Snot drones for whale science
Knowable Magazine reports on a new use for remote-controlled drones — to collect DNA samples from whales blowing mucus out their blowholes, and to simply […]
Articles by grant
Science Art: The Ophidian Eye in Vertical Section, 1942
When the snake sees, this is what the snake sees with. The snake in question is Natrix natrix, the barred grass snake. The image was […]
A cave full of 111,000 spiders in the dark.
Live Science goes into the brimstone of the underworld — a sulfuric cave literally named “Sulfur Cave” — on the border of Greece and Albania, […]
A toilet powered by mushrooms
CTV News has an item from University of British Columbia researchers who have found an alternative to Port-a-Potties and camp toilets that doesn’t need all […]
Science Art: Illustration of a Southern Sierra Nevada fisher
This is a mustelid, a relative of weasels and wolverines, called a fisher. The scientific name is Pekania pennanti. They’ve never been very common, and […]
Eye implant reverses blindness
Nature reports on an electronic retinal implant that has successfully allowed people with age-related macular degeneration to see again: The implant, which measures 2 millimetres […]
Satellites are the weak link in keeping secrets.
Wired has an unsettling bit of tech reporting on how easy it is to see nearly all of our secrets with about $800 worth of […]
Science Art:Vergleich der Aufnahme von RNA und modR in der Zelle, 2018
A diagram of two kinds of RNA doing their thing inside a cell (which is converting instructions from DNA into some kind of protein that […]
SONG: What To Do (On mRNA Immune Checkpoint Blockade)
SONG: “What To Do (On mRNA Immune Checkpoint Blockade)”. (OGG version here.) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “People with some cancers live longer after a […]
Covid vaccine boosts life-saving cancer treatment.
Nature just released a “huh, go figure!” bit of preliminary research showing better outcomes for patients with melanoma or lung cancer who had a COVID-19 […]
Making embryos from human skin
BBC recently reported on scientists taking DNA from human skin cells and fertilizing it with sperm to create a non-egg embryo – or at least […]
AI detects melanoma with 99% accuracy.
Northeastern Global News reports on a positive use for artificial intelligence, with a system that outperforms other techniques by helping doctors spot potentially deadly skin […]
Science Art: Ribbon schematic of the 3D structure of the protein triose phosphate isomerase
Jane Richardson drew this by hand and then colored it in back in 1981. It’s a protein molecule, or a diagram of how things move […]
Making batteries out of concrete.
As in the building material. MIT News reports on researchers who have gotten 10 times the power out of a reformulated battery that’s made from […]
Science Art: Yellow and blue, old and new, 2025
This is a photo from 10 days ago of stars millions of light-years away (so the picture is of things long, long before October 3). […]