Feb 25 What a Missing Section of One Man’s Brain Taught Science About Memory This image shows an MRI of a normal hippocampus.The cortical folds are clearly visible. Photo By BSIP/UIG via Getty Images. I recall being equally parts shocked and fascinated the first time I learned about the man known as H.M. Continue reading
Feb 22 Hanging Out Live With Astronauts From the International Space Station Are dreams affected by microgravity? How do you exercise in space? What's that on Chris Hadfield's forehead? These were among the questions posed to NASA astronauts -- three of whom are orbiting 240 miles above the Earth, from… Continue reading
Feb 18 How the Sticking Power of Mussels Can Advance Fetal Surgery Mussels and barnacles in the intertidal near Newquay, Cornwall, England. Photo by Mark A. Wilson. Department of Geology, The College of Wooster. BOSTON -- I learned this weekend that mussels, those brainless, hard-shell mollusks that and are found in… Continue reading
Feb 08 Earliest Placental Mammal Described in Breathtaking Detail Some 65 million years ago, an asteroid possibly as big as Mount Everest plowed into the Earth, wiping about 70 percent of all species, including dinosaurs, off the planet. Why this event killed off the dinosaurs but spared other species,… Continue reading
Feb 04 Now Is the Winter of Our Discovery: Tracing History Through DNA By Ray Suarez Project osteologist Jo Appleby points out damage to a skull, believed to be that of Richard III, during a news conference in Leicester, central England, on Monday. Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters. King Richard III, depicted by some as a wicked,… Continue reading
Feb 01 Whip Scorpions and Jungle Nymphs: Behind the Scenes at the Insect Zoo An eastern lubber grasshopper, or Romalea guttata sits on a leaf at the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Photos by Jenny Marder. And now, an end-of-the-week pause to celebrate insects and the people who love… Continue reading
Jan 28 New Space Telescope to Map Dark Matter This artist's concept shows the Euclid spacecraft, which will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. Image by ESA/C. Carreau. Update: Jan 29 | This week, NASA announced that it will partner with the… Continue reading
Jan 25 Cloned Cave Baby Lost in Translation Reconstruction of a Neanderthal at Mettmann, Germany's Neanderthal Museum. Photo by Stefan Scheer, Courtesy Wikimedia. Who doesn't love a good story about a cloned Neanderthal baby? As they flickered across the web this week, I read them… Continue reading
Jan 18 Paint Pigment, Violent Raccoons and Other Surprising Mercury Trivia Delegates gathered in Geneva this week to negotiate for a global treaty to regulate the toxic chemical mercury. Photo by Flickr via Radioactive Rosca. I want to call your attention to a blog on "issues relevant to… Continue reading
Jan 14 Milky Way Awash in Planets Since the last Kepler catalog was released in February 2012, the number of candidates discovered in the Kepler data has increased by 20 percent and now totals 2,740 potential planets orbiting 2,036 stars. Image by NASA. In case… Continue reading