Body
A Closer Look at Evolutionary Faces
John Gurche, a “paleo-artist,” has recreated strikingly realistic heads of our earliest human ancestors for a new exhibit
February 25, 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Stephen Hawking's Initials in the Big Bang's Echo
Scientists have released their latest, most detailed map of the cosmic microwave background--that faint glow of radiation left over from the Big Bang--and Stephen Hawking's initials are still there. The S and H have been spotted in previous versions of the image, which is sometimes known as WMAP fo...
February 09, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
What Neuroscience Sounds Like
Neuroscience has always been a scary topic for me. I studied ecology and marine science and viewed brain science as another language, another world, kind of how John Cleese "explains" it in this video. Enjoy!(Hat tip: Boing Boing)
February 04, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Barefoot Running Debate
My husband’s favorite story to tell about his first marathon is that a woman in stocking feet beat him.“And it was in Vermont…in October…on gravel roads,” he always adds, still amazed at the freakish phenom.That was in 2006, and now just over three years later, barefoot running, though clearly not ...
January 28, 2010 |
By Megan Gambino
Nine Science Stories You Should Have Read This Year
It's also been a good year for science stories in Smithsonian magazine, including our special issue, Exploring the Frontiers of Science. Here are nine you should read if you haven't already:Gene Therapy in a New Light: A husband-and-wife team's experimental genetic treatment for blindness is renewi...
December 30, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Are Americans Stuck to their Cubicles?
After a debilitating bicycle accident kept her inactive, Mary Collins toured the country studying Americans’ sedentary lifestyle
December 29, 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Eight Awful Movies for Science in the 2000s
Even a bad movie can be enjoyable under the right circumstances. Sometimes, though, you wish you hadn't bothered. Here are eight clunkers from the last decade: Erin Brockovich (2000): Julia Roberts won an Academy Award for her work in this true-life story of a woman who fought against polluters in ...
December 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Heart Disease Found in Ancient Egyptian Mummies
Heart disease may appear to be a recent problem, brought on by the processed foods and sedentary lifestyles of modern living, but it's been plaguing humanity since ancient times, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.A team of scientists from the United States ...
November 18, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Halloween Special: An Analysis of Blood Spatter from a Chainsaw
Here's a shocker: Horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre don't get the chainsaw spatter right, according to the Journal of Forensic Sciences.The reason for the study is sad—a woman was reported missing in 2005, and the police found evidence that she had been killed and dismembered in her basemen...
October 31, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Vaccine Week: Swine Flu Edition
Around the country, people are lining up to be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus. Surprising Science has spent the last three days discussing the history and science of vaccines (see A Brief History and How Vaccines Work, Success Stories, and A History of Vaccine Backlash). Today we answer some...
October 29, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Vaccine Week: A History of Vaccine Backlash
In light of President Obama’s declaration that the outbreak of the H1N1 virus is a national emergency, Surprising Science is setting this week aside to discuss the history and science of vaccines and their importance in battling diseases, including swine flu. See Monday’s post for part 1, A Brief H...
October 28, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Vaccine Week: Success Stories
In light of President Obama’s declaration of “national emergency” imposed by the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, Surprising Science is setting this week aside to discuss the history and science of vaccines and their importance in battling viruses and diseases, including swine flu. See yesterday’s post ...
October 27, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Vaccine Week: A Brief History and How Vaccines Work
In light of President Obama’s declaration of “national emergency” imposed by the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, Surprising Science is setting this week aside to discuss the history and science of vaccines and their importance in battling viruses and diseases, including swine flu.More than two millenni...
October 26, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
How a Liver Fluke Causes Cancer
In Southeast Asia, an all-too-common parasite is known to increase the incidence of bile duct cancer in infected individuals. A paper just released in PLoS Pathogens shows how this happens. Knowing the molecular pathway that leads from parasite infection to cancer will almost certainly speed up the...
October 09, 2009 |
By Greg Laden
Fabulous New Fossil of a Human Ancestor
A 4.4-million-year-old hominin is shaking up our understanding of human evolution this morning. The first bits of the new species, called Ardipithecus ramidus, were discovered in 1994, and now (it took a while), scientists are publishing an exhaustive analysis of the hominin and the habitat in whic...
October 01, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Your Brain as a Musical Instrument
The World Science Festival, held this past June in New York City, consists of lectures, movies and concerts intended to bring science to the public. (It's the one time of the year I wish the magazine were based in NYC.) Several of the events are now online on Vimeo, and I was intrigued by Notes &am...
September 02, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Swine Flu: Worst Case Scenario
On Monday, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a report assessing the U.S. preparations for the H1N1 flu virus (a.k.a. swine flu), which is expected to soon make a resurgence in this country. But despite the conclusion that the nation is on track in this area ("Th...
August 26, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Getting Lost and Wandering in Circles
In the movies, when hikers get lost in the woods, you know that they are well and truly lost by the third time or so that they pass by that big rock or funny-looking tree. And you just know that that would never happen to you. If you set out on a straight line, you would never double back without i...
August 20, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
This Month in Weird Science News
August may be a slow news month (especially here in humid, mosquito-filled Washington, D.C., which Congress has fled for more pleasant climes), but it is turning out to be a month for weird science news.Let's start with male breastfeeding, a topic that a friend tried to convince me to write an enti...
August 18, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Marshmallows and a Successful Life
Back in the 1960s, Walter Mischel, a psychology professor at Stanford, conducted an experiment called the "marshmallow test" on a group of four-year-olds. A child was given a marshmallow and told he could either ring a bell to summon the researcher and get to eat the marshmallow right away or wait...
August 11, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
