USA
U.S. & Europe are Hotspots for Deadly Emerging Diseases
“A hot virus from the rainforest lives within a 24 hour plane flight from every city on earth,” Richard Preston wrote in The Hot Zone. It turns out, however, that the places most likely to usher in the next deadly outbreak are in fact the cities of the United States and Western Europe. At least [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Are Millennials Too Strung Out on Antidepressants to Even Know Who They Are?
The Prozac Nation-raised youth of the 1990s has grown up, and today’s teens are even more heavily medicated than their predecessors two decades before. But what is the emotional price of taking antidepressants or attention-deficit hyperactivity medications for years on end – especially during a person’s most formative stages of adolescence? In an essay based [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Why We Set Off Fireworks on the Fourth of July
Why do we set off fireworks on the 4th of July? Because we always have.
July 04, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
One of the First Maps to Include “America” Found in Old Geometry Book
Tucked away in a geometry book at the Munich University Library, researchers found a 500-year old map of the new world, and one of the first to bear the name America.
July 03, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Science Answers Age-Old Question, Should We Live to Work or Work to Live?
It’s summer time, and the temptation to skip the office and head to the pool is intoxicating. If only each and every day could be spent lazing under an umbrella rather than toiling away in pursuit of the next paycheck. But according to NatCen Social Research, a British independent social resaerch center, it’s precisely the [...]
July 03, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Document Deep Dive: A Holocaust Survivor Finds Hope in America
Michael Pupa's story, from orphan of Nazi Europe to American citizen, is a testament to the freedoms America offers
July 03, 2012 |
By Megan Gambino
Chimps Celebrate the End of a Research Era
For 30 years, countless chimps have lived out their days at Bioqual, a research facility where the Humane Society described treatment of some animals as “unethical.” Now, the last four chimps living at Bioqual are bidding goodbye to the facility, thanks in part to a recent report calling most chimp research unnecessary. The Washington Post [...]
July 02, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
There's a New Breed of Forty-Niners Rushing to the Pacific
Lured by the soaring price of the precious metal, prospectors are heading for the California hills like it's 1849 all over again
July 2012 |
By Abigail Tucker
What If the Founding Fathers Had Known About Voltron?
Olly Moss, a UK-based graphic designer, riffs on Benjamin Franklin's 1754 political cartoon, "Join, or Die."
June 29, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Obama Could Win 2012 Because the South Used to Be Underwater
One hundred million years ago, the coastline of North America was drastically different than it is now. First off, the precursors of the Rocky Mountains, stretching from the tip of Alaska to Central America, were their own island, separated from the eastern states by the ocean. Florida was under water, as was much of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And this ancient coastline, giving birth to the Deep South since the waters receded, could swing this year's election.
June 28, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Not All Calories Are the Same, Says Harvard Study
A new Harvard study challenges the traditional understanding of calories, postulating that it’s all about quality and not quantity. For those looking to lose weight, the source of those calories is more influential than the sheer number. ABC News reports on the results: The kind of calories the body gets may affect how efficiently people [...]
June 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
America’s Other (Lady) Audubon
Genevieve Jones got an early start as a birder. Born in the 1850s, the 6-year old would accompany her father on egg collecting trips to fill the family’s curiosities shelf. She wanted to create a book illustrating different nests and eggs of bird species, but her family discouraged her since producing such a book would [...]
June 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Devastating Colorado Wildfires Most Recent in Decades-Long Surge
Residents have so far been able to stay safe from the fires, but strong winds compounding on record high temperatures, a dry winter, and possibly a recent pine beetle infestation, have rocketed this year's fire season to be one of the most destructive in at least four decades.
June 27, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Cowboy Conservationist Frees Whales with Crossbow
Marine biologist Scott Landry’s tool of choice for freeing whales tangled in stray fishing gear is the gobbler guillotine, a crossbow-like weapon designed in Texas for shooting turkeys.
June 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Things That Are Surprisingly New: Forks, Lunch, Huge Drinks
Who knew that there existed a time when some of our staples of modern eating habits — the use of forks, the existence of lunch, and, unfortunately, the ubiquitous super-sized drinks found at every fast food chain around the U.S — did not exist. Forks are taken for granted in modern western eating, yet relatively [...]
June 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
In 45 States, It’s Illegal to Keep Your HIV Status Secret
Should it be illegal to keep your HIV status a secret? Most states agree that it should. Forty-five states have laws against HIV-positive persons not disclosing their status during sex, acts of prostitution, needle exchanges or when donating organs, blood or semen. Some of those states also make it illegal for HIV-positive persons to bite [...]
June 26, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The Men Behind the First Olympic Team
Mocked by their peers and kicked out of Harvard, the pioneering athletes were ahead of their time... and their competition in Athens
June 26, 2012 |
By John Hanc
The Greatest Globe on Earth
Now kept at the American Geographical Society in New York, the globe is precious not for its age or beauty, but for the explorers who signed it
June 25, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Sea Level Rising Three Times Faster Than Average on Northeast US Coast
A study lead by United States Geological Survey scientist Asbury Sallenger found that over the past 20 years the ocean height has gone up faster along the coast north of Cape Hateras, North Carolina, than to the south. According to Nature, In absolute figures, sea levels on this stretch of coast have climbed by between 2 [...]
June 25, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Navy Wants to Thwart Space Debris By Releasing More Space Debris
Floating hunks of metal, left over from half a century of space exploration and satellite deployment, litter the near-Earth regions of space. As Smithsonian has reported: It’s [an] enormous cloud of nuts, bolts, shards of metal, satellite fragments and empty rocket thrusters that is floating invisibly above our planet. After decades of space exploration, there are [...]
June 22, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
