502 articles on Science

  • Venus Viewing Ends Up With a Different Kind of Transit
    Earlier this week, I took my telescope with solar filter down to my son's school, and for three hours entertained a stream of kids, teachers, and parents with the progress of Venus across the face of the sun with the added bonus of some nice sunspots. The picture, above, was taken through the eyepiece using an iPhone. Toward the end of our viewing, I was experimenting with recording some video - possibly for use with some stacking software to get a higher resolution picture. Instead, I got something else entirely. Check out the surprising video after the jump.
    06.07.12
  • Poop Smart!
    I'm grateful to Destin of Smarter Every Day fame for providing an elegant solution to a delicate problem. With science!
    06.07.12
  • Why Do Kids Prefer Sci-Fi Over Science?
    "At least in Star Wars' spaceships, they can walk." I heard an 8-year-old utter that while I attempted to explain the effects of reduced gravity on the International Space Station. Well, the kid had a point, but still, Star Wars is not real. It's science fiction. Yet it was clear which one he and his classmates preferred.
    06.07.12
  • Video and Photos Capture Transit of Venus From Space
    This must-see video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the transit of Venus from space, taken in many different wavelengths. Other images show the transit from the International Space Station as well as here on Earth.
    06.06.12
  • There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today (Or There Was Yesterday)
    I am fortunate to live in a town with plenty of astronomy enthusiasts. There is a very active Astronomy Club, and plenty of amateur astronomers with their own telescopes. I even have my own (a six inch Dobsonian reflector). A friend of mine has several solar telescopes, and a bunch of us gathered to watch the transit of Venus across the Sun yesterday. (If I weren't so lucky to have this friend, there were several places around town that I could have gone to view the transit.)
    06.06.12
  • Is Space Getting Too Politicized?
    Presidential candidates are now turning to a question that's on many people's minds: What would you, as President, do with NASA? Astrobiologist and Extremo Files blogger Jeffrey Marlow rounds up key articles pondering the options.
    06.06.12
  • Don't Miss Your Last Chance Ever to See a Venus Transit!
    Tonight is the last time that any of us will be able to view the transit of Venus across the solar plane. The planets won't be in such perfect alignment for another 105 years, so head outside and carefully watch the celestial bodies dance before your eyes.
    06.05.12
  • The 6 Trajectories of Autism
    Calling autism "spectrum disorder" is spot on ¿ it has as many degrees as the colors of the rainbow. That said, a recent article in the journal Pediatrics distinguishes six "trajectories" of autism ¿ the major colors of this spectrum disorder.
    06.05.12
  • One Time at Space Camp
    The summer hasn't even really started, but I'm already declaring it to be the best summer, ever. This year I was invited to attend a parent and child weekend at Space Camp. Yes, this is the same Space Camp that, if you were like me, you dreamed about attending when you were a kid. I'm happy to report it's every bit as awesome as you'd imagined it would be as a child, except for the part where a series of mishaps mean campers must go on a real space mission to save the planet from impending doom.
    06.03.12
  • Surface Tension's Watery Art Will Hit You Like a Rogue Wave
    Water is one of the chief concerns of our time: It's scarce, necessary, polluted and sacred. It's also been defined by the United Nations as a basic human right, while at the same time rapidly becoming a commodity. These tensions and contradictions form the underlying principles behind new art exhibit Surface Tension: The Future of Water, now showing in New York.
    06.01.12
  • 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


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