A new study is the first to identify 267 genes that distinguish modern humans from chimpanzees and Neanderthals. Nearly all those 267 genes helped shape the behaviors that distinguish us: creativity, self-awareness, cooperativeness, and the ability to do what doctors always nag us to do, take active steps to make sure we lead a long and healthy life.
Though I rarely drive farther than a few miles from home, I am paying inordinate attention to the weather forecast. Maybe this is because I have been cut off for a year from other places I used to feel part of, or because I spend so much more time outside now.But I could also be succumbing to family tradition.
My child-brain pictures a monster waiting to consume me, but black holes are not monsters. They are not even things. A black hole, explains astrophysicist Janna Levin, is nothing: “pure empty spacetime—no atoms, light, strings, or particles of any kind, dark or bright. It’s empty space—or, in physics slang, the vacuum.”
As a biologist and science communicator, I sometimes have friends and relatives ask for advice on defending scientific topics to skeptical groups, especially climate change. In an era where misinformation runs rampant, this is a desire that is perhaps as admirable as it is foolhardy; on social media, the trolls…
In the past 10-20 years, we have seen a lot of data storage methods come and go, each type bigger and better than the last. As a child of the early 1990s, my first introduction to data storage devices was the floppy disk. These disks stored about 1.4 MB, a…
Penicillin, up close and chemical. When most of us think about bacteria, we think of fairly routine infections that can be cured with a trip to the doctor and a prescription for antibiotics. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is quickly rising, and now more than…
The DIY (do-it-yourself) trend continues to grow in popularity these days. With DIY TV networks and websites like Pinterest serving as a hub for tips and ideas, more and more people are embracing the idea of performing tasks themselves instead of purchasing pre-made items or outsourcing. Science hasn’t been…
Uma Valeti, CEO and co-founder of Memphis Meats, breaks down the science of meat by people in lab coats. There is something about food that typically causes us to feel traditional. Perhaps it is that we have fond memories of eating our favorite recipes during childhood, or that we grew…
We’re all familiar with pain. Ranging from a stubbed toe to a severe injury, some level of pain is experienced on a near daily basis. But many of us are fortunate enough that our experiences with pain tend to be limited to relatively brief episodes that will eventually end, sooner…
There are a multitude of ways to shock an audience, but it is not every day that a news item causes fear, disdain, and skepticism all with one headline. Yet somehow the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) managed to do just this on Oct. 26 by announcing…