The Unusual Abundance of Ascension Island
For a location that’s so difficult to reach, it’s astonishing how many speices have managed to make the journey
"biology"
The Richest Reef: To Collect or Not to Collect?
Scientific divers aren’t looking to simply fill their collecting bags—they’re seeking scientific value, data that furthers their understanding of a place or process.
Cord-Blood Research Sits Poised for Therapeutic Discovery
Whenever one examines any area of scientific inquiry, there are two important things to understand: where the science is today, and where it may lead us in the future.
Project Superhero: Using Pop Culture to Inspire Kids’ Interest in Science
In my pop-sci writing, mainly here, at Psychology Today, and in the books Becoming Batman and Inventing Iron Man, I use superheroes as foils for communicating science.
A Hallowe’en science book recommendation for kids.
Sure, younger kids may think the real point of Hallowe’en in the candy or the costumes. But they’re likely to notice some of the scarier motifs that pop up in the decorations, and this presents as unexpected opportunity for some learning...
“Optocapacitance” Shines New Light on the Brain
A novel twist on the young field of optogenetics may provide a new way to study living human brains as well as offering innovative therapeutic uses.
Plenty of Pheromones in the Sea
As we sat in my car outside a silent movie theater in Los Angeles, my friend anxiously opened a plastic bag containing a white T-shirt she’d slept in for the past three nights.
CDC Launches Ebola Response Team
In the two days since the second U.S. Ebola patient was diagnosed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has assembled a new team to battle the threat of Ebola.
There Are Plenty of Octopuses In the Sea—Or Are There?
First a moment to celebrate Octopus Chronicles‘ 100th post! Little could I have imagined when I started this blog in November 2011 that there would be so much amazing octopus research to cover—and so many wonderful readers...
Nasty Mosquito-Borne Virus, Now in Puerto Rico, Expanding its Reach
It's summertime so when the weather is fine many of us head outdoors. But there lurk mosquitoes, an all-too-familiar menace. What's more, a wave of mosquito-borne tropical disease that first appeared in the Western Hemisphere in late 2013 has now spread across the Caribbean, stoking concerns about a debut in the continental U.S...
Winners of the Dance Your PhD Competition Revealed
For the past 6 years, Science magazine and its publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have challenged researchers to explain their doctoral research through interpretive dance...
Brainy Watson Computer to Tackle Cancer and Other Medical Research
After vanquishing humans on Jeopardy!, IBM says its Watson computer is ready to help save human lives. The company on Thursday announced it has created a new business unit specifically to advance Watson and deliver its artificially intelligent wisdom to research organizations, medical institutions and businesses so that they can process big data” for detailed [...]..
What Ultramarathons Do to the Body
Its hard for many people to imagine running (or walking) a standard marathon of 26.2 miles, let alone topping that distance with a so-called ultramarathon that could stretch to as much as 100 miles or more...
A Simple Way to Slash Unnecessary Drug Prescriptions
Treating the sniffles or a common cold with drugs is ineffective and unnecessary, yet too often patients are leaving their doctors appointments with a prescription in hand, helping to fuel the epidemic of antibiotic resistance...
Breaking Food Down
What is food? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry says “Something that nourishes, sustains, or supplies.” How beautiful. That statement captures much of the emotion and feeling surrounding food, yet it’s only part of the full definition...
Fruit Flies Aid Efforts to Develop Personalized Cancer Treatments
For years clinicians have puzzled over the observation that people with type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop certain malignancies, such as pancreatic, breast and liver cancers.
Lasker Awards to Honor Neuroscience, Hearing and Philanthropy Work
Let the Nobel Prize watch begin. Two areas of major medical discovery and two leading public health philanthropists were announced this morning as the winners of the prestigious Lasker Awards...
My God, Man! XPRIZE Unveils Medical Tricorder Teams
In the Star Trek universe, handheld medical tricorders became standard issue for Starfleet vessels as early as the mid-22nd century. Here in a little place we like to call “reality,” a competition seeks to help deliver such all-in-one health analyzers at least 100 years ahead of schedule...
Killing Big Animals Allows Rodents (and Their Fleas) to Flourish
Conservation may be important for human health
