Science
ArchiveIf you don't live in the Australian or Middle Eastern deserts, or spend time looking for ants in Arizona and New Mexico, chances are you haven't seen these three desert-dwelling animals, highlighted in a new slide show on Treehugger.com. …
A new study shows that physically clean people are more inclined than dirty people to judge others harshly, Wired reports. Researchers at Northwestern university invited 58 undergrads to a shiny new lab to “rate the morality of…
Listening up-tempo music during a workout will make you push harder, even if the effort hurts more, the New York Times reports. In a British study published…
UCSD graduate student Benjamin Thompson wants the process of selecting a surfboard to be a little bit more scientific. The Ph.D. candidate is researching how composite fibers in surfboards react to different users, according to wired.com. Thompson is bulding a system for measuring the flex…
Sometimes, when there's a big environmental problem that defies immediate understanding, it helps to resort to fourth grade science experiments. In June, Carl Safina pointed out during a TED talk that he believed bombarding oil with dispersants near the spill likely helped…
An Australian company has developed a new, Earth-friendly way to dispose of human corpses, New Scientist reports. Aquamation, a process where the body is placed in a steel container with potassium and water heated to about 200-degrees Fahrenheit, decomposes the body…
Courtesy of Flickr It is the mountaineering mystery: what happened to George Mallory and Andrew Irvine when they disappeared attempting to summit Mount Everest? A group of scientists from the University of Toronto claim that the pair were lost in a “perfect storm”…
(Photo courtesy stuartpilbrow on Flickr.) A Stanford University professor is working on a vaccine that would shield humans from chronic stress, Wired reports. Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscience…
A giant bus that straddles two lanes of traffic, letting cars pass beneath it, will be tested in Beijing’s Mentougou District, China Hush reports. The Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd unveiled the bus at…
Shark week is back on Discovery Channel. Last night the piscine extravaganza kicked off with a return to Seal Island in South Africa for Ultimate Air Jaws. It's the third time the Discovery Channel has returned to…
He dodges sharks, fends off charging elephants, and parries David Letterman with relaxed aplomb. Meet scientist and pitchman M. Sanjayan, coming soon to a channel near you.
Courtesy of shaferiens on Flickr. Commercial and academic laboratories across the country are making significant investments in engineering algae to produce fuel, the New York Times reports. The goal is to develop a variety of…
It's no secret NASA has giant lasers, but instead of zapping the world with them Dr. Evil style, scientists are using a few of them to map the height of the earth's forests, Mashable reports. NASA scientists used…
A unmanned solar drone, the Zephyr, stands to set records in a test flight over Arizona's Yuma Proving Ground, the New York Times reports. A representative from QinetiQ, the British company that developed the drone, says that the plan is to land the aircraft…
What does a double rainbow mean? Watch this nature video, and you won't find out. You'll just hear the question asked with a sense of awe—accompanied by healthy scoops of exclamation and crying. It's worth watching anyway. Special thanks to The…
The Solar Impulse completed its first night flight at 7:00 A.M. GMT, Reuters reports. Andre Borschberg, the pilot, kept the solar-powered aircraft aloft for just over 26 hours before landing at an air base in Vaud, Switzerland.
Courtesy of NOAA. Two new species of pancake batfishes have been discovered by researchers in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Reuters. The population of one of…
A Solar Impulse model HB-SIA airplane took off from Switzerland Wednesday morning in an attempt to be the first solar-powered plane to fly for 24 hours, according to CNET news. The plane is designed to fly at night with solar power stored…
tedxoilspill on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free TEDx dedicated a special conference to the oil spill. They sent videographers, photographers, and specialists to the Gulf of Mexico for a week to document the disaster, so they…
Courtesy of NOAA. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will coordinate the collection of 70,000 turtle eggs from 800 nests on Alabama and Florida beaches within the next two weeks, according to the Associated Press. If left in place, hatchlings from the eggs…
New research suggests that the flight pattern of a starling flock reaches beyond the usual rules of biology, Wired News reports. Mathematical analysis of starling flocks show that it does not matter how far away one…
Photo Courtesy of Flickr Humpback whales are the first baleen whales found to form lasting friendships, Treehugger reports. Using photographic identification techniques, scientists have discovered that females reunite each summer to swim and feed alongside one another in the…
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on the move, the Environmental News Network reports. Currently caught in the Loopt, a clockwise current that originates in the Caribbean and travels along the Yucatan, the oil spill will likely travel up to the tip of Florida…
Twenty-one years ago Bernd Heinrich, a cold-hardened University of Vermont biology professor, burst upon the literary scene with Ravens in Winter, which did for corvids what Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf did…
MountainFilm in Telluride, a 32-year-old festival, is a little meeting of big minds in a beautiful place. Granted, I'm not being particularly objective. ϳԹ sponsors the festival and a group of editors from the magazine and producers from our new television channel spoke on a panel Sunday.
A gray whale has been spotted in the Atlantic ocean–a location where gray whales have been extinct for over 200 years, according to discoverynews.com. The whale, who drifted through the atlantic and was spotted off the coast of Israel, has generated quite the buzz, leaving scientists and…
ϳԹ has a history of covering big environmental disasters. To understand the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it helps to have an understanding of where it stands in the history of oil spills. That's not to say…
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 has ballooned into an environmental and economic issue of extreme importance. What was at first reported as one of the worst oil drilling accidents of the last 50 years has evolved into an economic…
An agricultural revolution is in the works in Cuba, aided in part by the scientist and biodiversity researcher Humberto Ríos Labrada. The standard sugarcane monoculture has proven unsustainable, and Labrada saw an alternative: local farms thriving via pre-industrial farming techniques, such as crop…
There are lots of good news podcasts, but we're ranking something different here. Great podcasts should be entertaining and teach you something. Podcasts that do both are few and far between, but they are out there. The ones below are culled from the masses, and range from travel advice, to…
Over at The Cleanest Line, Patagonia's do-good blog, you can track the progress of team Rios Libres, a pack of writers (including Greg Childs), photographers, guides and general adventure types who are have traveled to South America in an effort…
Shrimp have been discovered under a sheet of glacial ice, according to enn.com. The crustacean (technically a distant relative of the shrimp) and a piece of jellyfish were found 600 feet below the ice by probe and camera. This not only raises questions about…
The Australian town of Lajamanu reported two days worth of live fish falling from the sky (really). Backcountry.com reports that the remote desert town experienced two separate showers of hundreds of healthy, if not stunned, spangled perch. Theories range from tornadoes (though none were…
The Epicocity Project crew is in Laos researching how the proposed Don Sahong Dam may effect the Mekong river for a documentary to air on the National Geographic Channel this fall, according to Epicocity.Wordpress.com. The crew has…
Gene manipulation to enhance athletic performance is now scientifically possible, and it may become the next doping trend, CNN reports. Researchers point to “Marathon Mouse,” who gained the ability to run twice as far as normal mice with a modified protein gene. While gene…
The case for barefoot running seems to have gone mainstream in the past week. Last Thursday, Daniel E. Lieberman, a prominent biological anthropologist at Harvard (he researches how humans, and especially athletes, have evolved), published a study in Nature showing that runners with heavily padded shoes tend…
The videos and pictures showed everything. Search and rescue teams digging through rubble. Haitians praying, then hushing, in hopes of the sound…
Courtesy of Wikimedia E. coli's been the culprit for many a food poisoning, but it turns out the microbe's got some good uses, too. The company LS9, which bills itself as a “renewable petroleum company,” has just made a major breakthrough…
Courtesy of Flickr The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core drilling project, whose goal is to improve scientists understanding of climate change, has just finished pulling up about 75 percent…
As we mentioned in our November issue, Yosemite National Park is a great place to play in winter. But not this weekend: Thanks to El Nino's weeklong onslaught, all roads leading into the park are temporarily closed. Check the park's homepage…
A good piece of gear for off-piste skiers is an avalanche airbag system (ABS), but it seems that a lot of skiers who carry one aren't deploying them in the case of an actual avalanche. New Scientist writes about a new…
Mountaintop removal mining is bad, right? Stephen Colbert doesn't think so. Listen to him argue with Dr. Margaret Palmer, the leading author of an article on the harmful effects of mountaintop removal that appeared in the latest issue of Science.
You don't normally think of ice as something that increases safety, but SKI magazine explains how it does just that for alpine racers. The ruts caused by snowcats clearing the course can be dangerous for skiers, launching them off-course, so water is actually injected into the…
Bad news for us office bums who spend most of the day in a chair: Some new research from the Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that prolonged periods of sitting are detrimental to your health, regardless of whether or not…
A simple test for diagnosing exercise-induced asthma—previously performed on elite athletes—may now be ready for diagnosing the condition in the general public, according to a study done by the Ohio State Medical Center. The test involves forcing a patient to hyperventilate in…
A new study published in Ecological Applications found that cleared ski slopes are more environmentally friendly than graded ones, according to the New York Times. Cleared slopes are created by cutting down trees to open up an…
Photograph by Ivan Mlinaric via Flickr The demand for soybeans has grown greatly worldwide–up 14-fold since 1950–which means more of the Amazon rainforest is being cleared to accommodate more crops, EurActiv.com reports. Soybeans are the biggest…
Advances on the web changed the we heard about adventures, breaking news, and victories. Tweets and posts and friends and low budget videos changed…
A new study ranking happiness in each state puts Louisiana at the top of the list, LiveScience reports. Data was gathered before Hurricane Katrina, however, so that number one ranking might not be an accurate reflection of the current happiness level in that state.
Performance mouthpieces may help reduce stress during exercise and help athletes to breathe easier, says a piece in the New York Times' Fitness Section. We're not talking your generic rubber mouth guard here — you know, the kind that turns you into…
Lewis diving into the seas off Antarctica (Photo by Terje Eggum) There's no better time to call out Lewis Gordon Pugh than during COP15. Pugh dons nothing more than a cap, goggles, and a Speedo to call…
Research presented at the latest American Geophysical Union meeting points to carbon emissions from Asian cities as partly responsible for the 20 percent decrease in the Himalayan glaciers since the 1960s, Wired.com reports. The video…
Last night, mountaineer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson received a standing ovation after a talk in Santa Fe sponsored by Garcia Street Books. We attended and filmed the event (coming soon to outsideonline.com), and left inspired. Perhaps…
In 2003, the Library of Congress paid $10 million for a 500-year-old German map. Why the hefty price tag? The document is the only remaining copy of the 1507 Waldseemüller map, which contains the earliest known reference to the New World as America. Upon hearing of the sale, Toby Lester,…
Forest fires get a bad rap. Too often, with all the focus on the damage they could cause, we forget that they're actually necessary to keep the forest healthy and growing. BBC News explains how the build-up of vegetation can prevent seeds…
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden have found that young adults who are physically fit score better on their IQ tests, ScienceDaily reports. There is a strong correlation between fitness and logical thinking and verbal comprehension, but the correlation doesn’t stand in…
Like free throws or music scales, survival skills can be practiced. If you repeat the exercises needed for a life or death situation you can increase your chances of survival—whether you’re a father perfecting a friction fire in the backyard or a soldier simulating an…
Researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center are developing a surgical technique that uses therapeutic hypothermia to treat serious or multiple concussions, reports Medical News Today. Therapeutic hypothermia helps reduce the risk of tissue injury by…
One of the best sources for the coolest, and quirkiest, scientific news is Henry Fountain's Observatory column for The New York Times. It comes out weekly in Science Times, one of the last big concentrated science sections in a major paper.
Last week on ϳԹ's dog blog, ϳԹK9.com, readers guessed the breeds that make up Assistant Editor Carr's dogs, Rio and Odin. Results from the Canine Heritage Breed test were in transit from the lab. Today, the results are revealed. Head…
A couple of years ago, Wired magazine put out a forward-looking article addressing whether paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius's artificial legs (called Cheetahs) gave him an advantage over able-bodied sprinters. After all, at the time he was close to qualifying for the Olympics with prostheses.
The fifth TEDMED conference finished last week, and videos of all the talks will be up in a few months on the web site. TED Talks are always interesting and innovative, and with all that's going on inour country regarding health care,…
Welcome to the ϳԹ Lab, our new blog dedicated to the intersections of science, sports, education and nature. The connections will sometimes be loose, but that should make it fun. Please comment and ask questions. This week at NASA's Dryden Research Center in…
Ever wonder what breeds make up your mutt? Certain breeds are happier to live an outdoor lifestyle than others are. Rhodesian ridgebacks, for instance, can withstand extreme heat and cold and they love miles-long runs, so they make good companions for distance runners. Chesapeake bay retrievers, on the other…
According to the new U.S. Geological Survey report, the United States is using less water than it did in 1975. ENN reports that, even with a 30 percent population increase, water consumption in the U.S. down compared to peak use in…
In the wake of the Caster Semenya gender controversy, the International Olympic Committee is in the process of convening a panel of medical experts to draw up a set of guidelines for future issues surrounding gender ambiguity. In…
By Mary Catherine O'Connor This Saturday, October 24th, will be action-packed.Normally, this would not be news for ϳԹ readers, for whom most weekendsare packed with biking, skiing, boating, etc. But this year, it's news. October24th is the much-anticipated international day of action, designed to…
Medical News Today reports that The School of Psychology at Belfast's Queen's University have been working with the Ulster rugby team by testing the player's visual perception through a range of virtual training scenarios. The testing goes beyond a regular computer…
A recent study on cycling injuries presented at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons found that injuries at one trauma center had increased significantly over the past 11 years, reports Medical News Today. Even…
Identify your fitness flaws and the path to becoming a better athlete will be clear.
Ben Sherwood talks about the secrets and science that can save your life.
This simple formula is seemingly impossible to master. So how does Kelly Slater do it year after year? And how can you?
EVEN TO A NONSCIENTIFIC OBSERVER LIKE ME, there are several obvious peculiarities about the life and work of Garrett Lisi. For instance, despite his being 40 years old and possessing a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, he has held few steady jobs—and those the likes of hiking guide and snowboarding instructor.
You bought a hybrid. That's swell. Now how about we all get down to business?
Rod Liberal was climbing in the Grand Tetons when the worst happened—a flash of lightning blasted him and a group of his climbing friends, leaving one dead. What's life like after high voltage rips through your body? You don't want to know.
With their nifty new windmills, tidy techno-homes, and enviro-crusading queen, the Dutch are busy creating the cutest little ecotopia on earth—while stoking a booming hypercapitalist economy. What does tiny Holland know that America is too big and dumb to figure out?
For three hours, a team of scientists collected samples from deep inside the crater of a seemingly peaceful volcano. Suddenly, an apocalyptic eruption shot white-hot rocks into the darkening sky. Nine people were killed high on the Colombian mountain that day, and volcanologist Stanley Williams barely escaped with his life. In an exclusive preview from the cont
Close encounters of the bear-human kind are skyrocketing, though actual attacks remain few and far between. Hopefully, new outreach education efforts will keep things that way.
It's springtime in Siberia, where slumbering mammoths are emerging from melting permafrost. Where great herds of TV crews roam the tundra in search of cloneable Ice Age DNA. Where Dolgan nomads traffic in Jurassic Park dreams. Where an unlikely French explorer-entrepreneur is chasing his strangely compelling vision of authentic wonder. Where the weirdness is ju