Gardening Map Of Warming U.S. Has Plant Zones Moving North
It’s official: Gardeners and farmers can count on warmer weather. If that’s you, it might be a good time to rethink those flower and vegetable beds for this year’s growing season. That’s the word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which released a new version of its “Plant Hardiness Zone Map” this week, the first [...]
Let’s Play ‘History As A List’
A bunch of you have sent me this list. It comes from Drew Breunig, a New Yorker who apparently works in the computer business, in advertising. It’s a short history of “Frontiers” — territories that he says have challenged humans over the centuries, arranged in roughly chronological order. Drew calls it “Frontiers Through The Ages.” [...]
Want To Make A Giant Telescope Mirror? Here’s How
The world’s largest mirrors for the world’s largest telescopes are made under the football stadium at the University of Arizona. Why there? Why not? “We wanted some space, and it was just used for parking some cars, and this seemed like a good use,” says Roger Angel. Angel is the master of making big mirrors [...]
Obama: ‘I Will Not Walk Away From The Promise Of Clean Energy’
President Obama called for more domestic oil and gas production, saying that “a future where we’re in control of our own energy” is within reach, where the nation’s security and prosperity would not be so closely linked to unstable parts of the world. Toward that end, he said his administration would open more than 75 [...]
Common Chemicals Could Make Kids’ Vaccines Less Effective
The more exposure children have to chemicals called perfluorinated compounds, the less likely they are to have a good immune response to vaccinations, a study just published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association shows. The finding suggests, but doesn’t prove, that these chemicals can affect the immune system enough to make some [...]
The First Woman To Go ‘Round The World Did It As A Man
She was the first woman ever to circumnavigate the globe, but she did it dressed as a man. For more than two years she traveled on a French naval vessel with linen bandages wrapped tightly around her upper body to flatten her chest. It was a small ship with 300 men who knew her as [...]
Dog-Gone Genetics: A Few Genes Control Fido’s Looks
Humans are complicated genetic jigsaw puzzles. Hundreds of genes are involved in determining something as basic as height. But man’s best friend is a different story. New research shows that almost every physical trait in dogs — from a dachshund’s stumpy legs to a shar-pei’s wrinkles — is controlled by just a few genes. Writer [...]
Wait A Second, And What Else To Do With It
Let me take a second here. Not very long, was it? But a second tied up delegates to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, who postponed a decision this week on whether to abolish the extra second that’s added to clocks every few years to compensate for the earth’s natural doddering. The earth slows down slightly [...]
How Tears Go ‘Pac-Man’ To Beat Bacteria
They mystical healing properties of tears are invoked in fairy tales and fantasies from Rapunzel to Harry Potter. So it may surprise you to hear that tears really are pretty powerful, on the microbial level at least. In 1922, a few years before he won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin, bacteriologist Alexander [...]
Researchers Agree To Temporary Halt For Bird Flu Experiments
Scientists have said that they are voluntarily putting some controversial bird flu research on hold. The move to suspend the work for 60 days comes in response to critics who say their work is dangerous. People rarely get sick with bird flu, caused by the H5N1 virus, and when they do, they’re generally not contagious. [...]
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