Science

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…

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.

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

Drought Monitor Tracks Extreme Heat Across the Nation

EmbedVideo(1224, 482, 304); Record heat and dry conditions continue to plague large parts of the United States this summer. While the south central region of the United States has been hit especially hard, more than 30 percent of…

Tweeting Your Health Woes Could Help Fight Disease

Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images That "viral" metaphor for social media just got a little more bona fide. According to a recent slate of independent studies, Twitter can accurately track the spread of a virus or disease -- and…