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
Picture of the Week—Jupiter’s New Spot
Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley was the first person to spot the new spot on Jupiter, on July 19th. Professional astronomers quickly confirmed the sighting and started aiming their powerful telescopes at the gas giant. Scientists now say that a small comet probably created the scar, wh...
July 24, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Bodybuilders Through the Ages
Over the past 150 years, bodybuilders have gone from circus sideshows to celebrities, imparting fitness lessons along the way
July 20, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Curses! For Medicinal Use Only
Isn't it great when science justifies your vices? Never mind all the research on the purported health benefits of red wine or chocolate. My new favorite sin-rationalization study shows that swearing is good for you. It seems to decrease pain.This is one of those slap-your-forehead, why-didn't-I-thi...
July 13, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
The New Flu? They're On It.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted a panel discussion on H1N1 flu last week. For such a frightening subject, the discussion was strangely encouraging. Yes, the flu (if not this one, then some other strain) could kill us all. It has already infected an estimated one milli...
July 06, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Zicam Reveals Holes in Drug Regulation
In the United States, there are “drugs” and there are “dietary supplements.” Each are chemicals intended to improve your health, but they are held to very different standards of regulation: Before drugs can be sold, a company must prove to the Food and Drug Administration that their product is safe...
June 23, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Dancing Parrot and More
That's Snowball dancing to the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody." The sulfur-crested cockatoo has our web staff hooked, and they're not even angry about the earworm I unintentionally planted in their brains. Snowball is featured on our Wild Things page in the July issue, which just went online last week...
June 22, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Fingerprints and Friction
Why do humans, other primates and koalas have fingerprints? All are, or have ancestors who were, tree dwellers, and it has been generally accepted that fingerprints help individuals grab onto things like tree limbs by increasing the friction between the skin and the object.Maybe not.Biomechanist Ro...
June 15, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Humans Don’t Have the Last, or Only, Laugh
Anyone who has visited a zoo can attest to the human-like qualities of our close relatives. Whether you’re watching chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans or gorillas, it’s the facial expressions and social interactions that most make them appear similar to humans. Now researchers have evidence of anothe...
June 10, 2009 |
By Ashley Luthern
Drugs' Odd Side Effects
You know those prescription drug ads on TV, right? At some point, they’ll list the drug’s side effects (often trying unsuccessfully to fit the list into the commercial “naturally” as if people really talk to each other that way). I’m sure I’m not alone in tuning that part out; we all learned our le...
June 01, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Brain Cells for Socializing
Does an obscure nerve cell help explain what gorillas, elephants, whales—and people—have in common?
June 2009 |
By Ingfei Chen
A Lesson on Brain Adaptability
Another TEDTalk, this time from 2004. "Michael Merzenich studies neuroplasticity—the brain's powerful ability to change itself and adapt—and ways we might make use of that plasticity to heal injured brains and enhance the skills in healthy ones." He blogs at On the Brain. In this video, he explains...
May 19, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Evolution of the Flu Virus
This will be my last flu-related post for now, unless everything unexpectedly gets out of hand. But now that we’re not panicking any longer, perhaps it might be time to look into how the H1N1 virus came about. The best description comes from Carl Zimmer (author of the blog The Loom and our 2005 sto...
May 06, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
