Turmeric is one of the most vibrantly colored spices you’ll ever see, and it’s a staple of Indian cuisine, but it’s capable of so much more. Curcumin, one of the plant’s primary constituents, has a long list of health advantages, and it’s been used to dye textiles for years. Curcumin, on the other hand, is…
Linus Pauling is widely regarded as one of the fathers—if not the father—of molecular biology. He helped discover the nature of chemical bonds, identified sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease, elucidated some of the most common protein structures, revolutionized our understanding of primate evolution, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the…
The coelacanth is an ancient type of fish that may grow up to 6.5 feet long and can be found off the beaches of East Africa and Indonesia. They live in the ocean’s “twilight zone,” which is 500 to 800 feet below the surface and is faintly lighted. Little is known about these sluggish behemoths.…
I’m reminiscing about science’s glory days after reading an edgy biography of Stephen Hawking. Were they good or bad? I can’t make up my mind. I’m referring to the 1990s when scientific arrogance was pervasive. Hawking and other physicists convinced us that they were on the cusp of a “theory of everything” that would solve…