DON'T EVER GIVE UP
2023-11-15 Book Review: Are We Ready to Head to Mars? Not So Fast. by Christie Aschwanden In August 1998, 700 people came to Boulder, Colorado to attend the founding convention of the Mars Society. The group’s co-founder and president, Robert Zubrin, extolled the virtues of sending humans to Mars to terraform the planet and […]
The curious case of the shrinking genome Scientists are exploring why some creatures throw away bits of their DNA during development By Alla Katsnelson To do their lab work, Laura Ross and her team must conduct an itty-bitty surgery. First, they dissect out the reproductive tissues of the black-winged fungus gnat, a diminutive black […]
2023-01-10 Interview: Matthew Cobb on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering by Dan Falk Genetic engineering is one of the great breakthroughs of the last half-century. It’s also sparked more controversy than just about any other branch of science. In his recent book, “As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age,” Matthew Cobb, a biologist […]
2022-09-06 Axolotls can regenerate their brains – these adorable salamanders are helping unlock the mysteries of brain evolution and regeneration Axolotls are a model organism researchers use to study a variety of topics in biology. Ruben Undheim/Flickr, CC BY-SA Ashley Maynard, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is an aquatic salamander renowned […]
Illuminating the brain one neuron and synapse at a time – 5 essential reads about how researchers are using new tools to map its structure and function The U.S. BRAIN Initiative seeks to elucidate the connection between brain structure and function. Science Photo Library – PASIEKA/Brand X Pictures via Getty Images Vivian Lam, The Conversation Scientists […]
2022-07-03 Interview: James Poskett on Reframing the History of Science by Dan Falk Think of a famous scientist from the past. What name did you come up with? Very likely, someone from Europe or the United States. That’s hardly surprising, because science is often taught in Western classrooms as though it’s a European-American endeavor. James […]
The Night Sky No matter how far along you are in your sophistication as an amateur astronomer, there is always one fundamental moment that we all go back to. That is that very first moment that we went out where you could really see the cosmos well and you took in the night […]
Q&A — Evolutionary geneticist Daren Card Mining museums’ genomic treasures The world’s natural history collections hold billions of biological specimens, many of which still contain DNA. Scientists exploring these genetic repositories are gaining new, historical perspectives on how animals evolve. By Eryn Brown Natural history’s golden age, when Charles Darwin and like-minded scientists […]