WEIRD SCIENCE
By Rich Haridy – Uncovering the mechanism by which calcium deposits accumulate on the walls of arteries could help develop new treatments for everything from heart disease to dementia. (Credit: Melinda Duer). A landmark study, led by a team of scientists from …
By Michael Irving – A gene known as mcr-3.1 that grants bacteria like Salmonella resistance to “last resort” antibiotics has been detected in a patient in the US. (Credit: katerynakon/Depositphotos). Antibiotics were one of the most important scientific developments of the 20th century, helping …
By Ben Coxworth – The disposable patch gathers genetic material containing both plant DNA, and the DNA of disease-causing organisms. (Credit: NC State University). When farmers find sickly plants in their crops, it’s important that they find out which malady is responsible, as quickly as possible. …
By Michael Irving – Comet Wirtanen, which buzzed Earth in December 2018, has been found to harbor “ocean-like” water. (Credit: NASA). Earth is a famously wet planet, but where all that water came from in the first place remains a mystery. The most …
By Rich Haridy – Research suggests the fertilizer industry’s methane emissions is three times higher than the EPA assumed was emitted by all industrial production in the United States. (Credit: BespaliyA/Depositphotos). A disturbing new study from researchers at Cornell University and the …
By Ben Coxworth – A preproduction EVE r3, on display at ICRA 2019. (Credit: Ben Coxworth/New Atlas). You might think that most new robots are designed to head off into factories or other workplaces, but the fact is that many of them are …
By Joseph Stiglitz – Critics of the Green New Deal ask if we can afford it. But we can’t afford not to: our civilization is at stake. ‘The war on the climate emergency, if correctly waged, would actually be good for the economy.’ …
By Loz Blain – Compact and portable, the Jyrowheel is launching on Indiegogo. (Credit: Jyroball). Weighing just 20 lb (9 kg) and folding into a 10-inch-diameter (25-cm) ball for transport, the Jyroball is a super-compact self-balancing urban monowheel that its creators say is …
By Ben Coxworth – Brown tube sponges on a reef in Belize. (Credit: dsabo/Depositphotos). We’ve recently been hearing about how scientists can tell which creatures are present in an aquatic environment, by detecting their cast-off DNA in the water. A new study …
By Maggie O’Neill – Mount Sinai Health System © Provided by TIME Inc. In January 2018, Rachel Palma started noticing her body wasn’t working quite right. Her mind wasn’t functioning properly, and she would suddenly drop items she was holding. “My right hand …
