Viable sperm sent on a postcard
New Scientist opens a new, fertile field of biological research with the discovery at Japan’s University of Yamanashi that it’s possible to freeze-dry viable sperm […]
biology
Sending baby squid to the space station.
BBC reports on a NASA project that’s transporting cute little cephalopods into orbit, launching 128 baby bobtail squid and 5,000 tardigrades to the International Space […]
Really old poop yields really new microbes – and new medical treatments.
Omaha digs deep for a story on how millennia-old feces has reintroduced us to some long-lost germs in the human gut biome – that might […]
Science Art: Acrosome Reaction Diagram
Happy Mother’s Day! Wikimedia Commons user LadyofHats made this image of motherhood. And fatherhood, I suppose. Technically, this fertilization is happening in a sea urchin, […]
Blood-sugar test gives us the first way to quantify exactly how hungry you are.
Nature reports on experiments mapping out exactly how hungry people will feel over the next 24 hours – giving a hard number to what’s usually […]
A piece of human brain survived 2,600 years.
Science magazine reveals the secret to cellular survival for a chunk of human brain that didn’t rot for more than two and half millennia after […]
“Just grow a table.”
MIT News looks at the new science of tissue engineering, taking lab-grown cells and training them to grow objects to order: It takes a lot […]
Now America is being invaded by jumping worms.
Science News checks out yet another disaster, though one on a smaller scale and a bit closer to the ground than most, as armies of […]
Sperm do lopsided barrel-rolls. They don’t have propeller tails.
Science News dashes the popular image of sperm as swimming furiously by spinning their tails like boat propellers. Instead, the little guys only move their […]
SONG: Cluster Anatomy
SONG: “Cluster Anatomy”. (I made an .ogg version, too.) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Science News, 2 June 2020, “A new 3-D map illuminates the ‘little brain’ […]
Mapping the heart’s little brain.
Science News looks at a new 3D map of the nerves that function as a miniature brain inside our hearts: To make their map, systems […]
One fatty meal can reduce your ability to focus.
Science Daily reports on Ohio State University research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that finds a single meal high in saturated fats, […]
It’s not how fast you walk, but how many steps you take that helps you live longer.
Science News shares 10 years of step-counting longevity research that indicates that slow, steady, and not stopping is the way to win the race – […]
SONG: “Young and Stupid”
SONG: “Young and Stupid”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: The Guardian, 3 February 2020, “Girls beginning puberty almost a year earlier than in 1970s,” as used in […]
Girls really are growing up quicker – biologically speaking.
The Guardian looks at the slightly puzzling change in the age girls reach puberty around the world: For girls, experts say the best marker of […]