Sir William Osler (Image: Wikipedia) History is full of people who thought of something brilliant first and got none of the credit for it. Someone else came along later, explained the idea more clearly, pushed it harder, and won the fame. It feels unfair, and in a way it is. But it is also how…
The National Science Foundation on Thursday reversed a decision to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network after vigorous objections from Democratic lawmakers and scientists who rely on it to track everything from ocean circulation to extreme weather.The NSF issued a statement saying that it “appreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders” and would…
Galileo Galilei (Image: Wikipedia) Most of us meet mathematics as a school subject, a pile of sums and rules to survive before the bell rings. Galileo Galilei saw something else entirely. To him, maths was not a chore invented to torment teenagers. It was the secret code the whole universe is written in, the alphabet…
For years, a meteorite lay in the deserts of north-west Africa, seemingly no different from countless other rocks scattered across the landscape. Yet hidden inside it was a record of one of the Moon’s most violent eras, a geological story that had remained untold for more than three billion years.The meteorite, known as Northwest Africa…
Barbara McClintock (Image: Wikipedia) Imagine making a discovery so far ahead of everyone else that the experts in your own field simply do not believe you. They shrug, they look away, some of them quietly decide you have lost the thread. Most people would crumble, or at least back down. Barbara McClintock did neither. She…
A growing population and finite phosphorus reserves have made efficient nutrient management one of the biggest challenges facing modern agriculture. Scientists have now uncovered new details about a little-known form of phosphorus hidden within living soil microbes. The findings, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, come from an international team of researchers…
People often use the words meteor and meteorite interchangeably, usually when describing a bright streak of light crossing the night sky. The distinction is simple, though the objects involved are often the same piece of cosmic debris at different stages of its journey. Every day, Earth encounters material left behind by comets, broken asteroids and…
At the bottom of a lake in Mexico City lives a creature that should not, by biological rules, be able to do what it does. Cut off one of its legs, and a new one grows back. Damage its spinal cord, heart, or even part of its brain, and the tissue regenerates with no scarring…
A casual lunch between friends in the late 1970s left behind one of physics’ quirkiest unsolved puzzles. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, while dining with his friend Ralph Leighton at a Thai restaurant in Glendale, California, watched Leighton agonise over whether to order his favourite ginger chicken again or risk trying something new from the menu….
Plastic has a habit of staying around long after its useful life has ended. Some materials can be collected and recycled with relative ease, while others prove far more stubborn. Polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC, sits firmly in the latter category. Used in products ranging from pipes and electrical cables to flooring and medical…
Nearly 370,000 bottles of the popular antidepressant Duloxetine have been recalled as they contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds. This prescription medicine is used to treat depression, anxiety, and nerve damage. In an alert, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the medication may contain a carcinogen above the recommended interim limit. The…
Wilhelm Wundt (Image: Wikipedia) Most people use words like trust, honour, fairness, and respect without thinking too much about what they actually look like in physical form. In daily life, these ideas guide decisions constantly. People stay in jobs because they feel respected. They continue friendships because they trust someone’s intentions. They leave situations when…
