These are the optical effects you have to be aware of if you’re going to describe the sky when ice-filled cirrus clouds are overhead. Ice crystals refract sunlight… Read the rest “Science Art: Perspective view of the sky…, from “Refraction by Ice Crystals” in Instructions to Marine Meteorological Observers, 1938.”
Nature introduces us to the Greek ancestors of modern humanity – by far the oldest-known Homo sapiens, relatively recently discovered in a cave in southern Greece:
… Read the rest “Skulls of the first Homo sapiens in Europe”Harvati et al.
CNN reports on a JAMA Pediatrics study that found an interesting correlation between decriminalizing cannabis and teenagers’ use of the plant. Recreational use among teens actually… Read the rest “In states where marijuana is legalized, underage use is *dropping*.”
TechCrunch reveals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE, the agency formed in 2003 as a replacement for the INS – has been quietly analyzing driver’s… Read the rest “ICE is data-mining driver’s license photos.”
Three kinds of squid-kids (I think; at least one is identified as a juvenile), from the research expedition of the Norwegian steamer Michael Sars, published in 1912. These… Read the rest “Science Art: Cephalopoda (Figs. 441-443), from The Depths of the Ocean, 1912”
Nature reports on another geneticist – a Russian, this time – who has announced that he, too, will be gene-modifying human babies for HIV-positive mothers:
… Read the rest “Preparing for another set of CRISPR-modified babies.”Molecular biologist
Science Daily reports on the discovery that human skin oils react with ozone in the atmosphere inside your office or house to create “the Pig-Pen Effect” – a cloud of … Read the rest “You are your own threat to your air quality. (Well, one of the threats, anyway.)”
Nature says that our need for silicon – the main substance in computer chips, as well as glass windows, bottles, and things like bricks and mortar – could actually threaten … Read the rest “We’re running out of… sand?”
It’s funny, see? See?
This cartoon appeared in Resonance between an article called “Genetics to Genetic Algorithms: Solution to Optimisation Problems… Read the rest “Science Art: X-Ray Lab, cartoon from Resonance: Journal of Scientific Education, August 1996.”
The University of Cambridge has studied 15,000 people and determined that playing a quick browser game is effective in getting folks to resist the seductive effects of fake news:
… Read the rest “An inoculation against fake news: a video game in which you create propaganda.”Players
Will happen soon. Have tracks, but words are hard.
I’m not sure if this really is a scientific illustration, but I think, given the time, it counts as natural history. This thing – heads made of… well…… Read the rest “Science Art: Water, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566”
Science News shares the genetic solution to a puzzle that’s had marine biologists (and Greenland whale hunters) puzzled since the 1980s. Namely, what the heck was that weird whale… Read the rest “Yep, that whale was plenty weird. Half narwhal, half beluga.”
Nature powers up with a mechanical fish that runs off a circulating liquid power source:
… Read the rest “Robot fish has battery blood.”The roughly 40-centimetre soft robot doesn’t have solid batteries — instead it is propelled by a
The Telegraph reports on the internet’s favorite ocean-going vessel, the submersible Boaty McBoatface, and the plucky little robot sub has just been doing some potentially world-saving… Read the rest “Boaty McBoatface’s Big Breakthrough”
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