Posted Archive
By Ben Coxworth – A sample of the foam, which is made of wood pulp-derived cellulose. (Credit: Washington State University). Styrofoam is not eco-friendly stuff. It’s made from petroleum, it can’t be efficiently recycled, it’s non-biodegradable, and it creates pollution when burned. A …
Pit stop analysis shows ancient travelers were often thousands of miles from home. By Annalee Newitz – Archaeologists scraped fecal bits off these ancient wipe sticks, discovered in a 2,000-year-old latrine at a pit stop along the Silk Road in Dunhuang, China. Hui-Yuan …
By David Szondy – Three Mile Island was the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history. (Credit: US Department of Energy). The Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania is scheduled to close in September according its owner, Exelon Generation. …
By Adam Williams – The Floating Tower, by Piotr Yurchanka, Alexey Kunko, Vladislav Sidorenko and Dmitry Tkachuk, would restore the drained swamps of Belarus. The project is one of 27 honorable mentions in the 2019 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. (Credit: eVolo). The 2019 eVolo Skyscraper Competition winners …
By Rich Haridy – New research has discovered functional odor receptors inside taste cells on the tongue. (Credit: lightsource/Depositphotos). We know that our perception of flavor involves a complex interaction between odors detected in the nose and tastes sensed by our tongue. A …
By Joshua T. Beck, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Oregon – Disclosure statement Joshua T. Beck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no …
By Michael Irving – An artist’s impression of the early hominin Graecopithecus freybergi in its savannah home in ancient Greece. (Credit: Veliza Simeonovski). It’s generally accepted that humans originated in Africa and gradually spread out across the globe from there, but a pair of …
By David Szondy – A microscopic sample of the researchers’ “metallic wood”. (Credit: University of Pennsylvania). A new technique has been used to turn ordinary metals into “metallic wood” with a greatly improved strength-to-weight ratio. By manipulating materials at the atomic scale, scientists …
Two major factors set these counties apart. By Emma Betuel – In the first five months of 2019, measles cases surged in the United States, hitting the highest numbers since the disease was officially eliminated from the US, and there’s still over half …
Sunscreen chemicals seem to cause a very strange phenomenon in coral. By Emma Betuel – The corals of Hawaii are so stressed out that they’re encasing themselves in their own skeletons and self-destructing. Many coral researchers believe that two chemicals commonly found in …
