WEIRD SCIENCE
By Nick Lavars – Not a weird mushroom, but a solar steam generator that desalinates water using sunlight. (Credit: Yun Xia/Monash University). Current approaches to water desalination are tremendously expensive and energy-intensive, so the search is very much on for new technologies that can get …
“We are starting to have enough information about them to certainly be concerned.” By Sarah Sloat – American girls are now going through puberty significantly earlier than in decades prior, a trend that’s been linked to physiological and psychological risks. The various …
“YouTube, for many people, is the new Wikipedia.” By Sarah Sloat – YouTube provides a buffet of content to its one billion users. That content isn’t always information, even if it appears to be at first glance. Through its algorithm, the video-sharing website …
The most common man-made pollutant does more than just litter sidewalks. By Sarah Sloat – The most pervasive form of plastic pollution on Earth isn’t plastic bags or even plastic straws. It’s cigarette butts. Every year, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts, containing …
By P.K. Newby, ScD Harvard – Scientist, Science Communicator, and Author, Harvard University – Do you feel like nutritionists are always changing their minds? Do you want science-based information about diet but don’t know whom or what to believe? If you’re nodding …
Scientists uncover two explanations for its dramatic final act. By Emma Betuel – Zombification may be the stuff of science fiction for humans, but for insects, getting zombified is a very real threat. Scientists and Planet Earth afficionados may recall the cases …
Michael Irving – A Berkeley Lab team has created the first magnetic liquid droplets. (Credit: Xubo Liu et al./Berkeley Lab). Magnets as we know them are always solid, but the closest thing we have to a magnetic liquid is a class of …
There’s a very good reason we spend a third of our lives passed out. By Sarah Sloat – Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it: No, they don’t fall in love, they sleep. However, exactly why all animals with …
Pesky ethics is the biggest obstacle. Devil’s Breath just looks deadly. By Corey Plante – Spider-Man has never been the most scientifically accurate superhero (we’re pretty sure getting bit by a radioactive spider won’t give you powers, but one detail in the recently …
David Szondy – The Tribots can be assigned specific roles similar to ants. (Credit: EPFL/Marc Delachaux). In a demonstration that less can be more, EPFL scientists are working on simple robots that behave and cooperate like ants. The 10-g (0.35-oz) Tribots are …
