Oct 01 Why do honeybees die when they sting? By Anna Christiansen We return to our Just Ask feature, where experts tackle your questions on science and technology. Why do honeybees die when they sting? When a honeybee stings, it dies a gruesome death. The bee’s stinger is structured in such… Continue reading
Sep 30 This is how you get Ebola, as explained by science By Ruth Tam This post was originally published on Aug. 21 and updated on Sep. 30 to reflect the latest numbers from the World Health Organization. As of Sep. 30, the Ebola virus had killed more than 3,000 people in the West African… Continue reading
Sep 24 Will cancer-sniffing dogs lose their jobs to a machine? By Mori Rothman At the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia, Ffoster, a Labrador retriever, is hard at work. The dog sniffs furiously at an array of metal boxes containing blood samples mounted on a metal wheel, pauses by one of the… Continue reading
Sep 17 Are you getting enough vitamin A? Probably, but half of the world isn’t By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy Scientists are genetically modifying crops like rice to get vitamin A into impoverished diets in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. NewsHour explains why this vitamin is so important, where you can get it and why you shouldn't eat polar bear… Continue reading
Sep 10 This telescope is so extreme, the weak of heart need not apply By Joshua Barajas and Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy Deadly altitudes, breathtaking skies, treacherous roads, wild donkeys -- it's all part of working on the most sophisticated telescope in the world. Continue reading
Sep 03 How one tick bite can lead to a life-threatening meat allergy By Ruth Tam One night in the summer of 2009, Jeremy Spittle emerged from a hot tub covered in hives that itched “four times more than poison ivy.” For months, his skin broke out like this every few days. The only thing that… Continue reading
Aug 27 How to land on a comet as it soars through space By Jenny Marder Earlier this month, after a 10-year, 4-billion-mile journey, the Rosetta spacecraft entered orbit around the rubber-duck-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now it must land. This is no helicopter landing. Imagine grabbing a mosquito by the wings. Except the mosquito is in New… Continue reading
Aug 13 Why are so many lullabies also murder ballads? By Jenny Marder Judging by lyrics alone, the lionshare of lullabies are not sweet and soothing; they are dark and creepy and macabre. So why are so many lullabies murder ballads? And as it relates to their primary function -- to lull the… Continue reading
Aug 06 Miles O’Brien returns to the site of Japan’s nuclear disaster three years later By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy In March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake shook Japan, triggering a catastrophic tsunami and nuclear disaster. Since then, PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien has provided some of the most in-depth reporting on the subject to-date. He has traveled… Continue reading
Jul 30 Watch asteroids pummel the Earth in its first 500 million years By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy Earth got pretty beat up in its first 500 million years. Scientists recreated thousands of asteroid strikes over 4 billion years ago. Those asteroids shaped the planet's crust, and may have contributed to the rise of life on Earth. Continue reading