Carrageenan has been the subject of a lot of controversy and several of you have asked me to comment. For those who may not be up to speed on the topic, let me start with a quick overview. What Is Carrageenan? Carrageenan is an extract from a red seaweed commonly known as Irish Moss. This edible seaweed is native to the British Isles, where it’s been used in traditional cooking for hundreds of years....
The Ancient Greek poet Archilochus wrote: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog one big thing.” When I started my career in astrophysics, the advice I received from my mentor, John Bahcall, was to use the hedgehog strategy in securing tenure: “Focus on one area of research and aim to be the world expert in it.” This was wise advice that accomplished its goal, as I received tenure a few years later....
Too hot! As our fingertips graze the hot stove, their thermal receptors sound an alarm. The message races at 300 kilometers an hour through the nervous system to the brain, where it gets immediate attention. The muscles receive an order to pull those fingers away from the surface. Such messages–encoded as electrical impulses–constantly stream through our nervous system. They not only prevent us from burning our fingers on the hot stove but also enable our very survival....
From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). As an undergraduate in the 1970s, Joan Strassmann split her time between writing short stories and laying siege to the office of her mentor, the sociobiologist Dick Alexander. For two years, she insisted on meeting with him every Friday to discuss research, a schedule that she now thinks was probably quite an imposition. “He would give me so much reading,” she recalled, “it would take me forever....
Quantum computers can do wondrous things: too bad they do not exist yet. That has not stopped physicists from devising new algorithms for the devices, which can calculate a lot faster than ordinary computers—in fact, exponentially faster, in quite a literal sense. Once quantum computers do become available, the algorithms could become a key part of applications that require number crunching, from engineering to video games. The latest quantum algorithm is generating excitement among physicists....
Unlikely heroes could play a starring role in helping the Pacific islands meet their climate commitments: whales. Residents of the Pacific islands are keeping an anxious eye on the whales that populate their steadily warming waters. Many are concerned that climate change will take a toll on the marine mammals that are an integral part of the islands’ culture, as well as the base of a thriving eco-tourism industry. Members of the scientific community are also worried, albeit for a different reason: Whales are crucial to ocean carbon absorption....
Editor’s Note (12/17/18): The published article by Dong & Zhong (2018) highlighted in this post has been retracted by Psychological Science. After the original article was published, a reader detected a critical flaw in the experimental protocol that confounds interpretation of the data. Fears come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us are afraid of heights, loud noises, or tight spaces, while others have fears of more specific things like snakes, spiders, or clowns....
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. During the 2017 disaster season, three severe hurricanes devastated large parts of the U.S. The quick succession of major disasters made it obvious that such large-scale emergencies can be a strain, even in one of the world’s richest countries. As a complex emergency researcher, I investigate why some countries can better withstand and respond to disasters....
1970 In Vitro Progress “In laboratories at the Oldham General Hospital in Lancashire and at the University of Cambridge, human eggs have now been successfully brought to maturity, fertilized in vitro and cultured in vitro to the blastocyst stage of development, which is the stage immediately preceding the beginning of normal implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterus. Clinically it should be possible with these procedures to circumvent certain causes of infertility and to avert the development of embryos that otherwise could be expected to grow abnormally....
The gun safety law forged through tense bipartisan talks in the Senate last month has been heralded as the first federal legislation in 30 years to combat rising gun violence. But what often falls below the radar is the new law’s focus on improving mental health services. News coverage has largely centered on the law’s provisions to enhance background checks for younger buyers, encourage states to implement their own “red flag laws,” and close the “boyfriend loophole....
Editor’s Note (4/22/20): On April 17 an official launch date of May 27 was announced for the historic first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The craft is set to carry two astronauts to the International Space Station and back. When the space shuttle Atlantis landed and rolled to a stop at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in 2011, bringing the 30-year shuttle program to a close, NASA hoped to fly U....
If the extent of human suffering were used to decide which diseases deserve the most medical attention, then depression would be near the top of the list. More than 350 million people are affected by depression, making it one of the most common disorders in the world. It is the biggest cause of disability, and as many as two-thirds of those who commit suicide have the condition. But although depression is common, it is often ignored....
Mars and Venus. Pink and blue. As the stereotypes would have it, men and women have little in common but the ability to procreate. But how grounded in scientific reality are our culture’s notions about the ways the sexes diverge? And what does the influence of gender mean for our minds—for how we think and communicate? We at Scientific American Mind wanted to know, too. So, in a first for the magazine, the editors have devoted an entire issue to this topic of gender and the brain....
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Editor’s note (6/19/2018): Since his first week in office, President Donald Trump showed he intends to follow through on his immigration promises. A major focus of his campaign was on removing immigrants who, he said, were increasing crime in American communities. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump named victims who were reportedly killed by undocumented immigrants and said:...
U.S. Officials unanimously voted to ban e-cigarette sales in San Francisco, the first major U.S. city to take this step. Like traditional tobacco, e-cigarettes can cause lung damage and disease, and their use is skyrocketing in young people—in 2018 one in five U.S. high school students reported e-cigarette use. France Grape seeds found in an ancient refuse pile in the Jura mountains were an exact genetic match with a type of grape harvested there today, meaning local winegrowers have been cultivating the same vintage for roughly 900 years....
The age of genetic engineering began in the 1970s, when Paul Berg spliced DNA from a bacterial virus into a monkey virus and Herbert W. Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen created organisms in which introduced genes remained active for generations. By the late 1970s Boyer’s company, Genentech, was churning out insulin for diabetics using Escherichia coli modified to contain a synthetic human gene. And in laboratories around the country, researchers were using transgenic mice to study disease....
Can heterosexual men and women ever be “just friends”? Few other questions have provoked debates as intense, family dinners as awkward, literature as lurid, or movies as memorable. Still, the question remains unanswered. Daily experience suggests that non-romantic friendships between males and females are not only possible, but common—men and women live, work, and play side-by-side, and generally seem to be able to avoid spontaneously sleeping together. However, the possibility remains that this apparently platonic coexistence is merely a façade, an elaborate dance covering up countless sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface....
SEATTLE—Protein engineer Aaron Chevalier has a hunch that origami—on a smaller scale—could be the future of drug design. So he and a team here at the University of Washington spend their days designing intricately folded chains of amino acids to create molecules that do not exist in nature. The goal: Create a protein that might bind to a virus like the flu and stop it from infecting cells. Or one that could break up gluten, effectively taming gluten allergies....
Popcorn’s dark side A 53-year-old Colorado man who ate two bags of microwaved popcorn daily for 10 years apparently developed bronchiolitis obliterans, aka popcorn worker’s lung, a debilitating disease previously seen only in popcorn factory workers. Inhaled diacetyl, the chemical that gives microwave popcorn its sinful buttery flavor, is suspected to gradually inflame and scar the lungs’ tiny air sacs, making it increasingly difficult for sufferers to exhale. Cecile Rose, a physician who specializes in the disorder at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, alerted the Food and Drug Administration in July that her coughing patient’s Colorado home had diacetyl levels similar to those in factories....
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. Now available on iPad SCIENCE AND SOCIETY • Breakthroughs in science, engineering and technology are critical to our nation’s competitive edge. ScienceDebate.org and SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN asked the presidential candidates, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, to weigh in on 14 science questions....
