Column
-
The costs of putting knowledge into the wrong hands
As a chemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., David Nichols studies psychedelic compounds in a quest to understand the brain, often creating new compounds as part of his research. He was recently dismayed to find himself cited by name in a newspaper article about an amateur chemist who scours the scientific literature for […]
-
Convergence solves problems that don’t fit in one field
In January the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted a panel in Washington, D.C., on the emerging field of convergence, which integrates engineering, the physical sciences and life sciences to solve problems in health care, energy and other sectors. Speakers described the movement as an integration of disciplines that will require changes to […]
-
Neuroscience exposes pernicious effects of poverty
At the 2010 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, a group of scientists held a session on how poverty changes the brain. Neuroscientist Helen Neville of the University of Oregon in Eugene joined the discussion and described some of her group’s studies on the brains of 3- to 5-year-old children who grow up poor. […]
-
White House science adviser discusses next two years
Just over a month after the midterm elections, President Obama’s science adviser took the podium in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union meeting. John Holdren, a physicist and climate scientist, said the White House is making strides in improving the nation’s science and technology policies. Later that week, Holdren’s Office of Science and Technology […]
-
Tradition, innovation and hope in new year for science
With this issue, Science News journeys into its 90th year. In 1921, Science Service was founded to share the unfolding new world of scientific discovery with America. Initially a mimeographed sheet known as the Science News-Letter, first published in 1922, the publication reported on such historic events and discoveries as the Scopes “Monkey Trial” in […]
- Math
Outstanding, superlinear cities
By a new mathematical method, New York City proves average and San Francisco exceptional.
-
A year on the job, she takes pride in disaster response
When she took over in November 2009 as the first female director of the U.S. Geological Survey, geophysicist Marcia McNutt already had her work cut out for her in streamlining and modernizing a historic scientific agency. That was before a string of natural disasters—earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, a volcanic eruption in Iceland and the […]
-
An engineer teaches her colleagues to share their toys
In her synthetic biology lab at Stanford, Christina Smolke designs circuits and switches using biological components, work that may lead to yeast that crank out medicines or ways to reprogram the immune system. Winner of the 2009 World Technology Award in biotechnology for doing work of “the greatest likely long-term significance” in her field, Smolke […]
-
A skeptic of quantum theory explains his misgivings
In a 1905 paper, Albert Einstein proposed that light could travel in the form of particles later called photons. It was one of the pioneering papers in the research that led to quantum mechanics, the mathematical framework for describing matter and energy on a fundamental level. But in his later years, Einstein expressed grave dissatisfaction […]
-
Winning the World Series with math
A nearly circular path could be the fastest way to home plate.
-
Top statistician explains what all those numbers mean
In June, the United Nations passed a resolution designating October 20 as World Statistics Day. The United States planned to mark the occasion with a gathering on Capitol Hill of representatives from number-crunching agencies. Science News writer Laura Sanders recently spoke with U.S. Chief Statistician Katherine Wallman about why numbers matter. “People have a lot […]
-
Vitamin D is essential to the modern indoor lifestyle
It’s known that vitamin D is necessary for proper bone formation and maintenance. But recent decades have seen a torrent of studies suggesting that vitamin D can also affect many other aspects of health; some scientists have come to consider the daily recommended intake of 400 international units of vitamin D far too low. Michael […]
