Jul 20 Just Ask: Epic Swim Tests the Limits of Human Endurance By Jenny Marder Legendary long distance swimmer Diana Nyad, 61, will attempt to be the first person to swim the 103 miles from Cuba to Key West without a shark cage. Photo by Miami Herald via Getty Images. What does swimming 103 miles… Continue reading
Jul 06 Wrinkled When Wet: Accidental or Adaptive? By Jenny Marder Fingers wrinkled after an afternoon snorkeling. Photo by notanyron via Flickr Creative Commons Beachgoers know it well. You soak in the sea or the tub long enough, and your waterlogged fingers get puckered and funny looking. But why do our… Continue reading
Jun 16 What Is a Black Hole, and How Are They Formed? As new findings are released on the most ancient black holes ever detected, we break down the basics. Continue reading
May 24 Just Ask: Stink Bug Invasion; Is a Wasp the Solution to Save Valued Crops? By Jenny Marder When it comes to fruit and vegetables, brown marmorated stink bugs don't discriminate. They feast on peaches, plums, apples, and grapes, along with corn, tomatoes, peppers and soybeans. They extract fluid from the apples, turning them dry and corky, and… Continue reading
May 12 Why Did April Spawn so Many Deadly Tornadoes in the South? By Jenny Marder Photo courtesy Katrina Floyd A scary thing happened to Katrina Floyd on the morning of April 27. A thunderstorm swept through her northeast Alabama town of Ider in the early morning hours, uprooting trees and knocking out power and cell… Continue reading
May 02 Just Ask: What’s Behind Space Shuttle Endeavour’s Electrical Glitch? By Jenny Marder Photo courtesy of NASA. Updated May 2, 6:00 p.m. ET | NASA now says that repairs to replace and retest a faulty power distribution box has pushed the launch date to May 10 at the earliest. At the root of… Continue reading
Apr 26 Just Ask: Why Does Antimatter Matter? By Jenny Marder The STAR detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This week, a team of researchers from the Brookhaven National Laboratory announced they had discovered helium's twin particle, antihelium-4, the heaviest antimatter nucleus observed yet. So what does that mean, and why do… Continue reading
Apr 20 One Year Later, Where Has All the Oil Gone? By Jenny Marder The Gulf of Mexico has always been an oily place. Early sea captains wrote in their log books of slicks of oil. Mayan Indians used natural tars to seal their water jugs and waterproof their canoes. As many as 50… Continue reading
Apr 12 Quiz: NASA Announces New Homes for Space Shuttle Fleet By Larisa Epatko NASA marked the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch and the 50th anniversary of the first human in space -- Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961 -- by naming the final destinations of its retiring space shuttle fleet. Continue reading
Apr 06 Nuclear Reactors and Nuclear Bombs: What Defines the Differences? By Jenny Marder What is the difference between the nuclear material in a bomb, versus a reactor? A nuclear reactor works by using the energy that is released when the nucleus of a heavy atom splits. That process is called fission. In reactors,… Continue reading