Jan 17 What We’re Reading: Worm Bots, Dark Energy and Climate Psychology Why Dire Climate Warnings Boost Skepticism Dire predictions on climate change don't seem to be working. Even while scientific evidence that humans are causing global warming continues to mount, belief in climate change doesn't. So why the disconnect?… Continue reading
Jan 10 Tears and Testosterone, Interstellar Dust Clouds and a Medical Mystery, Unsolved In Women's Tears, a Chemical that Says, 'Not Tonight, Dear' When a man gets close enough to sniff a woman's tears, his sex drive and hormone levels drop, but his mood and empathy remain unchanged, according to… Continue reading
Dec 20 What We’re Reading: Year-end Wraps, Interstellar Space and Magnified Mushroom Mold Biochemist Photo-Fiddler Here's a fun, visual story on a GlaxoSmithKline biochemist who, in his spare time, used small mirrors, PVC pipes and an old computer hard drive to design a specialized camera that snaps photos of insects in flight. Continue reading
Dec 13 What We’re Reading: Saturn’s Rings, Little Brown Bat Disease and Fossil Looting Epidemiology: Fear in the Dust Nature News reports on the mineral erionite, which has been linked to startling rates of the rare lung condition, mesothelioma, in some Turkish villages. It turns out dangerous levels of erionite are also… Continue reading
Dec 06 What We’re Reading: Arsenic, Lightfoils and Skull-implanted Cameras Arsenic, Bacteria and Alien Life: Lessons from an Internet Frenzy The Guardian has a nice writeup from an astrobiologist on the speculation, media frenzy and false stories that rolled out along with last week's discovery that scientists had found… Continue reading
Nov 29 Warming Lakes, Restoring Youth and … Owl Puke Aging Ills Reversed in Mice Scientists have partially reversed age-related degeneration in mice, according to a study published online in the journal Nature and reported by the Wall Street Journal. Scientists achieved this by manipulating telomeres, DNA units that… Continue reading
Nov 22 What We’re Reading: Jellyfish Stars, Big Hailstorms, Morphing Tumor Cells Brain Tumors Grow Their Own Blood Supply Drugs designed to choke off blood to brain tumors often fail, and two new studies published online in the journal Nature help explain why. Tumor cells may be bypassing the drugs… Continue reading
Nov 18 What We’re Reading: Venomous Snakes, Urban Gardens and Antimatter Extragalactic Expat: Newfound Exoplanet Likely Came from Another Galaxy This week, the journal, Science has a study on an exoplanet more massive than Jupiter that came from another galaxy and then got consumed by ours. It's the first… Continue reading
Nov 15 What We’re Reading: Deaf Dolphins, Shuttle Trouble, Cat Fluid Mechanics Beached Dolphins Often Deaf, Study Finds "In a world where hearing is as valuable as sight," deafness may be a major factor in what's stranding dolphins on seashores, The Washington Post reports. Researchers studied dolphins and other marine… Continue reading