1970 Monkey War Resumes “The classic controversy about evolution has resumed once again in California. The State Board of Education inserted into new guidelines, which had been prepared by a committee of science teachers, a statement that ‘scientific evidence concerning the origin of life implies at least a dualism or the necessity to use several […]
An inexpensive coronavirus test that millions of Americans could use at a pharmacy, in a workplace or even at home could prove to be a vital asset in allowing people to return to jobs and school. Last week Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus-response coordinator, called rapid antigen tests the “breakthrough innovation” that is needed […]
The items below are highlights from the newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here: https://robinlloyd.substack.com. Please consider a monthly contribution to support this newsletter. A 5/7/20 story by Smriti Mallapaty at Nature explores issues related to children and the new coronavirus. Mallapaty reports on some […]
Over the hundreds of thousands of years of our existence on the planet, modern humans have managed to adapt to a huge range of climates—from the arid heat of the Sahara Desert to the icy chill of the Arctic. But we have our limits. If temperatures and humidity rise high enough, even a robustly healthy […]
Cities, countries and continents around the world, from Washington, D.C., to Europe to Antarctica, experienced the warmest winter ever recorded in 2019–2020. Decades of scientific research about how our planet works shows us without a doubt that our climate is changing. Now, as we face the realities of this climate crisis, it is science that […]
One of the world’s biggest carbon reservoirs is also one of the least glamorous: the dirt beneath our feet. Soil all over the world probably contains more than 2 trillion tons of stored carbon, scientists estimate. That’s at least three times more than there is floating around in the Earth’s atmosphere. Whether it will stay […]
Originally published in February 1967 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Some biologists have wondered if it might someday be possible to alter the genetic material of a human being, for example, to remedy some metabolic deficiency. How would one introduce the desired genetic information? One possibility would be to administer a harmless virus that bears the […]
When giant waves —sometimes 30 meters tall, many times the height of the surrounding crests—suddenly rear up out of the ocean, they pose severe threats to even the largest craft. Unlike tsunamis, which may follow a large undersea earthquake, these so-called rogue waves have no known definitive origin. Nor can they be predicted. Understanding how […]
An inexpensive coronavirus test that millions of Americans could use at a pharmacy, in a workplace or even at home could prove to be a vital asset in allowing people to return to jobs and school. Last week Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus-response coordinator, called rapid antigen tests the “breakthrough innovation” that is needed […]
Spend some time watching flamingos and you might think that not much goes on in their tiny heads. But these elegant avians actually lead complex social lives. Each bird has certain other individuals it prefers to spend time with, and others it avoids. In other words, flamingos have friends. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the […]