The Mystery of Super-Spreaders
It’s easy to develop a paranoia of social situations at this time of year. It seems like every friend, relative, coworker, and stranger on the bus is a potential carrier of the cold and flu viruses...
View ArticleSquids wearing sweaters: what could be better?
Three jumbo squids found themselves wearing fancy “sweaters” recently, thanks to a team of scientists from Stanford and the National Geographic Society. These were no ordinary sweaters—they were...
View ArticleDIY Weather Forecasting
“Our science has come a long way, but there are still many moving parts in the atmosphere which creates quite the forecast challenge.” Thus explained the New York City office of the National Weather...
View ArticleDebunking the “ant vs. grasshopper” myth
Based on Aesop’s lore, this is the time when the fabled grasshopper, having idly fiddled away during the more pleasant months, would be knocking at the door of the local ant colony, begging for food....
View ArticleA Once and Future Digital Dark Age
In a recent interview at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vint Cerf warned about an impending “digital dark age,” due to the effective ephemerality of...
View ArticleMary Anning and Other Forgotten Female Fossilists
A new species of dinosaur was recently discovered in storage at the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery. The forgotten fossil was based on a fossilized specimen and was mistakenly believed to be a plaster...
View ArticleThe once and future island
There’s a new island on Earth. Last month, an undersea volcano erupted in the South Pacific, off the coast of Tonga. It created a mile-long swath of black rock, rising approximately 820 feet above sea...
View ArticleThe Science Behind Weather Miracles
The term “kamikaze” (meaning “divine wind” or “spirit wind”) was originally coined to describe two storms of mythic proportions that allegedly thwarted the invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan in the 13th...
View ArticleOld Data, New Discoveries: Solving The Paradox of the Plankton
An ocean’s deepest depths are usually portrayed as the site of its greatest mystery, but its shallows hold plenty of puzzles, too. Take, for example, the “paradox of the plankton”. Phytoplankton are...
View ArticleThe power of placebo
They say “knowledge is power”– and that’s certainly the case with placebos. Simply believing in the effectiveness of a fake pill or treatment (even surgery!) has shown to significantly reduce the...
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