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Liquid to gas at temperatures so high That phase-distinctions blur and leave it there In place, that fine-wrought microscale array Of lattices the cosmic dust streams through To layer three, then rests in aerogel. A sense conundrum: blue as Summer sky Yet hazy, thin, impalpable, a clair- Obscur of dreamy stuff some latter-day Tech-savvy alchemist might think to brew Or strange sea-beast secrete within its shell. So many wondrous uses they apply This nearly-nothing to, this light-as-air Material poised to throw off matter’s sway And do as middle spirits used to do, From Puck and Ariel to Tinkerbell....

NAME: Zhou-Feng Chen TITLE: Director, Center for the Study of Itch at the Washington University School of Medicine LOCATION: St. Louis, Mo. Why do we need a research center dedicated to itch? First, chronic itch is a major underreported disease. Many patients—as many as 17 percent of adults, according to one study—suffer from it, and many of them never seek medical help. They think they can scratch it away. Because it’s not cancer, you don’t die from it, so people don’t take it seriously....

Global warming’s transformation of the Arctic is having a cascading effect, with some changes to the region worsening others. The loss of sea ice is the most visible, and temperatures almost 40 degrees above normal certainly garner attention. However, there are other important changes such as the loss of permafrost, the collapse of certain species in the food chain and the damage to fisheries caused by higher sea temperatures. Perhaps more troubling is that those changes are often interlinked, and one shift can trigger a series of others, a new report has found....

The CIA, working with counterparts in the Middle East, earlier this week halted the latest al Qaeda terrorist plot to bomb aircraft bound for the U.S. The planned attack, which would have come from explosives worn under a passenger’s clothing, is reminiscent of the so-called underwear bomb worn by an al Qaeda operative in the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a Detroit-bound passenger airliner on Christmas Day 2009....

WASHINGTON—Every second, our bodies capture carbon dioxide in our tissues, transport it via the blood, and dump it in the lungs from where it is exhaled. This unconscious process is yet another way humans contribute to the accumulation of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere—albeit in a minuscule volume compared with burning fossil fuels. The key to this metabolic process is an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase and it’s efficiency at capturing and releasing CO2 is what human engineers want to mimic at the power plant scale....

When the COVID pandemic finally retreats, the world will be different. We will have lost millions of lives—a tragic disaster that will devastate families and communities for decades to come. Other changes, of a less catastrophic nature, may not be bad things. For example, we will have lost some traditional habits and gained new ones. Take the way we greet one another: In March 2020 handshakes and cheek kisses were abruptly put on the do-not-do list to slow the spread of the virus....

Long before Barack Obama chose “Yes We Can” as his 2008 campaign slogan, Republicans had been dubbed the Party of No. The label is popular among liberals as an insult for the GOP, but it’s also been embraced by conservatives as a proud self-description: for some on the right, the Party of No conjures the adults in the room saving future generations from an orgiastic spending spree, in the spirit of William F....

When you perform a Google Image search for “victims of climate change,” the faces you see are those of Black and brown people in the tropics. The images depict small reef islands in the Pacific Ocean, arid landscapes in East Africa and flooded villages in South Asia. At some level, this association seems to make sense: Climate change disproportionately affects indigenous people and people of color, both within North America and around the world....

Benhur Lee may have discovered a medical silver bullet that can disable pandemic HIV, exotic Ebola, the common flu and possibly every kind of enveloped virus on the planet. An added bonus is that those viruses likely are unable to develop resistance to the compound. If this sounds too good to be true, you are not alone. Lee was skeptical himself, and that is why it took four years of detailed work by his lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, (U....

Earlier this year, an international team of astronomers, of which I am part, presented to the world a galaxy named HD1. If confirmed, this galaxy would be the most distant astronomical object yet found. HD1 was shining only 320 million years after the universe’s birth in the big bang—breathtakingly close to the origin of the cosmos. The galaxy’s light made an incredible journey to reach our telescopes, one that lasted about 13....

NASA saluted Captain Kirk over the weekend, giving William Shatner the Distinguished Public Service medal, the space agency’s highest award for civilians. The 83-year-old Canadian actor played Captain James Tiberius Kirk, one of TV’s most beloved space pioneers, who commanded the starship USS Enterprise in NBC’s “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969. In real life, Shatner has been a vocal advocate of science education and space exploration. “William Shatner has been so generous with his time and energy in encouraging students to study science and math, and for inspiring generations of explorers, including many of the astronauts and engineers who are a part of NASA today, " David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement....

After the COVID-19 rules about social distancing went into effect, I developed a morning routine of jogging through the woods near my home. During the first months, I focused on the green branches that stretch upward towards the sky, but recently I started to notice the debris of tree trunks lying on the ground. There are many such remnants, eaten by termites, rotting and ultimately dispersing into the underlying soil. A glimpse at the forest reveals a sequence of evolutionary phases in the history of trees that lived or died at different times....

The first charge of a state governor should be to keep as many of their constituents alive as possible, especially during times of crisis. In collusion with a fawning news media (which includes his own brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo), Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has failed to do this. Indeed, the COVID pandemic has proven that he does not respect nor perhaps even understand scientific knowledge enough to avoid needlessly letting thousands of New Yorkers die—and he should resign immediately....

Four years ago hundreds of Canadian scientists gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, donning their white lab coats to protest what they said was the “death of scientific evidence.” They held a mock funeral procession and prepared eulogies. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, they warned, appeared to be waging a war on science—imposing draconian restrictions on scientists’ engagement with the media and proposing a national science budget that slashed research funding and closed certain research centers....

Glaciers continue to melt. Sea levels are on the rise. And now scientists believe the changing climate may put our brains at risk. A new analysis predicts that by 2100, increasing water temperatures brought on by a warming planet could result in 96 percent of the world’s population not having access to an omega-3 fatty acid crucial to brain health and function. That molecule is called docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA. It is the most common fatty acid in the mammalian brain and plays a key role in the survival and function of our neural cells, especially during the organ’s development....

“That was a really impressive exam. Why don’t you write your dissertation on that subject? Let’s set up an appointment for you to come by, and we’ll talk about it,” said the professor to Nina after she completed a test. Unfortunately, the up-and-coming mathematician was unable to take in and enjoy the compliment. Rather her head was full of thoughts such as “What a nice man, and he asked me such easy test questions....

In 1907 German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer published a case report of an unusual illness affecting the cerebral cortex. A 51-year-old woman living in an asylum in Frankfurt am Main exhibited symptoms that are all too familiar to the millions of families affected by what is now known as Alzheimer’s disease. There was memory loss, confusion and disorientation. After the patient died, Alzheimer examined her brain and made a few key observations....

Rendering of a champagne-colored iPhone 5S: It will be interesting to see if Apple still has some big surprises in store that analysts and the media haven’t covered yet. (Credit: Shop Le Monde) We have iPhone 5S release dates, colors, and specs. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah, I forget to mention that they’re all just rumors. But there’s little left to the imagination these days when Apple rolls out a new product....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government has rejected most of a $511 million loan request for the renewal of New York state’s Tappan Zee Bridge, dealing a blow to one of governor Andrew Cuomo’s most prominent infrastructure projects just weeks ahead of state elections. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that the $3.9 billion project was ineligible for funds from a federal clean water fund because “construction activities arising from transportation projects do not advance water quality....

Your agency funds projects around the world to promote health, improve food security, and so on. About a year into your tenure, in 2011, you said that USAID is “no longer satisfied with writing big checks to big contractors and calling it development.” So why are the funds still going primarily to big organizations? We have actually moved more than $730 million to more than 1,200 small-scale, diversified, local partners. Some are small businesses....