The coronavirus, as we all know, has brought our economy to its knees. As the search for vaccines and treatments accelerates, geneticists are now looking to our genes to understand why some recover quickly or show no symptoms, while others die. To do so, they are searching DNA databases and cross-referencing them with COVID-19 cases. […]
Originally published in November 1855 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Photography is the general name now applied to sun painting on paper and glass, as being different from the daguerreotype, which is produced on metallic plates. The inventor of photographs is Fox Talbot, of England, who secured patents in Britain and America, but has thrown them […]
My first day in Mexico City was tough. The smog was so thick that I gasped for breath while climbing the stairs to my hotel room. I had braced for headaches from the high altitude and thin air, but I was not prepared for how dirty that air was or for the bloodshot eyes and […]
In Charles Dickens’s much beloved novella A Christmas Carol, the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge is unmoved when the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present show him how his cruelty and selfishness have harmed others. Only when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come brings Scrooge face-to-face with his own impermanence in the form of his tombstone […]
With stunning rapidity, the novel coronavirus upended everyday life in every corner of the world. As the number of cases skyrocketed, hospitals were overwhelmed. Now, vast swaths of the economy remain hobbled, and the night air is eerily quiet. Few predicted either the magnitude or the extent of the disruption, and the response was almost […]
Unless there is widespread testing for COVID-19, experts warn, cases will surge as governments reopen more businesses and public spaces. But there is still a woeful shortage of diagnostic tests for coronavirus infections, because of unprecedented demand for chemicals and supplies. The U.S., for instance, does hundreds of thousands of tests a day, but that […]
Blood donations save lives. But blood can only be stored under refrigeration for up to six weeks. After that, it’s no longer usable for transfusions. “Because of that limitation, people have to continually donate blood to meet the needs, but also in places where refrigeration may not be available, that can also be a challenge. […]
As hurricanes move slowly along their path, they can dump more than three feet of rain. When they finally dissipate, the resulting flooding and standing water wreak havoc in multiple ways—threatening drinking water, damaging critical infrastructure and washing out roadways. But they also result in another danger few people consider: a spike in mosquito populations. […]
Several months into a pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and decimated economies around the world, scientists still lack a complete understanding of how the virus that caused it is transmitted. Lockdowns are already easing in some places, and people are preparing to return to a version of work and social life. […]
Originally published in July 1948 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Was the beetle-browed Neanderthal man really our ancestor, or an unhappy cousin doomed to extinction? Is Homo sapiens a recent arrival in Europe? Last August, in a quiet French village in the Department of Charente, the mystery was solved when a few fragments of an old […]