History of Science

Reported in Scientific American, This Week in World War I: February 13, 1915 German Zeppelins (airships with rigid frames) bombed Liège, Belgium, on August 6, 1914, only a few days after the Great War broke out.

In a chapter excerpted from his new book, science writer Philip Ball describes “Aryan physics” and other ludicrous ideas that accompanied the rise of Adolf Hitler

The Arctic is changing fast

One of the most recently discovered lemur species of Madagascar could also be one of the first to disappear. The striking blue-eyed black lemur (Eulemur flavifrons), which was only identified as a species in 2008, faces extinction in as little as 11 years due to rapid deforestation in its only habitat, according to research published [...]

Via bizarre and unexpected circumstances I recently* found myself secretly and furtively attending a lecture by Brian J. Ford. Ford is a British author and researcher who dabbles widely in matters of science and science communication.

Modified jets spewing sulfuric acid could haze the skies over the Arctic in a few years “for the price of a Hollywood blockbuster,” as physicist David Keith of Harvard University likes to say.

When did the Anthropocene begin?

Buried in one of Isaac Newton's college notebooks is a page on which he fairly accurately theorizes on the process of transpiration in plants, two centuries before the concept was elucidated. Karen Hopkin reports    

 

The crowning achievement of the 18th-century researcher was the design of the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in a lab

I’m no psychedelic prude. I reported on, and applauded, the resurgence of research into psychedelics in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.

Astronomers have discovered variable stars that periodically dim and brighten at frequencies close to the famed golden mean

William Ruckelshaus, the first EPA administrator, criticizes today’s GOP attacks on the agency as well as industry efforts to thwart scientific evaluations of toxic chemicals