Skulls of the first Homo sapiens in Europe
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 […]
Science
In states where marijuana is legalized, underage use is *dropping*.
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 […]
ICE is data-mining driver’s license photos.
TechCrunch reveals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE, the agency formed in 2003 as a replacement for the INS – has been quietly […]
Science Art: Cephalopoda (Figs. 441-443), from The Depths of the Ocean, 1912
Click to embiggen Three kinds of squid-kids (I think; at least one is identified as a juvenile), from the research expedition of the Norwegian steamer […]
Preparing for another set of CRISPR-modified babies.
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: […]
You are your own threat to your air quality. (Well, one of the threats, anyway.)
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 […]
We’re running out of… sand?
Nature says that our need for silicon – the main substance in computer chips, as well as glass windows, bottles, and things like bricks and […]
Science Art: X-Ray Lab, cartoon from Resonance: Journal of Scientific Education, August 1996.
Click to embiggen It’s funny, see? See? This cartoon appeared in Resonance between an article called “Genetics to Genetic Algorithms: Solution to Optimisation Problems Using […]
An inoculation against fake news: a video game in which you create propaganda.
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 […]
Science Art: Water, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566
Click to embiggen I’m not sure if this really is a scientific illustration, but I think, given the time, it counts as natural history. This […]
Yep, that whale was plenty weird. Half narwhal, half beluga.
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 […]
Robot fish has battery blood.
Nature powers up with a mechanical fish that runs off a circulating liquid power source: The roughly 40-centimetre soft robot doesn’t have solid batteries — […]
Boaty McBoatface’s Big Breakthrough
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 […]
Bigger houses aren’t making people happier.
They’re just taking up more space. That’s the conclusion, published in The Atlantic, of researchers looking at how satisfied people are with their homes – […]
Science Art: favorite image Petrus Plancius Instructing Students in the Science of Navigation, early 17th century
Click to embiggen The Age of Exploration included at least a little bit of schoolwork. Here are navigation students learning the ways of current and […]