The region around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya is a desert landscape. To a Californian, the look of the hills and rocks and washes is familiar even if the vegetation is not. Bumping along in a land cruiser, we must have crossed a half dozen dry riverbeds. Their size made it clear that, at least […]
The items below are highlights from the free newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here. Please consider a monthly contribution to support this newsletter. Atmospheric chemist Jose L. Jimenez at the University of Colorado-Boulder has created a fairly simple, downloadable spreadsheet tool that allows you […]
Have you seen the show How I Met Your Mother? It’s about a bunch of flawed but lovable New Yorkers trying to find (or hang onto) love as they go through life’s changes, which range from silly to momentous. It’s a funny, feel-good, and sometimes poignant sitcom. But what I like most about it is that […]
In 2023 every U.S. land surveyor will finally be on equal footing. One kind of foot, specifically: the “international foot.” These engineers have long measured land with two versions of the unit, depending on which state they are in and whom they work for. To eliminate the resulting confusion, surveyors will soon stop using what […]
An enormous dust cloud has finally hit the United States, after journeying 5,000 miles from the Sahara Desert across the Atlantic Ocean. The plume darkened the skies in Puerto Rico earlier this week, causing some of the highest atmospheric aerosol concentrations the island had ever seen. By yesterday morning, the cloud had begun to creep […]
Bemoaning uneven individual and state compliance with public health recommendations, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci recently blamed the country’s ineffective pandemic response on an American “anti-science bias.” He called this bias “inconceivable,” because “science is truth.” Fauci compared those discounting the importance of masks and social distancing to “anti-vaxxers” in their “amazing” refusal to listen to […]
Originally published in February 1900 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “In 1898 the United States produced less than half the amount of rice we consume. Rice, in addition to its subtropical character, is a crop growing chiefly on wet lands, where it has hitherto been impossible to use harvesting machinery. It must, therefore, be laboriously cut […]
As Black Live Matter protests continue across the U.S., police have deployed various “less lethal” weapons to disperse participants. Tear gas, rubber bullets, flash bang grenades and long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) are designed to control crowds. But they are sometimes used in situations where people have nowhere to run. So some protesters have been gearing […]
A video documenting the final moments of life for George Floyd has sparked massive protests in every part of the country and international outrage. The video, which has been watched by millions, offers a stark testimony to a long-endured tragedy. Because of what it captures, it will likely mark a turning point in history. Yet, […]
Behavioral scientist Stephen Martin and psychologist Joseph Marks talk about their book Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why. — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link