So we’ve made sperm. No man necessary.
Nature cuts my last potential for productivity to the quick with news that researchers have made mouse sperm in a dish: Researchers in China say […]
Science
Science Art: Contour plot of Rastrigin’s function in two variables, by Tos
Click to embiggen I don’t have the math language to explain what’s going on here very well. It’s a diagram of the Rastrigin function, which […]
Celebrating happy accidents with The Golden Mole
NPR’s Skunk Bear turns us on (in general, but specifically with this) observing the outsized influence of unanticipated consequences – singling out for awards all […]
Modern Milgram Experiments: plumbing the horror of only following orders
Nature reveals a new generation of Milgram experiments – the 50-year-old psychological tests that had subjects electrocute (or believe they were electrocuting) other people on […]
Science Art: Figure 4, Neopteroplax conemaughensis, 1963
Click to embiggen Such a winning smile…. Neopteroplax was, at one point, something like a crocodile of salamanders – an amphibian about 3 meters long […]
Modern humans and Neanderthals go back further together than we thought.
Science Daily talks about our ancient brothers, the Neanderthals who were us, 100,000 years ago: Today in Nature the team publishes evidence of interbreeding that […]
Alien atmospheres
Washington Post unveils our first observations of the atmosphere on an Earth-like planet outside the solar system: For the first time ever, scientists are sniffing […]
Coffee (and pepper) of the dinosaurs discovered.
Discovery News hypes the headline a little here (but forgivably) by declaring that a 45-million-year-old prehistoric coffee has been discovered preserved in amber: Named Strychnos […]
A new generation of anti-Alzheimer’s drugs
BBC News covers the preventative medicines that act like statins for your brain: Statins are taken by people to reduce the risk of developing heart […]
Science Art: VII. Scientific Literature, by Finnish artists.
Click to embiggen This is a chapter heading from the book Finland in the Nineteenth Century: by Finnish authors, illustrated by Finnish artists, published in […]
*Ants* have the speed… when it comes to boxing.
I’m reading a EurekAlert report on entomologists sitting ringside watching the fastest boxers in the world – trap-jaw ants: In a new study, entomologists at […]
Obama tries to boost science funding on his way out.
Nature reports on the outgoing president’s attempt to boost research & development funding by a mandatory four percent: With less than a year before he […]
Chinese tokamak makes fusion happen – for more than a minute.
Wired reports on the successful ignition of a fire three times hotter than the sun: The march to sustainable nuclear fusion appears to have made […]
Great trumpeting wildebeests!
Science Daily introduces us to a new… or, well, very, very old beast – a prehistoric gnu that trumpeted like a duck-billed dinosaur: By poring […]
Luxembourg prepping for asteroid miners.
BBC has more on the Grand Duchy’s grand plans for exploiting the mineral wealth of outer space: Former European Space Agency boss Jean-Jacques Dordain… told […]