Beauty of the Brain
Stunning new images reveal the marvelous and mysterious world inside our heads
March 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Studying the Bond Between a Cat and Its Human
It took 120 hours of observing 40 cat-human pairs for scientists to conclude that the bond between the two can be similar to other human relationships. And, yes, I know that most of you who have cats---or know someone who has a cat---will not find that surprising, so let's delve into the details. I...
February 28, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
HIV in 3-D
This may look like a cross between something my friend Helen would knit and a Good Eats model of a droplet of fat covered in lecithin, but it's actually a three-dimensional illustration of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, and the winner of the Illustration category in the 2010 International S...
February 25, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Babies Raised Bilingual Get Language Benefits
Learning a second language is certainly useful if you want to travel the world, or if you live in a place where there are a lot of people that speak that language natively. But there are also plenty of benefits beyond simple communication, as a session at this weekend's American Association for the...
February 22, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Accidental Cure for Hair Loss
Before I go any further, I have to warn any balding individuals reading this hoping for a solution to their hair loss problems that I'm going to talk about a study in mice. Nothing—yet—has been tested in humans, so don't get too excited.Our story starts with a group of scientists studying chronic s...
February 17, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Too Popular to Bother With Bullying
Conventional wisdom says that it's the most troubled kids that resort to bullying. Not so, say two University of California at Davis sociologists in this month's issue of the American Sociological Review. Home life, grades, academic achievement, sports—they all have little to do with who bullies wh...
February 09, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Mythical Cures for the Common Cold
The common cold is not fun. When I get one, my head aches, my nose runs, my throat hurts and I cough for days. My mother tells me to drink orange juice and other liquids. Co-workers advise zinc or echinacea. And posters in the Metro system shill for a cold remedy full of vitamin C. Do any of these ...
January 13, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ten Science Stories You Should Have Read
Is your office rather empty this week? Looking for something to read to fill the time? How about some great science and nature stories from Smithsonian? Here are my ten favorites from the past year:The Truth About Lions (January): Staff writer Abigail Tucker visits Craig Packer, who has been runnin...
December 28, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Eyes Give Life to the Face
Do you remember the doll Great-aunt Mary gave you for Christmas when you were six? You could never figure out why that doll made you uncomfortable. She was meant to be pretty and lifelike, but she stared at you from the top shelf in the bedroom and gave you the occasional nightmare. You couldn't ex...
December 22, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Smithsonian’s 2010 Notable Books for Children
In our annual tradition, we present some of the best that children's literature has to offer this year
December 16, 2010 |
By Kathleen Burke
When Time Won't Fly
My fellow blogger Amanda tweeted this yesterday morning during her commute:If cold makes matter contract, why did the sidewalk between me and the metro seem twice as long this morning?She was mostly right in her assumption that cold makes things contract (though thermal expansion isn't uniform, and...
December 07, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Biodiversity Losses Could Be Bad for Your Health
We're losing species at an alarming pace. The current rate of loss has been estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times the background extinction rate, and that's expected to rise by a factor of 10 to 100 over the next 50 years. But if simple disappearance isn't enough to get you worried, a new study in Nat...
December 06, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Neither a Tightwad Nor a Spendthrift Be
The difference between a spendthrift and a tightwad comes down to emotional pain, and it's not good to be either type of shopper, says University of Michigan marketing professor Scott Rick, who participated last week in a National Science Foundation webcast.It all comes down to what Rick calls the ...
November 24, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Reading May Interfere With Facial Recognition
Two facts about me: I read quickly and a lot. And I'm horrible at remembering faces. These may seem to be random characteristics, but a new study in Science indicates that they could actually be connected.An international group of neuroscientists scanned the brains of 63 Portuguese and Brazilian pa...
November 15, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Why You Waste Time Playing Farmville
Why do 70 million people spend time managing virtual farms in Farmville? (I know they're not all crazy.) Tom Chatfield, a writer and video game expert (he blogs at What Happens Next?) says it's because the game designers have figured out how to take advantage of human nature. We evolved to find thi...
November 04, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Inside a Mosquito's Heart
What does a mosquito's heart look like? I would never have expected that it would look like this, a fluorescent image taken by Jonas King, a student at Vanderbilt University, which won first place in the Nikon Small World photography competition.King, working in the lab of biologist Julián Hillyer,...
October 22, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Tipsy Gene Protects Against Alcoholism
My grandma was one of those people who would get drunk on half a glass of wine. I'm not much better. But being a cheap date might have a hidden benefit: a new study shows that people who carry a gene variant that makes them prone to getting tipsy quickly may also be protected against alcoholism.Res...
October 21, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Tribal Tattoos of Science
This month's Smithsonian magazine has a fun little arts and culture story about a photographer who has traveled the world in pursuit of tattoos. The images are gorgeous black and whites—the photog, Chris Rainier, is a protégé of Ansel Adams, and it shows—and he seeks out the meaning behind the tatt...
October 20, 2010 |
By Laura Helmuth
The Anatomy of Renaissance Art
The Renaissance may be best known for its artworks: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and “David,” and Da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa" and "Vitruvian Man" have without a doubt shaped the course of art history. But a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, “The Body Inside and Out: Anatomical Literature and ...
October 18, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Cootie Catchers Say Lice Reveal Lots About Early Humans
Children all over America are returning to school this fall and I’m sure parents have done all they can to prep their youngsters—which hopefully involves any and all vaccines and boosters. But not even the most diligent efforts toward preventative health care can save your child from the bug that h...
September 13, 2010 |
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