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The Big Dipper's Newest Star
If you can only spot one constellation, it's probably the Big Dipper. Other than being easily recognizable, the Big Dipper is special because it contains one of the first known binary star systems. The star in the crook of the handle was found to actually be two stars around 1617 by Benedetto Caste...
December 14, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Decade's Worst Moments in Science
If yesterday had the decade's best moments, then today we have to bring you the worst (again, in ascending order):10. A cult claims they've cloned a human: Clonaid, a company with ties to the Raëlian UFO cult, announced in late December 2002 that they had successfully cloned a human woman, naming t...
December 02, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Decade of Great Moments in Science
Has it really been 10 years since we were all panicking about the Y2K bug? Yes, it's the end of another decade, and as with any good publication, we're going to overload you with lists as we pause to reflect. What's first? The 10 greatest moments in science, in ascending order:10. Hurricane Katrina...
December 01, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Royal Society Puts 60 Historic Papers Online
The Royal Society, one of the world's oldest scientific societies, turns 350 next year, but the British institution is starting its birthday celebrations a little early. Today, the Society launches an interactive timeline, Trailblazing, which highlights its publishing history by making the original...
November 30, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Nine Species Saved From Extinction
Last week, the U.S. government took the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) off the endangered species list. The birds' numbers had been depleted first by feather hunters and then by the pesticide DDT. But the pelicans made a comeback, starting with the 1972 ban on DDT, and now there are more th...
November 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Falklands Wolf: A Darwin Mystery Solved
When Charles Darwin's reached the Falkland Islands on his famed voyage, he discovered there a "large wolf-like fox" found nowhere else in the world. "As far as I am aware," he would later write in The Voyage of the Beagle, "there is no other instance, in any part of the world, of so small a mass of...
November 04, 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
The Impossibility of Avoiding Darwin on my Vacation
First of all, many thanks to Greg Laden for filling in for me on the blog for the last couple of weeks while I was away on my much-needed vacation. Where did I go? Mainly to Cambridge, England, but my travels also took me to Cardiff (in Wales), London and Paris.I went to Cambridge to visit some fri...
October 13, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The First to Reach the North Pole
It has been 100 years (and two days) since the New York Times announced that Robert E. Peary had reached the North Pole on April 16, 1909, making him the first man to do so. (News traveled much slower back then.) Of course, the Times was conveniently ignoring their rival, the New York Herald, which...
September 09, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Toad "Fraud" May Have Been Ahead of His Time
Before Charles Darwin, there was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the French naturalist who proposed that an organism could pass to its offspring characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime. The classic example is the idea that giraffes got their long necks by gradually stretching them over successi...
September 03, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
An Honor and a Party for Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist from Great Britain, was one of two scientists among yesterday's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Here's what President Obama had to say about Hawking:Professor Stephen Hawking was a brilliant man and a mediocre student when he lost...
August 13, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Galileo's Vision
Four hundred years ago, the Italian scientist looked into space and changed our view of the universe
August 2009 |
By David Zax
Darwin for Dads
A daughter tries to help one member of an endangered species survive
August 2009 |
By Joe Queenan
Hominids' African Origins, 50 Years Later
The next time a creationist spouts some nonsense about how the lack of a fossil record undermines the theory of evolution, direct them to the hominid family tree. If you haven't read much about human origins lately, it might come as a surprise that so many species have been identified (and more all...
July 23, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Darwin for Dads and More Science Finds in the August Issue
When my daughter was small, I used to take her to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There, I would explain why the dinosaurs disappeared and how mankind evolved from our primitive forebears. She seemed rapt. But a few weeks ago, after hearing me on the radio discuss a new boo...
July 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Moon Landing Video Restored
I always get a little shock when I see crisp, color images from the first moon landing (like the one featured as the most recent Picture of the Week). We’re all far more familiar with the grainy video that millions watched live 40 years ago today. But it’s one thing to snap color photos that will b...
July 20, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Legacy of Apollo
On July 16, 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11, the mission that put two men on the moon four days after lift-off.Forty years later, historians and NASA officials are still trying to gauge the legacy of the Apollo program. On Thursday, five panelists met at NASA headquarters to discuss its impact.Many o...
July 18, 2009 |
By Ashley Luthern
Picture of the Week—Apollo 11 Solar Wind Composition Experiment
NASA didn’t send people to the moon just to bounce around and hit golf balls; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 were performing science experiments during their brief time on the lunar surface. What looks like a white towel next to Aldrin in the photo above was the Solar Wind Composition ...
July 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Apollo 11 Owners’ Workshop Manual
If you wanted to replace the muffler on your Ford Mustang, you might logically turn to your handy copy of the Haynes Repair Manual. If you wanted to install a new space sextant in the Apollo 11 Command Module, you wouldn’t turn to the new Haynes Owners’ Workshop Manual, but you would have such a go...
July 16, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
