Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
When I was fourteen years old, I broke up with my first love. The colors of the world seemed to fade, my head hung low and I played the song “November Rain” by Guns N Roses all day long on my gigantic stereo...
Last week President Obama signed a sweeping aviation bill that, among other things, will open the skies to "unmanned aircraft systems," more commonly known as drones.
Attention Deficit–Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) had a star turn in the recent, high-profile murder trial of University of Virginia lacrosse star George Huguely.
There is a little magic embodied in every bit of bread or cheese and every sip of beer and wine. That magic is microbial and, at least in the case of the bread, beer and wine, the microbe doing the magic is yeast, of a single species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , what one might reasonably call civilization’s yeast, or at least the yeast at the heart of civilization-its slightly sour lollipop center.We don’t think about yeast...
This article is the sixth and probably last article in a minseries of six articles (see the first, second, third, fourth and fifth articles here) about civilization, fungus, and alcohol...
New research points to an ancient energy tradeoff that meant more fuel for brains, and less fuel for muscles. Recently while visiting the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., I found myself pondering the noggins of some very, very, old apes.Along one wall of the Hall of Human Origins — an exhibit on human evolution that opened in 2010 — were 76 fossil skulls from 15 species of early humans...
This article is the fifth (see the first, second, third and fourth articles here) in a miniseries of six articles that will be posted over six days about civilization, fungus, and alcohol...
On March 1, 1962, thousands of people lined New York City’s Broadway. Some climbed into an unfinished building to use it as a makeshift grandstand.
This article is the fourth (see the first, second and third articles here) in a miniseries of six articles (yes, I added one) that will be posted over six days about civilization, fungus, and alcohol...
This article is the third (see the first and second articles here) in a miniseries of six articles (yes, I added one) that will be posted over six days about civilization, fungus, and alcohol...
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