Algae blooms discovered beneath Arctic ice
A NASA mission to study the tiny algae vital to the ocean’s food chain has turned up a massive amount of phytoplankton where scientists least expected it – under the Arctic ice.
In a project that uses both satellites and on-site [...]
Silicon trick for next-gen memory
Researchers have revealed details of a promising way to make a fundamentally different kind of computer memory chip.The device is a “memristor”, a long-hypothesised but only recently demonstrated electronic component.A memristor’s [...]
Trumpets of outrage over outback
An Australian biology prof is causing a rumble in the academic jungle by suggesting that his country should import elephants and other foreign species into its wild interior.Rhinos and even giant Komodo dragon lizards could be imported, David [...]
Study Sheds Light on How Birds Navigate by Magnetic Field
Birds are famously good navigators. Some migrate thousands of miles, flying day and night, even when the stars are obscured. And for decades, scientists have known that one navigational skill they employ is an ability to detect variations in [...]
Stimulating Cells – Doug Melton – Harvard Thinks Big
Doug Melton Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Dr. David Gorski – (So-Called) Complimentary and Alternative Medicine | For Good Reason
Dr. Gorski defines complementary, alternative and integrative medicine and contrasts it with science-based medicine. He talks about whether its acceptance is growing. He debates to what extent massage therapy and aromatherapy are examples of [...]
Congratulations to James Krupa
James KrupaNCSE is delighted to congratulate James Krupa on being named the 2011 winner of the Four-Year College & University Section Biology Teaching Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers. The award honors a four-year [...]
A preview of How and Why Species Multiply
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant’s How and Why Species Multiply (Princeton University Press, 2007, reissued in paperback in 2011). The preview consists of chapter 10 — “Reconstructing [...]
Top Ten Myths About the Brain
When it comes to this complex, mysterious, fascinating organ, what do—and don’t—we know?
1. We use only 10 percent of our brains.This one sounds so compelling—a precise number, repeated in pop culture for a century, implying that we [...]
Fossil from 275 million years ago shows oldest abscess
The first-known occurrence of an oral infection has been found in a 275-million-year-old fossil.
The Labidosaurus hamatus fossil, whose detailed analysis using X-rays is described in Naturwissenschaften journal, shows signs of an abscess.
The [...]
