The science of the will to fight.
The Economist has an interesting piece on military psychology – specifically, the research going into predicting when an opponent who is outgunned and outmanned will […]
Articles by grant
Puberty can erase childhood trauma’s brain effects
Science News has some optimistic news about the long-term neurological effects of childhood trauma. We know that they can create lasting physical changes inside the […]
Science Art: Gold plaques (items 9-14 in catalogue), by Ian Richardson, The British Museum, 2012
Click to embiggen Treasure! Literally! A hoard of Roman gold and silver, including jewelry, figurines, and a lot of these votive “leaf” plaques. A votive […]
New coffee-based technique promises to rebuild nerves damaged by MS, injuries.
HealthEuropa reveals new research into myelin sheaths, the “insulation” around nerve cells that gets damaged by multiple sclerosis and some kinds of traumatic injuries. Swiss […]
A black hole bigger than a hundred suns.
BBC peers into deepest space to find the origins of a gravity “shockwave” from 7 billion years ago that was still strong enough to shake […]
Flying taxi by Toyota
Endgadget (yes, I know) enthuses over the Toyota-backed SkyDrive flying car, tested with a pilot at a Toyota facility: The SD-03 is billed as the […]
Social isolation damages this brain circuit in kids. And we can fix it with light.
Science Daily has a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine study that isolates a specific cluster of brain cells that regulate social behavior – and that […]
Science Art: Dynamometer, 3 Feb 1865
Click to embiggen A dynamometer, illustrated by (or for) the United States Sanitary Commission in 1865. A dynamometer measures power output. For an engine, it […]
Why can’t pharma companies afford to make life-saving drugs?
Nature asks a disturbing question about how we create and distribute what are arguably the most important scientific projects of all – the antibiotics and […]
SONG: All I See
SONG: “All I See” ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on Scientific American, 28 July 2020, “The Brittle Star That Sees with Its Body”, as used in […]
We just had the closest asteroid fly-by ever.
Space.com shares what we learned about how Earth’s gravity has affected 2020QG, a car-sized asteroid that became the closest to approach Earth without slamming into […]
Supernovas have caused mass extinctions. (As if asteroids weren’t bad enough.)
Science Daily reports on radioactivity research that has found evidence that at least one mass extinction event in Earth’s history was caused not by an […]
The one molecule that turns grasshoppers into locusts.
Science News reveals the one chemical that transforms harmless, solitary insects into a crop-destroying, famine-triggering locust swarm: Now, scientists have pinpointed a compound emitted by […]
Science Art: Booby Gannet, by John James Audubon
Click to embiggen A quizzical and curious sea bird, from Birds of America, presented by The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.