Innovation
New ideas and scientific and technological advancementsEight Appetizing Apps
I just read an interesting article in the Washington Post's travel section about traveling with no guidebooks, advance planning or reservations---just a wallet and an iPhone. The author used applications, or apps, to find everything from a parking spot to a hotel room, with only a few minor glitche...
May 20, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Ten Most Disturbing Scientific Discoveries
Scientists have come to some surprising conclusions about the world and our place in it. Are some things just better left unknown?
May 14, 2010 |
By Laura Helmuth
Mestizos and Medicinas: Race-Based Medicine in Latin America
“At my age and with so much mixed blood I no longer know for sure where I belong. Nobody knows it in these lands ... and I believe it will take centuries to know it,” Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote. He was referring, of course, to the mixing of genomes that took place in Latin ...
May 13, 2010 |
By Brendan Borrell
Robots Inspired by Biology
Last year, the magazine's Abigail Tucker wrote about the fascinating—and sometimes creepy—world of robot babies. But that was only one tiny part of the robot universe. In the video above, Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, discusses his lab'...
May 03, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
How Our Brains Make Memories
Surprising new research about the act of remembering may help people with post-traumatic stress disorder
May 2010 |
By Greg Miller
Cat Brain Inspires Computer Design
A University of Michigan computer engineer, Wei Lu, has set out to develop a supercomputer the size of a 2-liter soda bottle that can mimic a cat brain. (Why a cat brain? It's a more realistic goal than a human brain, he says.)Mimicking the function of a cat brain is possible with current technolog...
April 26, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Beauty, and Usefulness, of Pollen
Spring may be beautiful, but all those blooming flowers and trees bring on pollen allergies, making eyes water and noses drip. But pollen can be both beautiful and useful (counterfeit malaria drugs were traced, in part, through pollen). In this TED Talk from February, Jonathan Drori of the BBC reve...
April 13, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Is Washington the Greenest City?
The Energy Star label can be found on products ranging from washing machines to televisions to ceiling fans. It can also be found on buildings, at least virtually. The Environmental Protection Agency rates commercial buildings and manufacturing plants based on energy performance. Those that rank in...
April 07, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Bacterial Evidence on Our Keyboards
Late last year, the television show Mythbusters showed that our computer keyboards are crawling with microorganisms. Now scientists from the University of Colorado have shown that those bacteria can be used to identify a computer's user.Germophobes don't want to know this, but our bodies are covere...
March 17, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Budding Aerospace Engineer Wins Intel Science Competition
Science has never been my strength (that kid on the TV sitcom who blows everything up in the lab? That was me). But whatever I lack in scientific ability I apparently make up for in intuition.One of the young scientists we featured here earlier today, Erika Debenedictis, just won Intel’s Science Ta...
March 16, 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
Inside the Minds of America's Young Scientists
Forty high school seniors have traveled from across the country to Washington, D.C., this week for Intel’s Science Talent Search 2010, a program from the Society for Science & the Public. While here, the students have presented their projects to rounds of judges at the National Academy of Scie...
March 16, 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
New & Improved Fugu: Now, Without Poison!
Aside from foraging wild mushrooms without a good guide book, or having tea with a former Russian spy, one of the most potentially dangerous meals you can have is fugu, the highly toxic puffer fish that can cause paralysis or death but is considered a delicacy in Japan. There, specialized restauran...
February 26, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Science on my Phone
A few months after the purchase of my iPhone, I'll admit it: I'm an app addict. Luckily, there are plenty of great free apps out there. And here's some of my favorites in science:NASA App: Lots of pictures, a launch schedule, mission updates and plenty of videos to keep you up-to-date with the spac...
February 24, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Riled up About Geoengineering
One of the most contentious sessions at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting this past weekend in San Diego was on geoengineering, the study of ways to engineer the planet to manipulate climate. Intentional ways to do so, I should say—as many of the speakers pointed out, ...
February 23, 2010 |
By Laura Helmuth
The Science of the Olympics
I've always been a fan of the Winter Olympics, but a bout with the flu in 2002 that kept me at home watching TV for a week made me an addict. But it's not just about watching hours of skiing and skating. There's science, too, and it seems to be everywhere this year. Here are some good resources and...
February 17, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Few Gift Ideas for a Geeky Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is only days away, and if you've procrastinated shopping for the special geek in your life, you're probably panicking.Relax. Start with a card. For those tight on time or cash (or stuck in the East Coast snow storm), it might be wise to download one of these science valentines. It'...
February 11, 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
How Sleepy Are Sloths and Other Lessons Learned
Smithsonian scientists use radio technology to track animals in an island jungle in the middle of the Panama Canal
February 03, 2010 |
By Megan Gambino
Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells
Journalist Rebecca Skloot’s new book investigates how a poor black tobacco farmer had a groundbreaking impact on modern medicine
January 22, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Finding Art Fakes through Computer Analysis
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a 16th-century painter from the Netherlands known for his landscape paintings populated by peasants (though you may also be familiar with his version of the Tower of Babel). He also produced dozens of drawings and prints. In the early 1990s, though, several Alpine drawi...
January 05, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
NASA's New Lunar Rover
The Smithsonian Institution pitches in to help NASA prepare for its next lunar mission with a new "home on wheels"
January 2010 |
By Megan Gambino
