Smallpox vaccine got a boost … from skin bacteria.
The-Scientist explores a strange interaction that helped eliminate smallpox without us even noticing. The vaccine that helped eliminate this killer got an extra boost from […]
Month: April 2022
Camera lens based on a trilobite’s eye keeps objects in focus near and far.
Science News looks at the world through the eyes of Dalmanitina socialis, a creature extinct for 400 million years who could focus on objects as […]
Science Art: Blast Engine, 1870s.
This was one of the attractions in the Machinery Hall of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a blast engine made by the I.P. Morris […]
SONG: Like Lava Made of Water
SONG: “Like Lava Made of Water” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Science 17 Apr 2022, “Icy Volcanos on Pluto Could Be Sign of Underground Ocean,” […]
Brain scans show even a mild covid case can shrink your brain – as many of us are finding out.
National Geographic takes a broad look at neurological studies done at labs around the world that show that even the “mild flu” version of COVID-19 […]
Inca sacrifices were given ayahuasca in their final hours.
IFL Science (among other outlets) is reporting on studies published in Nature and the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports that looked at the mummified remains […]
Science Art: Pénaud’s first sketch of an amphibian aeroplane, 1873
CW: Ends in despair. French aviation pioneer Alphonse Pénaud designed this, with engineer Paul Gauchot, as an aeroplane that could land on water or on […]
Pluto might have an underground ocean, if those icy volcanoes are any indication.
Science magazine reports on new conclusions from the New Horizon spacecraft’s 2015 observations of ice volcanoes on Pluto, and what they could mean for the […]
There’s more than one speed of sound on Mars.
Science News describes one of the odd issues facing our robotic exploration of the Red Planet, because sound waves travel differently in the thin atmosphere […]
Want your research cited by other scientists? Give your paper a funny title.
Nature reveals one of the weird truths about the way we do science. Publishing research is sometimes referred to as “the academic conversation,” and analysis […]
Science Art: Irisosaurus yimenensis life restoration, by Ang Li.
Irisosaurus yimenensis is a dinosaur discovered in 2020 in Yunnan, China, within the Fengjiahe Formation – a layer of sediment and fossils laid down in […]
There’s radioactive material *everywhere*. Here’s who’s trying to clean up clinics and food processing plants..
Scientific American introduces us to the RadSecure program, which aims to keep the radioactive isotopes in use all around us from getting too close for […]
A 3,000-year-old skull surgery in Alabama
Science News checks out the evidence for the oldest known skull surgery in America, a forehead-opening operation that took place between 3,000 and 5,000 years […]
FedEx is testing a drone with a 27-foot wingspan for “middle mile” delivery.
Popular Science explains the 9.000-pound flying robots made by the drone company Elroy Air aren’t meant to get your packages to your door. They’re just […]
Science Art: Culpeper’s Microscope, 1797.
This is a single microscope from a page of microscopes in the 1797 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which I found on archive.org. This particular […]