Observations
Masks and Emasculation: Why Some Men Refuse to Take Safety Precautions
They think it makes them look weak, and avoiding that is evidently more important to them than demonstrating responsible behavior
Blogs
Observations
How a Landmark Physics Paper from the 1970s Uncannily Describes the COVID-19 Pandemic
Phil Anderson’s article “More Is Different” describes how different levels of complexity require new ways of thinking. And as the virus multiplies and spreads, that’s just what the human race desperately needs...
Observations
The Fight against COVID-19 Threatens to Cause Collateral Health Damage
The pandemic is no excuse to abandon chronic disease management and prevention
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Life, Unbounded
Rosetta Captures Stunning New Images of Comet’s Surface and Activity
What happens when you make a low-level flyby of a cometary nucleus? You get jaw-dropping images. The above 2-shot mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by ESA’s Rosetta orbiter at an effective altitude of just 19.9 kilometers...
Observations
Hubble's Repairman Reflects on the Telescope's Legacy
Twenty-five years ago, on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope soared into orbit. Since then, its great discoveries have been legion, and the story of how it became the most successful and productive astronomical observatory in human history is destined to become legendary...
Frontiers for Young Minds
Now You See It, Now You Don't: Interacting With Invisible Objects
What do you do when you are playing in the park on a hot day and your parents offer you an ice cream? Most probably, you go running to them, keep your eyes on the delicious ice cream cone, and reach out to take it from them...
Dark Star Diaries
Building an Earth-Size Telescope, One Station at a Time
Imagine a trio of aerobatic aircraft. Over the years they've gotten very good at their routine. But they want to add another five or six or seven members.
Extinction Countdown
Critically Endangered Frog Claws Its Way toward Recovery
The evolutionarily unique frogs of Cameroon's Lake Oku have no tongues, claw-tipped toes and 12 full sets of chromosomes. What the Lake Oku clawed frogs (Xenopus longipes) don't have, however, is a lot of habitat in which to live...
Cocktail Party Physics
Putting A New Spin on Space Elevators
Fans of sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke know and love his 1979 classic novel, The Fountains of Paradise. The plot centers on efforts of a visionary structural engineer in the 22nd century, Dr Vannevar Morgan, to construct a space elevator connecting the surface of the earth with a satellite in geostationary orbit, almost a kind [...]..
SA Visual
Subatomic Particles Over Time: Graphics from the Archive, 1952-2015
In the May issue of Scientific American, a familiar friend makes an appearance: a chart of fundamental particles. These particles—fermions (which include constituents of matter such as electrons and quarks) and bosons (usually carriers of force)—are at the very heart of the Standard Model of particle physics...
Life, Unbounded
Where Would you Leave a Message From the Stars?
A recent article by Samuel Arbesman in the science magazine Nautilus discusses the extraordinary sounding possibility that – just perhaps – a search for extraterrestrial intelligence could be made by looking at our DNA...
Frontiers for Young Minds
Boots or Heels: My Wardrobe Paradox as a Woman in STEM
A couple of weeks ago a wonderful hashtag was making its way around Twitter, with female scientists all over the world sharing photos of their feet to show a day #InMyShoes.
Cocktail Party Physics
Neutron Stars Serve Up Plates of Nuclear Pasta
Along with black holes, neutron stars are the result of stars collapsing under gravity once their fuel burns out, until their density is about the same as that of the nucleus of an atom, at which point the protons and electrons “melt” into pure neutrons...
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A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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