By Theme - Science history & process

  • Reading magma, predicting giant eruptions
    Reading magma, predicting giant eruptions

    Volcanic eruptions are unpredictable, but here’s a new view of the historic eruption of a Mediterranean monster. About 3,500 years ago, Santorini’s eruption left a giant caldera and 60-meter layers of pumice. A new study of tiny crystals tracks the movement of molten magma before the cataclysm.


    Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
  • Cattle, wildlife: No real conflict?
    Cattle, wildlife: No real conflict?

    In African savannas, cattle graze the same grass as zebras, elephants and gazelles. Obviously, wildlife are stealing food from the mouths of cattle, and from the people who depend on cattle. But new data show that in the wet season, grazing wildlife actually benefit cattle!


    Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
  • Science on the road!
    Science on the road!

    Hitting the road? What could be more enlightening than gawking at a cave, exploring a desert, or eyeballing the largest telescope in the world? Need proof that science is not just books and websites or equations and software? Get moving!


    Thursday, August 4th, 2011
  • The importance of being Einstein
    The importance of being Einstein

    Experiment finds Earth “dragging” spacetime, as Einstein predicted. For 100+ years, scientists have been proving that Einstein knew his physics. Bending light, gravity lenses, shifting spacetime, spinning neutron stars: Einstein called them all. If so many top physicists are brilliant, why do we keep coming back to Einstein?


    Thursday, May 19th, 2011
  • Climate: Simple = beautiful?
    Climate: Simple = beautiful?

    Earth’s orbit subtly changes over thousands of years, in complex cycles that affect the timing and delivery of sunlight to various regions of the globe. Climatologists have said that when this “Milankovitch cycle” warms the Arctic, it somehow warms the Antarctic. A new study finds that the cycle acts more directly.


    Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
  • Maggots, leeches, parasitic worms
    Maggots, leeches, parasitic worms

    Three gross “biotherapies” are gaining medical attention, and two already have FDA approval as “medical devices” (?) ! Leeches can suck excess blood after surgery, and maggots remove dead tissue and kill bacteria in hard-to-heal wounds. Parasitic worms might fight ulcerative colitis — a widespread bowel disease. Maybe.


    Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
  • Black and white image of woman in wheelchair seen from the back in a hospital hallway
    Stem cell battle resumes

    A federal court has thrown the field of embryonic stem cell research into confusion. Last week, research that destroys embryos could not get federal bucks — even if those embryos were doomed or destroyed years ago. This week, it can. How is the legal yo-yo affecting researchers — and desperate patients?


    Thursday, September 16th, 2010
  • Happy tax day: Meet bureaucracy’s roots!
    Happy tax day: Meet bureaucracy’s roots!

    Which came first: The empire or the administration? Conventional wisdom says the demands of empire led to the rise of bureaucracy. But a new study of six early states suggests that the specialization of power and function we call bureaucracy arises at the same time as the territorial expansion that leads to empire.


    Thursday, April 15th, 2010
  • Legal pot? “No,” says California
    Legal pot? “No,” says California

    The science behind medical marijuana is emerging. Some tests show that it dulls pain in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and AIDS. Why is medical marijuana so difficult to explore? What’s coming to the market?


    Thursday, April 8th, 2010
  • Genetic tests go mainstream
    Genetic tests go mainstream

    Companies are marketing genetic tests direct to consumers. Some tests can be lifesavers. But many tests return confusing results, which even doctors have a hard time interpreting.


    Thursday, June 25th, 2009


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