Clik here to view.
Lab-Grown Cartilage Is the Latest Step Towards Plug-and-Play Organs
Screenshot via YouTube One way or another, technologists seem determined to recreate the human being. While computer engineers and neuroscientists put their heads together to try to simulate the brain,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Warming Oceans Are Forcing Marine Animals to the Poles, But They Can't Move...
Photo: USFWS/Flickr We've gained some new insight into how well animals are and will be able to adapt as the planet continues to warm from a new piece in Nature Climate Change. In it, scientists...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Ghostly Blob of Light Is a Star Being Born
That little flash of light above may look like a light shining out of the ocean deep—an angler fish, perhaps?—or maybe a bad cell phone photo of the Moon. But it's far, far bigger: the light peeking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Breathed the Most Polluted Air in Canada
One of the many unintentionally ironic signs in the Chemical Valley. The first thing you notice about Sarnia, Ontario, is the smell: a potent mix of gasoline, melting asphalt, and the occasional trace...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dolphins Are Dying off the East Coast and No One Knows Why
Photo via Matt Kieffer/Flickr While Shark Week has been occupying most of our nautical attention—and outrage—something has been amiss with the bottlenose dolphins off the East Coast. The number of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Science Fiction Tricked Hollywood Into Making the Year's Most Radical Film
Image: Promo Elysium, Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi thriller, is expected to be the highest grossing film this weekend. It lacks the nuance of Blomkamp's great District 9, but it's still exponentially more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Gemini Observatory's New Infrared Instrument Is Finally Ready to Stare
Gemini South, via Gemini Observatory/AURA. After a year long delay, the new FLAMINGOS-2, a powerful infrared camera and spectrograph, is finally turning to the sky at the Gemini South observatory in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Obama Plans to Reform NSA Spying Programs and Increase Transparency
In his most direct response to the NSA spying controversy yet, President Obama announced this afternoon that he’ll pursue reforms to the mass surveillance program, in an effort to restore public...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your Best Defenses Against U.S. Government Snooping Just Disappeared
The NSA's Maryland headquarters/Wikimedia This week, two encrypted email providers shut down their services, and that’s very bad news if you’d rather the government didn’t read your private...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Crustaceans Can Feel Pain Just Like Vertebrates
Photo: Thrillseekr/Flickr If you've justified dropping lobsters into boiling water alive on the grounds that it doesn't feel pain the way vertebrates do, or stuck a knife into a living crab while...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ozone Hole Takes Its Revenge with Climate Change
Some of us are old enough to remember when the ozone hole was the environmental scare. CFCs from our aerosol spray bottles and old air conditioning units were getting into the atmosphere and breaking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Computer Chess' Co-Star Wiley Wiggins on His Favorite Hardware, Software,...
Wiley Wiggins in Computer Chess You may recall Wiley Wiggins from Richard Linklater's films Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, and a few other films here and there, including Andrew Bujalski's new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Is the Idea of a Root-Growing Robot So Creepy?
Imagine a machine that harvests power not from batteries or solar cells but from the soil, with help from a continuously developing root system. This machine would be able to penetrate the ground,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buy This Video Game, Get a Trip To Space
For some, the thought of spending quality time with Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, or Russell Brand is a dream. That dream can become a reality for one video game fanatic, and bonus: said quality time...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Annual Perseid Meteors Are About To Set the Sky On Fire
The 2009 Perseid meteor shower. via If you love the sight of fireballs streaking across the night sky, this is your week. The annual Perseid meteors are upon us, and not only is this the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Intelligent People Are Just As Racist As the Rest of the Big Stupid World
'Thinker' via Frank Kovalchek/Creative Commons This weekend is the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, which means the release of a minor deluge of highly headline-friendly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Comprehensive Guide to the Clandestine Chemistry of 'Breaking Bad'
Disclaimer: Cooking and/or selling methamphetamine and other controlled substances is illegal unless you are working under the aegis of a pharmaceutical company. As a chemist and someone interested in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watch the 1967 Documentary that Cooled Off 'Glass-Palace Office Blocs'
It's a question as old as the cubicle-era work era itself, one that lays at heart of People in Glass Houses: Are we giving our workers an ideal environment? Are all our office spaces optimized for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Marine Life Is Responding to Warming Oceans
A school of mackerel, via Wikimedia Commons The warming world is causing flora and fauna to shift towards cooler lattitudes, a phenomenon that will likely continue as the world's climates continue to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The NSA Scandal Will Cost US Tech Companies Tens of Billions
The NSA's National Security Operations Center, photographed in 2012. Via the NSA Whether it's tech companies' fault or not—it's hard to fight against secret court orders, although some folks are—the...
View Article