Levi and Emma Kinsinger operate a small greenhouse in southern Pennsylvania. On November 6, 2002, they traveled 450 miles round-trip by taxi, at a rate of a dollar per mile, to bring their eldest son—Mark—to the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa. At age four, Mark was frail and socially detached. He lay on the floor in constant, restless motion. His eyes roamed but did not fix, and he was unmoved by sound....
Duck-billed dinosaurs and an ancient wildebeest-like animal lived tens of millions of years apart, but they have strikingly similar, peculiar noses, a new study finds. Both creatures sported a trumpetlike nasal passage that extended to the tops of the animals’ heads and may have served as resonance chambers to help them communicate, the researchers found. The nose-y similarity is “a spectacular example” of convergent evolution, a process in which unrelated animals develop the same features because those traits are evolutionarily advantageous, the researchers said....
Consciousness is everything you experience. It is the tune stuck in your head, the sweetness of chocolate mousse, the throbbing pain of a toothache, the fierce love for your child and the bitter knowledge that eventually all feelings will end. The origin and nature of these experiences, sometimes referred to as qualia, have been a mystery from the earliest days of antiquity right up to the present. Many modern analytic philosophers of mind, most prominently perhaps Daniel Dennett of Tufts University, find the existence of consciousness such an intolerable affront to what they believe should be a meaningless universe of matter and the void that they declare it to be an illusion....
Editor’s note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. The drama of Philae’s slow fall, bounce and unfortunate slide into hibernation was one of the most thrilling science stories of a generation. But what in its short 60 hours of life on Comet 67P did it achieve? The short answer is analytical chemistry. Philae’s payload included three instruments that are quite common in chemistry labs, but when deployed on a comet could answer questions about the origins of the solar system and life itself....
Every month, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN—the longest-running magazine in the U.S. and an authoritative voice in science, technology and innovation—provides insight into scientific topics that affect our daily lives and capture our imagination, establishing the vital bridge between science and public policy. Available on iPad, print, and digital formats. SECURITY • Surveillance drones, similar to those used in modern warfare, are becoming a presence in U.S. skies. There are promising uses for the technology, such as surveying wildfires and conducting search-and-rescue operations, but the government needs to protect the privacy of its citizens....
Dear EarthTalk: Some friends of mine were talking about a book called Plan B that proposes a plan for rescuing the environment and ending poverty around the world. Is it a realistic plan or just some utopian pipe dream?—Robin Jackson, Richmond, Va. What started as a book has grown into a movement known as “Plan B” which presents a roadmap for achieving worldwide goals of stabilizing both population and climate. According to Lester Brown, author of the 2003 book, Plan B (and three subsequent updates) and founder of the non-profit environmental think tank, Earth Policy Institute, the plan is based on replacing the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model powered by abundant sources of renewable energy....
Engineer Jim Southerland was hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1971 to join the nascent war on air pollution. He came to relish the task, investigating orange clouds from an ammunition plant in Tennessee and taking air samples from strip mines in Wyoming. Among his proudest accomplishments: helping the agency develop a set of numbers called emission factors—values that enable regulators to estimate atmospheric discharges from power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial operations....
Every few years Americans in major cities elect a mayor. The process is relatively straightforward: we vote, and the candidate who carries the majority wins. The same goes for certain bovines. Ecologist Amandine Ramos of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) spent three months observing a bison herd at the Monts-d’Azur Biological Reserve, about 20 miles from Nice. It turns out that European bison operate by majority rule. These individuals “cast a vote” for the direction they would like to move by orienting their bodies, Ramos observed....
Peering far across space and time, astronomers have located a luminous beacon aglow when the universe was still in its infancy. That beacon, a bright astrophysical object known as a quasar, shines with the luminosity of 63 trillion suns as gas falling into a supermassive black holes compresses, heats up and radiates brightly. It is farther from Earth than any other known quasar—so distant that its light, emitted 13 billion years ago, is only now reaching Earth....
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Scientists have conducted a meticulous genetic comparison of humankind’s closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, and found that much as humans once interbred with Neanderthals long ago these two ape species also were kissing cousins. Scientists said on Thursday their analysis of the genomes of 65 chimpanzees and 10 bonobos from 10 African countries indicated two episodes of interbreeding between the species, one about 500,000 years ago and another about 200,000 years ago....
In recent years, researchers have discovered tantalizing evidence that antidepressants combat depression by promoting neurogenesis, the growth of new neurons in the brain. The evidence derives from several striking observations. One is that stressed monkeys grow fewer new cells in the hippocampus region of the brain than their healthy counterparts do. Secondly, most depression treatments, from drugs such as Prozac to a type of powerful magnetic stimulation, increase new neuron growth by up to 75 percent in rodents....
One of the challenges of writing about science is that important concepts are not always exciting, and it is no small feat to make a dull subject shine. Recent events, however, have highlighted a topic that is both deadly dull and deadly serious: instrument calibration. Calibration is the process of making sure an instrument is working accurately. Usually this involves testing against a known standard (or set of standards). Every scientist who works with an instrument learns to calibrate it; organizations that make many measurements, such as the U....
A panel of 19 scientists drawn from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recommended yesterday that the Department of Energy should continue an international experiment on nuclear fusion energy and then develop its own plan for a “compact power plant.” The experts envision that it could become a model for future plants. “We are seeing tremendous progress being made in the path to achieving fusion energy around the world,” said Michael Mauel, a professor of applied physics at Columbia University and co-chair of the panel....
The long-running TV series M*A*S*H featured tireless and dedicated surgeons. ER, another long-lived series, featured heroic and complicated emergency health care workers. The recently concluded sitcom 30 Rock featured Dr. Leo Spaceman. Usually pronounced “spah-CHEH-mun” (but occasionally astronautically), Spaceman somehow practices everything from psychiatry to transplant surgery to ophthalmology to obstetrics—when a new father asks Spaceman why the just delivered baby is “covered with goop,” the doctor replies, “Because everything about this is disgusting”....
As the climate heats up, tempers may follow suit, according to a study published in August 2013 in Nature. Analyzing 60 quantitative studies across fields as disparate as archaeology, criminology, economics, geography, history, political science and psychology, University of California researchers found that throughout history and across the world, higher temperatures, less rainfall and more drought were consistently linked to increased violence. The correlation held true for aggression between individuals, such as domestic abuse and assault, but was even more pronounced for conflict between groups [see timeline]....
HERE IS ANOTHER REASON to call your old buddy to catch up: new findings show that it is not just fun or socially enriching to maintain solid relationships with close friends—it also helps you stay healthier and may extend your life span. Psychologists have long known that having a set of cherished companions is crucial to mental well-being. In addition, a recent study by Australian investigators Lynne Giles, Gary Andrews and Mary Luszcz of Flinders University and Gary Glonek of the University of Adelaide concluded that our chums even help to prolong our lives....
Renate Flens, a German woman in her 60s who suffers from depression, tells her psychotherapist that she wants to love her children but just can’t. She and the therapist soon realize that both Flens’s problems may be rooted in her frustration at being unable to allow others to get close to her. After lengthy conversations, they realize something else: a contributing factor may well be the child-rearing teachings of Johanna Haarer, a physician whose books were written during the Nazi era and aimed at raising children to serve the Führer....
The darkest reaches of the ocean have long been thought of as a desolate biome. But as researchers send equipment down to document these mysterious depths, they are quickly learning not only that it is teaming with life, but also that it boasts surprising diversity. More than 340 scientists from around the world have been working over the past nine years to complete the Census of Marine Life, a project that has sent out dozens of expeditions to document ocean life at all levels of the sea....
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to land near the Red Planet’s north pole just before 5 P.M. Pacific time (8 P.M. Eastern) on Sunday. The agency said that Phoenix is on course to touch down within eight miles (13 kilometers) of the center of its elliptical landing site, “Green Valley,” located at 68 degrees north latitude and 233 degrees east longitude, where it will dig into a layer of rock-solid ice thought to lie near the surface....
BOSTON–Hundreds of scientists put aside their habitual wariness toward political activity and rallied over the weekend in Boston’s Copley Square, with many saying the Trump administration has left them no choice. “It’s uncomfortable for me as a scientist, but it’s necessary,” said Brittany Goods, a postdoctoral student in biomedical sciences at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She carried a sign that read simply: “FACTS.” Many scientists view political activism as a potential taint or threat to the absolute empiricism that science strives for—or simply feel they cannot afford to take time away from their work....
