You are currently browsing Science.

Battling ‘Red Tide,’ Scientists Map Toxic Algae To Prevent Shellfish Poisoning

Public health officials have their hands full keeping your clam chowder and raw oysters safe. That’s due, in part, to red tides. Red tides happen nearly every year as coastal waters warm, killing fish and poisoning shellfish along U.S. coasts. They’re not actually tides; they’re huge blooms of naturally occurring toxic algae. If people eat [...]

How To Spot A Mimic Octopus — The Mystery Revealed

In my last post, I wondered: How did Asian fishermen manage to discover the mimic octopus? Thaumoctopus mimicus is a wildly talented cephalopod that lives in shallow waters off Indonesia and Malaysia. It can change shape any time it likes, and can mimic anything — flatfish, giant crabs, seashells, sting rays, you name it — [...]

The Smallest Bits Of Things: A Brief History Of Matter

The Greek atomists were the first to ponder the fundamental constitution of matter. They considered, in an amazingly prescient insight, that if you could cut matter into smaller and smaller pieces you’d end up with its smallest bits, which they called atoms. The word itself means that which cannot be cut. They further considered that [...]

Rare Sighting Of Dashing, Two-Legged Hairy Sprinting Crab?

In latin it’s called Thaumoctopus mimicus, but I’d call it The Master. It’s Meryl Streep in octopus form. There are ocean animals that can change shape, imitate plants, rocks, flora, and I’ve blogged about some of them. But this octopus is special. It seems to study other creatures and then imitate them, copying their moves [...]

Pipe Down! That Noise Might Affect Your Plants

Researchers haven’t given much thought to the effect of noise and noise pollution on plants. After all, plants don’t have ears – at least, not the kind you hear with – so there doesn’t seem to be much point. But thanks to ecologist Clinton Francis, that could be about to change. Francis is a postdoctoral [...]

Weekend Special: What It’s Like To Soar Into Space, Then Crash To Earth

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be hurled into the sky, straight up, past the clouds, into starry space, the Earth all blue and turning spherical below, everything silent, tomblike, and then, just like that — you slip and start to fall? What would it sound like? Look like? As you [...]

Debris Makes Space Station Astronauts Hunker Down

A discarded chunk of a Russian rocket forced six space station astronauts to seek shelter in escape capsules early Saturday, then ultimately safely passed in front of the space station, according to NASA. NASA spokesman Rob Navias told The Associated Press ahead of the incident that the space junk would barely be close enough to [...]

How Homegrown Charcoal May Get Your Garden Through A Drought

You’ve probably heard of compost – that thick chocolate-colored stuff that’s an organic gardener’s best friend and supplies plants with all kinds of succulent nutrients. But what about biochar? It’s another ancient farming material made from slow-burned wood (also known as charcoal) that holds nutrients and water into soil without them draining away. And lately [...]

Whooping Cough Bacteria May Be Changing Their Ways In Australia

Whooping cough has made a comeback lately, with big outbreaks in California and elsewhere. One factor is spotty vaccination. Now researchers in Australia think they’ve filled in another piece of the puzzle there. They say the vaccine is better at targeting some strains of the bacterium responsible for whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, and that’s allowing [...]

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Does The Data Tell It All?

I want you to meet two friends of mine, first Bill, then Stephen. Bill’s a pretend friend. We’ve never met, but I read all his books. He’s the (thump, thump goes my heart) writer Bill Bryson, and in my imagination we are chatting, and since we’ve just met, I say, “Tell me a little something [...]