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Leaf peep for science – I want your old photos of fall foliage
What can your vacation pix tell scientists?Try Media/Shutterstock.comEvery October, when I was growing up in Massachusetts, my parents would check out the fall foliage reports and determine where we...
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A new chemistry innovation could reduce smog, acid-rain and asthma-inducing...
Sulfur pollution causes respiratory health problems.Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock.comIf humans created an emissions hall of shame, which pollutants would you nominate? Carbon dioxide and methane would...
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5 milestones that created the internet, 50 years after the first network message
This SDS Sigma 7 computer sent the first message over the predecessor of the internet in 1969.Andrew 'FastLizard4' Adams/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SAFifty years ago, a UCLA computer science professor...
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Not all genes are necessary for survival – these species dropped extra...
The talamanca hummingbird, or admirable hummingbird, is found in Costa Rica and Panama.Milan Zygmunt/Shutterstock.comHumans, the latest tally suggests, have approximately 21,000 genes in our genome,...
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Rabies' horrifying symptoms inspired folktales of humans turned into...
A rabid dog's bite can make a person seem to have animal characteristics.Taras Verkhovynets/Shutterstock.comIn 1855, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the gruesome murder of a bride by her new...
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Super-soldier T-cells fight cancer better after a transformational DNA delivery
Delivering DNA to immune cells is the trickiest part of developing new gene-based therapies.SAK Design/SHutterstock.comI enjoy online shopping. However, I often find myself fussing about the delivery...
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Website privacy options aren't much of a choice since they're hard to find...
If only it were as easy as pushing a button.REDPIXEL.PL/Shutterstock.comYou’ve probably encountered a pair of shoes that won’t stop following you around the internet, appearing in advertisements on...
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Curious Kids: Why do feet stink by the end of the day?
Keep those stinkers away!leungchopan/Shutterstock.comCurious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to...
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NASA's TESS spacecraft is finding hundreds of exoplanets – and is poised to...
This artist's impression shows a view of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system. ESO/M. KornmesserWithin just 50 light-years from Earth,...
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Plague was around for millennia before epidemics took hold – and the way...
What happened to make plague able to cause devastating epidemics?Everett Historical/Shutterstock.comOne of civilization’s most prolific killers shadowed humans for thousands of years without their...
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Salad bars and water systems are easy targets for bioterrorists -- and...
Hospital workers wearing biohazard suits scrub down a man in a decontamination drill.AP Photo/Nati HarnikIn October 2019, a House Homeland Security Committee subcommittee held a hearing entitled...
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Soft robots of the future may depend on new materials that conduct...
Interactions between people and machines continue to increase.Tecnalia/Flickr, CC BY-NC-NDRobots used to be restricted to heavy lifting or fine detail work in factories. Now Boston Dynamics’ nimble...
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World's deadliest inventor: Mikhail Kalashnikov and his AK-47
The inventor with his eponymous weapon.AP Photo/Vladimir VyatkinWhat is the deadliest weapon of the 20th century?Perhaps you think first of the atomic bomb, estimated to have killed as many as 200,000...
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Apollo 12: Fifty years ago, a passionate scientist's keen eye led to the...
Astronaut Alan L. Bean, Apollo 12, walks on the Moon's surface. Commander Charles Conrad Jr. is reflected in Bean's helmet visor. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRIWhen Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, it was a giant leap...
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Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire,...
Ashurbanipal, last major ruler of the Assyrian Empire, couldn't outrun the effects of climate change.British Museum, CC BY-NDAncient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates...
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Curious Kids: Why do people look into space with telescopes but not binoculars?
Two lenses might be better than one.AstroStar/Shutterstock.comCurious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to...
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Dwindling tropical rainforests mean lost medicines yet to be discovered in...
A Brazilian soldier puts out fires.AP Photo/Leo CorreaGrowing up in Tanzania, I knew that fruit trees were useful. Climbing a mango tree to pick a fruit was a common thing to do when I was hungry, even...
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Tons of acorns? It must be a mast year
A mast year can be a squirrel's dream come true.Editor77/Shutterstock.comIf you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps you’ve noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, and...
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Did bees live in the time of dinosaurs?
A fossilized bee in amber.Fossilmuseum.net, CC BY-NCCurious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to...
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Why the CDC warns antibiotic-resistant fungal infections are an urgent health...
This is a medical illustration of an drug-resistant fungus, _Aspergillus fumigatus_. Stephanie Rossow/CDCIn 2013 I took care of a gentleman who underwent surgery for what all his physicians, including...
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