steven Moran, Balthasar Bickel, The Conversation Considering language from a biological perspective led researchers to the idea that new food processing technologies affected neolithic human beings' jaws – and allowed new language sounds to emerge. Continue reading
Mar 15 How the New York pizza slice became universal By Nsikan Akpan, Jamie Leventhal A new book explains how simple inventions, like the New York City pizza oven, allow certain food producers to dominate their global supply chains. Continue reading
Mar 15 Watch 2:55 How a scientific approach to crayons yields this artist’s photorealistic portraits By Jackie Shafer, WOSU With his series of crayon works, Ohio artist Christian Faur is not only creating photorealistic portraits out of art supplies traditionally relegated to children, but he’s also making the crayons from scratch. Jackie Shafer of WOSU in Columbus has this… Continue watching
Mar 15 This new ‘army’ of spiders is named after Star Wars stormtroopers By Vicky Stein They wouldn’t survive the deserts of Tatooine or the frigid planet Hoth, but these newly described, tarantula-like spiders are named after the stormtroopers who marched through the “Star Wars” movies. Continue reading
Mar 14 Watch 5:12 With ‘Mutual Air,’ this California artist leverages the sounds of science By Jeffrey Brown Despite increasingly dire assessments about the outlook for climate change, it can be difficult to remain mindful of our environment’s health on a daily basis. Jeffrey Brown traveled to the Bay Area to meet Rosten Woo, a Los Angeles-based artist… Continue watching