Aug 23 Are Category 6 Hurricanes Coming Soon? Looking for signs of life after hurricane Ike hits Nederland, Tex. Photo by Getty Images. Atmospheric researchers tend to agree that tropical cyclones of unusual ferocity are coming this century, but the strange fact is that there is no… Continue reading
Aug 22 What We’re Reading: Brain Walls, Critter Vision and Microfossil Wars By Jenny Marder NASA To Share Telescope Cost The threatened James Webb Space Telescope, which is "perilously overbudget", may get a financial lifeline from other parts of NASA's budget, Nature News reports. As of now, the telescope is funded through the… Continue reading
Aug 19 Study: Black Researchers Receive Fewer NIH Grants James A. Shannon Building at the National Institutes of Health. Photo by National Institutes of Health Library. A new study by the National Institutes of Health found a disturbing gap between the number of grants awarded to white scientists… Continue reading
Aug 19 Could Bacteria Be the Energy Producer of the Future? What if wastewater could be turned into energy? Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on scientists from Penn State University that are developing microbial fuel cells that could channel energy produced when bacteria breaks down waste into electricity. Continue reading
Aug 17 Human Sewage Identified as Coral Killer The bacterium Serratia marcescens infected this coral from Looe Key in the Florida Keys, revealing the dead, white limestone skeleton underneath. Photo by James W. Porter. A Florida biologist has linked a vicious coral-killing pathogen in the Caribbean and… Continue reading
Aug 16 Watch Google’s Motorola Deal Promises to Shake Up Mobile Technology Industry Google announced plans this week to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. In recent years the Internet giant has made big plays in the smartphone market through its Android platform. Jeffrey Brown discusses the ramifications of the pending deal with… Continue watching
Aug 16 The Secret Language Code Photo by New World Laser Tag via Flickr Are there hidden messages in your emails? Yes, and in everything you write or say, according to James Pennebaker, chair of the department of psychology at the University of Texas at… Continue reading
Aug 15 Black Planets, Moon Blasts and Octopus Camouflage By Jenny Marder Darkest Planet Found: Coal-Black, It Reflects Almost No Light A Jupiter-size gas giant planet so black that it is less reflective than "the blackest acrylic paint" has been discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope. This National Geographic News… Continue reading
Aug 15 Computer Simulation Brings Maps to Life on Campus For the National Science Foundation's Science Nation,* science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on a computing concept called Geo-immersion, which relies on virtual computer simulation to reflect the world around us in real-time. Cyrus Shahabi, director of the… Continue reading
Aug 11 Pregnant Plesiosaur Fossil May Shed Light on Ancient Animal’s Behavior Photo by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Editor's note added on Aug. 12 at the end of this post Scientists have pieced together the first-ever fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur, a giant Mesozoic sea reptile from the… Continue reading