Famous Scientists
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Five Historic Female Mathematicians You Should Know
Albert Einstein called Emmy Noether a "creative mathematical genius"
October 07, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Invasive Species We Can Blame On Shakespeare
There are 200 million European starlings in North America, and they are a menace
October 04, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Six Secrets of Polonium
This rare and dangerous element, discovered by Marie Curie, is found in cigarettes and was used to poison an ex-KGB agent
October 03, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Madame Curie's Passion
The pioneering physicist's dedication to science made it difficult for outsiders to understand her, but a century after her second Nobel prize, she gets a second look
October 2011 |
By Julie Des Jardins
The First Supernova
In 185 A.D., someone in China looked up in the night sky and saw a new star
September 06, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Great New England Hurricane of 1938
Katharine Hepburn's Connecticut beach house and 8,900 other homes were swept into the sea
August 25, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
How the Great White Egret Spurred Bird Conservation
I was certain that the bird's plumage had to have been faked, but all the photographer did was darken the background. Those feathers were real
July 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Why Did the Standards Bureau Need These Heads?
The NIST Museum has placed images of several items on the website of its Digital Archives and is asking the public for help
June 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Why I’m Not Sorry to See the Space Shuttle End
I have to say, when I think about the end of the Space Shuttle program, I'm really not that sorry to see it come to a close
May 16, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Is There A "Homer Simpson Effect" Among Scientists?
Despite decades of progress for women in science (and some arguments that no more is needed), the playing field still isn't level. But do all the advantages men get result in them thinking more highly of their expertise than female scientists do? Three researchers, including D. Carolina Useche at t...
April 13, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
50 Facts for the 50th Anniversary of the First Man in Space
1 ) Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space in Vostok 1 on the morning of April 12, 1961, 50 years ago today.2 ) He was a 27-year-old military pilot.3 ) He and his family were thrown out of their house by the Germans during World War II.4 ) They had to live in a dugout in the garden.5 ) Gaga...
April 12, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Five Reasons Anti-Evolution Measures are a Bad Idea
In 1925, John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was put on trial in Tennessee for having the audacity to teach evolution to his students. In the 21st century, teachers don't have to worry about being arrested for teaching this fundamental topic in science, and the Supreme Court declared teachi...
April 04, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Piltdown Man, Paleoanthropology's April Fool's
This is the story of a missing link that never was
April 01, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Great Depression Had Little Effect on Death Rates
There's this somewhat counter-intuitive idea that economic downturns are good for your health. You might expect the privation and malnutrition inherent in such times would take a toll. But during the Great Depression, mortality rates fell. And since that time, the idea that recessions are a net-pos...
March 28, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Lost Naturalist: A 163-Year-Old Australian Mystery
When I was preparing to visit friends in Australia a few years ago, I read a book about all the ways the continent would kill you. The entry on scorpions, I remember, stood out because it said not to worry about them---their stings only hurt.I was reminded of this while reading a story from Austral...
March 24, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Marine Archaeologists Find Shipwreck Linked to Moby Dick
George Pollard Jr. was not a very lucky sea captain. In 1819, he became captain of the whaling ship Essex, out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and headed for the Pacific Ocean. Just four days out, though, a storm struck and damaged the ship. Still, Pollard pressed on, rounding Cape Horn in January 182...
February 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Robot That Tells Jokes
The robot takeover steadily approaches: They're now figuring out humor. Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Heather Knight, who calls herself a "social roboticist," has created Data, an adorable robot who not only tells jokes but learns from the audience response and then adjusts its comedy routine. Data...
February 02, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Edgar Allan Poe and the World of Astronomy
I've read my share of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, but I was nonetheless intrigued by a caption in an article in the latest Smithsonian special issue, Mysteries of the Universe. It read: "The hollow Earth theory inspired authors from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Edgar Allan Poe." I knew that Poe, l...
January 19, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Finding Science in the Art of Arcimboldo
On a recent trip to the National Gallery of Art, I stopped in to see the Arcimboldo exhibit, which we feature in the magazine this month. When I saw the images in print, I had been fascinated by their weirdness—the artist made faces and heads out of compilations of images of fruit, flowers, books o...
January 07, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Looking Forward to the International Year of Chemistry
The United Nations has dubbed 2011 the International Year of Chemistry, with the unifying theme "Chemistry—our life, our future."The goals of IYC2011 are to increase the public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage interest in chemistry among young people, and to generate...
December 30, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
