Remember this when the world becomes lonely: we’re all marinating in a communal cauldron of microbial life. For the most critical part, this is a positive thing. You may have heard of the human gut microbiome, a community of microscopic organisms in our digestive system that might impact our health in still-unknown ways. Still, cities,…
You could get lucky and see a “wandering meatloaf,” a circular reddish-brown mollusk also known as the gumboot chiton or, more technically, Cryptochiton stelleri, if you scour the North Pacific shorelines. With its little but extremely gritty teeth, it trudges along coastlines scraping algae off rocks. Scientists discovered that the stylus (the long, hollow structure…
Tristan Gooley’s The Secret World of Weather: How to Read Signs in Every Cloud, Breeze, Hill, Street, Plant, Animal, and Dewdrop is the source of the following passage. I’d want you to try an experiment over the next day or two. On the Internet, look for a weather prediction. Look for anything that mentions the…
As the hunter built a modest fire, the air was likely quite cold. The caribou would arrive in the morning, pushed across the wetlands where he tented. There was no other option. Large stones had been put out in slanting lines to funnel the animals into this bottleneck, which was surrounded on both sides by…
Stomach ulcers and other gastrointestinal sores affect one out of every eight persons globally, yet traditional treatments have problems. Scientists are now exploring a new frontier in 3-D printing: placing living cells directly within the human body to address such issues. Bioprinters eject live cells to generate tissues and organs in the same way as…
Suppose you’ve been following social media lately. In that case, you may have seen a viral commercial for EXTRA gum showing images of post-pandemic life: individuals hesitantly peering out from behind locked doors, closing their laptops until emerging maskless out of their toilet paper–filled caves into the street. The performers, all messy and unclean, dash…
Scientists have been perplexed by a subatomic riddle for more than 40 years: why can pieces of splitting atomic nuclei emerge turning from the wreckage? According to experts, these baffling gyrations may now be explained by an action similar to that which occurs when a rubber band is snapped.Consider a big stack of coins to…
Journalists have primarily depicted the overdose issue as a narrative of three interlinked and maybe inevitable waves. First, pharmaceutical corporations, spearheaded by Purdue Pharma, the producer of the infamous OxyContin, persuaded doctors to prescribe unnecessary opioids. In the 1990s and 2000s, this resulted in hundreds of thousands of new addictions. Opioid prescription has been associated…
The lyric “I’m going to live forever” appears in the chorus of Fame’s theme song, delivered by actress Irene Cara. Cara was, of course, singing about Fame’s ability to grant posthumous longevity. However, a physical manifestation of this arrogance may be found in some parts of the world, particularly in the technology industry. Immortality is…
Biosecurity researchers presented the world’s first complete map of maximum biological containment facilities on Thursday. Those labs, designated in the United States as Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) labs, deal with the deadliest diseases in high-security environments ranging from pressurized “spacesuits” to air-locked labs and had never been included in a consolidated database until today. The…