Posts

Recently, scientists discovered bacteria that had been buried beneath the ocean floor for more than a hundred million years and was still alive. What would change if we could live for even just a million years? Two thoughts immediately come to mind. First, tenure in academia would have to be capped. Universities would have to limit faculty appointments to a century at most in order to refresh their talent pool and mitigate old-fashioned education and research dogmas....

Tropical Storm Isaac has now officially become Hurricane Isaac, the National Hurricane Center announced this afternoon (Aug. 28). This strengthening had been expected for more than 24 hours, however — so why did it take so long? Tropical Storm Isaac was still intensifying early yesterday (Aug. 27) when it encountered a system of dry air, said Tim Schott, a hurricane specialist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The dry air was sucked into the cyclone and prevented the eye wall (the border surrounding the cyclone’s center, or eye) from forming, a key step in a storm’s intensification, he told OurAmazingPlanet....

Ever since I can remember, I was constantly asking questions. My parents called me “Miss Inquisity” because of it. I was that quirky kid on the playground who played with butterflies and spied for ladybugs. After I came home from school, I binged How It’s Made on the Science Channel. Oh, that’s what makes my bubble gum so sticky! Or, this is what they put in Oreos, really? I thought to myself....

If everyone had to rely on flash memory—the data-storage system used in memory cards and thumb drives—the amount of information that the world is estimated to produce by 2040 would exceed the planet’s expected supply of microchip-grade silicon by up to 100 times. To prevent such a crisis, researchers have been exploring a storage material that life itself relies on: DNA. In theory, this substance can hold a vast amount of information—up to one exabyte (one billion gigabytes) per cubic millimeter of DNA—for millennia....

By Ewen CallawayA developing fetus’s entire genome lurks in its mother’s blood, potentially offering prospective parents a non-invasive way of testing for any congenital disease. Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have mapped hundreds of thousands of DNA code variations spread across the genome of an unborn child in order to determine whether or not it would inherit a rare blood disorder.The same approach could indicate, months before an infant is born, whether he or she has inherited cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia and other diseases....

The facility has long been shadowed by its ill-fated 1991 maiden mission to establish an analogue of a self-sustaining colony on another planet. But after some retooling and successful, high-profile studies—including one that revealed warming oceans are killing corals—the giant terrarium (led by the University of Arizona since 2011) is finally living up to its potential as a site for novel and risky research. In its half-acre rain forest, scientists are probing how tropical ecosystems might weather late-21st-century heat and drought....

Every autumn migrating birds in the Northern Hemisphere fly south to escape the cold. If we humans were to make such a journey, we would need a map. But each bird has its route stored at least partially in its genes. Rather than relying solely on external cues, it has an innate flight plan. Most individuals within a single population follow the same migration path, taking advantage of favorable winds and optimal topography....

The struggle to expand or restrict the nation’s action on climate change in the next presidency intensifies today in Iowa. In tonight’s caucuses, Democrats are fighting in part for the title of the best climate candidate. All three presidential candidates propose strong action on clean energy as a sign of their commitment to advance President Obama’s unmatched efforts to address climbing temperatures and to attract core voters. Republicans promise the reverse....

An ailing Russian cargo spacecraft is falling from space and will soon meet a fiery demise in Earth’s atmosphere after suffering a serious malfunction on Tuesday (April 28), a NASA astronaut said today. The unmanned Progress 59 spacecraft is doomed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in the next few days after failing to deliver more than 3 tons of supplies to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly told reporters in a series of televised interviews....

By Tom Miles Two people have fallen ill with Ebola in Guinea after two weeks with no new confirmed cases of the disease in West Africa, the World Health Organization said on Friday. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a U.N. briefing in Geneva that one case was in Forecariah, western Guinea, and appeared to be linked to a previously known chain of infection, while the other was in the capital Conakry....

Dear EarthTalk: I heard about something called the Green Café Network. What is it and what are they trying to accomplish for the environment?—Jane Stevenson, Los Angeles The Green Café Network (GCN), a project of the non-profit Earth Island Institute, seeks to reduce Americans’ environmental impacts by greening the coffeehouse industry and harnessing cafe culture for community environmental awareness. By educating and working with cafe owners and staff, GCN helps network members reduce waste, save energy, conserve water and increase community stewardship....

BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. – Who killed Dunkard Creek? Was it coal miners whose runoff wiped out aquatic life in the stream where locals have long fished and picnicked? Or was it Marcellus Shale drillers and the briny discharge from their wells that created a toxic algae bloom that left a miles-long trail of rotting fish along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania state line? Two years after Dunkard Creek suffered one of the worst fish kills ever in West Virginia or Pennsylvania, the reason for the chemical changes that spawned it remain a mystery....

It might not sound terribly appealing, but the best way to heal skin wounds could be to apply some fish skin protein. That, at least, is the claim of a group of researchers in China who were able to speed up skin wound healing on mice using collagen obtained from the skin of tilapia fish. Collagen is the main structural protein in connective tissue, and its effectiveness in wound healing is well established....

Tomorrow, the eyes of the horse racing world will turn to the 133rd annual Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of U.S. horse racing’s Triple Crown. But the dust has barely settled from the tragedy at the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, where vets were forced to euthanize the promising gray thoroughbred filly, Eight Belles, when she collapsed on the track after completing the race at Churchill Downs, suffering from two shattered ankles in her front legs....

Imagine you are playing the guitar. You’re seated, supporting the instrument’s weight across your lap. One hand strums; the other presses strings against the guitar’s neck to play chords. Your vision tracks sheet music on a page, and your hearing lets you listen to the sound. In addition, two other senses make playing this instrument possible. One of them, touch, tells you about your interactions with the guitar. Another, proprioception, tells you about your arms’ and hands’ positions and movements as you play....

There is a common narrative, in academia and beyond, that says, “You have to be a jerk to be successful.” As a scientist who studies what makes a great leader, it is disheartening how often research trainees and junior faculty in the sciences ask me if this is true. So, it’s been an especially eye-opening week for science, as academics reflect on Eric Lander’s resignation from his roles as the director the Office of Science and Technology Policy and White House science adviser....

The first modern-style code ever executed on a computer was written in the 1940s by a woman named Klára Dán von Neumann—or Klári to her family and friends. And the historic program she wrote was used to develop thermonuclear weapons. In this season, we peer into a fascinating moment in the postwar U.S. through the prism of von Neumann’s work. We explore the evolution of early computers, the vital role women played in early programming, and the inextricable connection between computing and war....

Let’s face it. If you live in New York City, where light pollution is perhaps as bad as it gets, there aren’t too many celestial sights that you can look forward to seeing. And yet, twice each year, New York residents and visitors from around the world are mesmerized by an uncommon appearance that occurs near sunset in the giant metropolis. It’s dubbed “Manhattanhenge.” Around the “traditional” date of Memorial Day (May 30) and again for a day or two around July 12, New Yorkers become intrigued by an unusual circumstance that allows the setting sun to be seen on all streets headed east and west simultaneously, provided that you have a clear view down to the New Jersey horizon....

EXPANDING UNIVERSE Has any scientist measured the rate of the acceleration of the universe’s expansion, as discussed in “The Puzzle of Dark Energy,” by Adam G. Riess and Mario Livio? And were that acceleration turned back nearly 14 billion years, would it conform with the current models of the big bang? AARON HACKETT Howell, N.J. As I recall, our galaxy is bound to merge with Andromeda. Would this be delayed by an expanding universe?...

THE GREAT German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz not only discovered the first law of thermodynamics (the conservation of energy) but also invented the ophthalmoscope and was first to measure nerve impulse velocity. He is, in addition, widely regarded as the founding father of the science of human visual perception—and is, to both of us, an inspiration. We have often emphasized in our writings that even the simplest act of perception involves active interpretation, or “intelligent” guesswork, by the brain about events in the world; it involves more than merely reading out the sensory inputs sent from receptors....