February 10, 2016
Organic farming could help feed the planet and protect it
Every day, it seems, there’s a new food trend. Low fat, gluten free, sugar free, organic. That last one probably conjures up images of a quaint country farm, with orderly rows of leafy vegetables and free-range...
February 1, 2016
Celebrating African Americans in STEM: Katherine Johnson
To celebrate National African American History Month, we applaud Katherine G. Johnson, a living legend in the fields of math, physics, and space science. A lifelong love affair with numbers brought Johnson from a small town...
January 25, 2016
A natural beauty: American geoheritage
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) recently announced that the 2016 Earth Science Week theme is “Our Shared Geoheritage.” A somewhat new term for American ears, geoheritage is defined as … the collection of natural wonders, landforms,...
January 19, 2016
“Virtual paleontology” provides insight into last common ancestor with Neanderthals
Cross-posted with the permission of Prof. Nathan H. Lents, originally posted at The Human Evolution Blog. While we are still discovering how and where the many branches of the hominin family tree explored the world, most evidence...
January 5, 2016
A bright future powered by clean energy: Three projects to watch in 2016
Industrial waste is converted to gasoline, drinking water powers a city, and ocean waves supply an electric grid – these are just some of the advances in green energy that made news in 2015. Let’s take a...
December 30, 2015
Selected Science of 2015
With 2015 coming to a close, here’s a selection (and by no means a complete list) of some of the significant science stories of the year: Homo naledi expands the Homo genus As Prof. Nathan H. Lents wrote...
December 18, 2015
Video of the Week: How hummingbirds stay cool
Ever watched a hummingbird feast on a flower or a feeder? Their wings beat so fast — up to 50 times per second — you can barely see them. Just like when a person works out,...
November 25, 2015
Turkey science: What’s on your plate?
The 45 million turkeys that end up on the Thanksgiving table are nothing like their wild ancestors. In fact, they are very different from the typical Thanksgiving turkeys of even half a century ago, according to...
November 6, 2015
What’s so monstrous about “Godzilla El Niño”?
This week, an early season storm hit the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, burying them under feet of snow. The blizzard allowed one ski area, Mammoth Mountain, to open for business yesterday, ahead of schedule. And...
November 4, 2015
Shake and quiver: Vibrational communication in animals
Living underground, moles experience a world very different from our own. The dark, subterranean environment lacks the usual cues for direction, distance, or time, forcing moles to use other methods to perceive their habitat. Using senses...
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