Four Great Scents from Outer Space
You don’t need your nose to know what something smells like. Perfumers and astronomers can detect and recreate scents based on the chemical signatures of the molecules in the air, even if that air is very very far away.
Elon Musk Donates $1 Million to New Tesla Museum
Musk, the CEO of electric car company Tesla Motors and rocket company SpaceX, pledged the money in support of a museum to be built on the grounds of the Serbian-American inventor's laboratory in New York
Early Universe Explorer Looks for Answers [Video]
A co-designer of an experiment that might have confirmed gravitational waves isn't bothered by criticism that cosmic dust may account for his results
LEGO Reveals Female Scientist Minifigures
After much rejoicing at the news last month that LEGO would mass-produce a set of female scientist minifigures, the company has released a prototype of the final set to its original designer, Ellen Kooijman (a.k.a.
Put the Muse Back in Museums
Science museums should recruit the public in confronting the planet’s toughest challenges
Who Remembers Smallpox?
A global immunization campaign in the mid-20th century eradicated the smallpox virus, one of the deadliest diseases in history
Vials of Smallpox Virus Found Unsecured at NIH
Sixty-year-old ampoule contains smallpox DNA, and it is unclear whether the virus is viable.
Could Consuming More Energy Help Humans Save Nature?
Even before I arrived at the annual “Dialogue” of the Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland, California, think tank that challenges mainstream environmental positions, I was arguing about it.
"Stress-Induced" Stem Cell Findings Are Retracted
High-profile reports claiming an easy way to create pluripotent cells were flawed.
CO2 Levels above 400 PPM Threshold for Third Month in a Row
Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas, which helps drive global warming, haven’t been this high in somewhere between 800,000 and 15 million years
Should Prisoners Be Used in Medical Experiments?
History is rife with unethical experiments on inmates. But with proper safeguards prisoner studies may hold the key to the accurate representation of vulnerable groups and lead to health benefits
Technology Historian Crushes Internet Myths
As readers of this blog know, since 2005 I’ve been teaching at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. One of the best parts of being an academic is hanging out with cool (compared to me), young (compared to me), up-and-coming scholars, some of whom know far more about the history of science and [...]