Sixty-two years ago, in a small laboratory in Mexico City, the world changed for chemists, biologists and, most of all, women. That’s when, on Oct. 15, 1951, Carl Djerassi became the first to synthesize the hormone norethindrone, known today as an essential ingredient in the oral contraceptive pill. Djerassi passed away this week at 91 years old. Given […]
One piece of technology that could have the biggest influence over the electricity market in the coming decades is already in almost every Americans’ pocket. Rechargeable energy storage (in the form of your cell phone’s Li-ion battery in your pocket) is changing a major fundamental aspect of the electric grid: That electricity is perishable and […]
About a month ago, The New York Times published a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching piece on Marguerite Perey. Credited with the discovery of radioactive compound francium, she soon after died a gruesome death as a consequence of prolonged exposure to radiation. The piece was in fact written by the great-great-niece of Perey, and praise for the brilliance […]
What can possibly compare to the joys, frustrations and, above all, costs of home renovation? How about the discovery of an ancient underground city after knocking down one of your home’s walls? Archaeologists think there may be hundreds of underground cities in Cappadocia (central Turkey), but only six excavated. Our lucky homeowner discovered Derinkuyu (which translates as “deep […]
1. Never mind jokes about changing light bulbs. When spiders put their collective mind to it, they can pull down 8-foot long fluorescent light fixtures. In Baltimore, at least. 2. That’s not surprising when we consider spider silk as a prototype for synthetic muscle. 3. In fact, it turns out that the screenwriters […]
The term “power plant” often evokes images of giant nuclear cooling towers or massive fossil fuel smoke stacks reaching skyward. People’s thoughts tend towards massive infrastructure projects that produce energy for entire cities in a single location. As was touched on in Part 1 of this series (The Grid), as the electric industry evolved from […]
Antibiotics have received a great deal of media attention in the wake of the recent discovery of teixobactin, a new soil bacterium with strong antibiotic properties. Northeasten University professor Kim Lewis and a team of scientists found teixobactin in soil samples from a grass field in Maine through the use of an iChip, a board with holes […]
General Dwight D. Eisenhower once asked Winston Churchill to review a draft of one of Eisenhower’s speeches. Churchill’s critique? “Too many passives and too many zeds.” When asked to explain, Churchill replied, “Too many Latinate polysyllabics like ‘systematize,’ ‘prioritize,’ and ‘finalize.’” Then, to emphasize the power of simple, straightforward verbs, Churchill lambasted the General’s use […]
With the current rise of chemophobia, anti-vaccine sentiments, and attempted government bans on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we are in an interesting dichotomy of science and society. Our technology and scientific knowledge pushes new boundaries every day and is often celebrated on popular websites such as Buzzfeed and I F—ing Love Science, yet there is […]
The early days of the Earth were violent times. Today, our solar system is relatively quiet and sedentary, presided over by an aging star that is long past its stormy youth. But 4.5 billion years ago, our sun was just forming its planetary progeny, and things were far from quiet. Huge masses of rock and […]
