When I was teaching American history, I used to describe the depression by spinning a yarn about a fictional farmer who’d already been through loads. Fluctuating prices meant never knowing what to plant. Although cars gave you enough mobility to have a social life, you were still limited to Read more…
I just saw a posting for scientific editing that offered US$18/hour. It called for a PhD. It’s no longer accepting applications, and I dearly hope it’s because they’ve figured out what was wrong with their request. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this. I once went through Read more…
Many of the small pleasures we cultivate as young people come back to bite us later. Fans of loud music end up with hearing loss of tinnitus. Drinking and smoking can damage the liver and lungs. But it seems one vice may offer more help than harm. In findings Read more…
In findings published this July in Nature Communications, researchers from McGill University say they may have found a climate-economic win-win via a helpful photocatalyst. This technique could transform two greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane, into plastics and fuel suitable for vehicles. Lead author Professor Chao-Jun Li said, “By tapping Read more…
In findings published March 26 in Molecular Psychiatry, a team of researchers from Tokyo University, Juntendo University, and RIKEN report that they have successfully created a new mouse model of autism spectrum disorder in what they have named Kmt2c+/fs mice. Then things get weird. They engineered the animals to have Read more…
The first human-induced extinction documented in the historical record wasn’t the passenger pigeon. It was a little plant with yellow flowers. However, this little herb may have pulled a coelacanth: scientists in Greece claim that it’s been still around after all, growing on a hillside in Turkey. Most people who Read more…
A team of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported this week that men who take antianxiety medication may not experience poorer IVF outcomes than those who tough it out. “Our findings indicate that despite past concerns over antidepressant medication’s impact on fertility, treatment should not be withheld from men Read more…
This Tuesday, scientists from the American Geophysical Union announced in that adding pulverized volcanic rock to farmed fields could increase carbon sequestration to within the IPCC’s recommended levels by 2080 while also improving soil quality. The process is called enhanced rock weathering. Precipitation absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, rendering Read more…
In findings published today in Current Biology, scientists from the University of California, Riverside report that plants’ relationships with their nitrogen-fixing rhizobacteria are far more complex than previously realized, or rather, the relationships among those bacteria complicate them. The research team infected initially bacteria-free Acmispon strigosus with eight different strains Read more…
An international team of scientists led by University College London announced Friday that they had successfully sequenced the genomes of two species of hornet, the European hornet (Vespa crabro) and yellow-legged or Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) as part of a larger project on invasive wasps and their ability to adapt Read more…