486 articles on Science

  • Chemists Outrun Laws in War on Synthetic Drugs
    Synthetic mimics of marijuana, dissociative drugs and stimulants -- such as the "bath salts" allegedly consumed by Randy Eugene, the Florida man shot after a horrific face-eating assault -- are growing in popularity and hard to control. Every time a compound is banned, overseas chemists synthesize a new version tweaked just enough to evade a law's letter.
    05.30.12
  • Landsat: "My American Landscape" Contest
    The United States' Landsat Earth observing program is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This program has allowed scientists from all over the world to observe landscape changes on a massive scale through detailed photography of the Earth's surface. To celebrate this historic anniversary, NASA is offering the chance for six lucky members of the American public to receive a chronicle of Landsat images from the past 40 years. Learn more about Landsat and enter NASA's contest.
    05.29.12
  • Review: How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog
    In his first book How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Chad Orzel put quantum mechanics into terms even a German Shepherd mix (or English major) could understand by means of a dialectic with his pet Queen Emmy, whose interests run from chasing rabbits to virtual particles. Although the premise may sound like a stretch, as it turns out Emmy asks her owner just the right kind of insightful questions that help illustrate the weird and wonderful concepts that topic contains.
    05.27.12
  • What Industrial Farming Has to Do With Devastated Seas
    I spent the end of last week at the latest iteration of the Sustainable Foods Institute, an intense two days of discussion that the Monterey Bay Aquarium (home of Seafood Watch, the guide to sustainable seafood choices) puts on every year to bring together journalists, advocates and chefs. The Institute takes place within Cooking for Solutions, ...
    05.24.12
  • Video: SpaceX's Dragon Performs Space Station Flyby
    This is a live feed of SpaceX¿s Dragon capsule in low Earth orbit approaching the International Space Station. The tactic is a crucial second step as SpaceX works to become the first private U.S. company to dock with the station.
    05.23.12
  • Antibiotic Overuse May Increase Superbug Evolution Rate
    By flooding our environment with antibiotics, people may alter a little-appreciated but profound aspect of bacterial evolution: the very pace at which it occurs. Bacteria may evolve more rapidly and more radically than just a few decades ago.
    05.23.12
  • Combat 'Burn Pits' Ruin Immune Systems, Study Shows
    Since returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, an untold number of soldiers have come down with puzzling health problems. Many of them are pointing the finger at a single culprit: the open-air "burn pits" that incinerated trash -- from human waste to computer parts -- on military bases overseas. Now, a new study is offering up some the most damning scientific evidence to date that links burn pits to serious, and ongoing, health problems.
    05.23.12
  • Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering
    The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally. That's because Darpa, the Pentagon's far-out research arm, has kicked off a program designed to take the conventions of manufacturing and apply them to living cells. Think of it like an assembly line, but one that would churn out modified biological matter -- man-made organisms -- instead of cars or computer parts.
    05.22.12
  • SpaceX Ready to Launch First Dragon to the International Space Station This Morning
    Startup rocket company Space Exploration Technologies (we all know them as SpaceX) is set to launch their Dragon capsule to the International Space Station early in the morning (3:44am EDT!) on Tuesday. SpaceX will be webcasting the launch on their website, SpaceX.com, starting at 3:00am Eastern Time. You can also follow along as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posts live updates to Twitter from Mission Control!
    05.22.12
  • The Ubiquitous School Volcano Project
    Our oldest son, who's in 3rd grade, brought home the classic "build a volcano and make it explode" class project. We started with several items that were essentially recycled: an empty soda bottle, a leftover piece of plywood for the base, a cardboard box and our old phone book. In class, the volcano was subjected to the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment to simulate an explosion. Our son told us that his volcano had the most powerful explosion in the class.
    05.21.12
  • How to View Sunday's Eclipse (Safely) with a Telescope
    If you're lucky enough to be in the path of the eclipse, and you don't have eclipse glasses or a special solar filter for your telescope, you can use the same technique we used to look at sunspots. To protect your eyes from radiation damage, DO NOT look directly through your telescope or binoculars! Instead, project the image onto a piece of paper.
    05.19.12
  • Q&A;: Former SpaceX Executive on Historic Launch
    This is part of a series of Wired Q&As with spaceflight experts leading up to SpaceX¿s launch. You can read previous interviews here. We may be at the dawn of a new, private era in space. On May 19, if all goes well, SpaceX¿s Falcon 9 rocket will lift off the launchpad, bringing the Dragon spacecraft to ...
    05.17.12
  • Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon
    Magnificent_Desolation IMAX Today I watched Magnificent Desolation: Man Walking on the Moon, which is running as part of OMSI's IMAX Film Festival. It's a film from 2005 but I hadn't seen it before, so I was glad to have the opportunity to catch it now.
    05.17.12
  • With Space Program: Mars, Tom Sachs Transforms Armory Into Red Planet
    Step through the doors of New York's Park Avenue Armory and you'll join a DIY expedition to Mars that's part hard science, part Capricorn One. With new installation Space Program: Mars, sculptor Tom Sachs and his team of 13 astro-artists have crafted an otherworldly fantasy out of common materials, assembling the components of a space program out of readily available materials bought at hardware stores or salvaged from the streets.
    05.16.12
  • Mothers, Farmers and Chefs Against Antibiotic Misuse
    A mother who lost her son to a deadly microbe infection is leading a public awareness campaign against the misuse of antibiotics, which encourages resistance to the drugs. Superbug blogger and author Maryn McKenna reports.
    05.15.12


Services

Subscription: Subscribe | Give a Gift | Renew | International | Questions | Change Address
Quick Links: Contact Us | Login/RegisterLogout | Newsletter | RSS Feeds | Tech Jobs | Wired Mobile | FAQ | Sitemap