Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s Science Quickly. I’m Karen Hopkin. Hopkin: Why did the lion take down a buffalo instead of a zebra? Because of the big-headed ants! I know, I know. Sounds like a riddle written by a preschooler tripping on Pixie Stix and David Attenborough DVDs. But it’s actually the finding of… Continue reading These Invasive Ants Are Changing How Lions Hunt
The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House in Order, Under Both Parties
Paul Fishbein’s conviction on rent fraud charges in New York City last year was a feast for the tabloids. The story was crazy enough to get readers to click. Prosecutors said that Fishbein, 51, somehow convinced local housing agencies that he owned dilapidated apartment buildings that he didn’t, enabling him to move in tenants and skim government rent subsidies… Continue reading The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House in Order, Under Both Parties
Tight-Knit Microbes Live Together to Make a Vital Nutrient
In the radioactive bacteria, Tschitschko and his colleagues detected the Gamma A version of the nitrogenase gene. They were on its trail. However, the gene was located in an exotic genomic environment. When they sequenced the DNA of the Gamma A bacterium, most of its genome was typical of a globally distributed class of bacteria… Continue reading Tight-Knit Microbes Live Together to Make a Vital Nutrient
The 4-Day School Week: It’s a Trend Across America … Despite Questionable Results
Above, the four-day school week embraced by the 27J district outside Denver. Despite the shorter week’s popularity, researchers warn, it undermines learning when instructional time is reduced. By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigationsJuly 17, 2024 Next month, the Huntsville School District in Arkansas will join the wave of public schools switching to a four-day week. The shorter… Continue reading The 4-Day School Week: It’s a Trend Across America … Despite Questionable Results
How the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Spawned New Math
During the 18th century the denizens of the Prussian city of Königsberg wrestled with a puzzle: How could they find a walking path through the city that crossed each of its storied seven bridges exactly once? The bridges spanned a river containing two large islands. No matter how much they strategized their routes, they couldn’t… Continue reading How the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Spawned New Math
‘Sensational’ Proof Delivers New Insights Into Prime Numbers
Sometimes mathematicians try to tackle a problem head on, and sometimes they come at it sideways. That’s especially true when the mathematical stakes are high, as with the Riemann hypothesis, whose solution comes with a $1 million reward from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Its proof would give mathematicians much deeper certainty about how prime numbers… Continue reading ‘Sensational’ Proof Delivers New Insights Into Prime Numbers
People who had tiny plastic particles lodged in a key blood vessel were more likely to experience serious health problems or die during a three-year study
Microplastics Linked to Heart Attack, Stroke and Death People who had tiny plastic particles lodged in a key blood vessel were more likely to experience serious health problems or die during a three-year study By Max Kozlov & Nature magazine Khanchit Khirisutchalual/Getty Images Plastics are just about everywhere — food packaging, tyres, clothes, water pipes.… Continue reading People who had tiny plastic particles lodged in a key blood vessel were more likely to experience serious health problems or die during a three-year study
What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly?
The gallium anomaly, however, would point toward a lighter-weight sterile neutrino, with the electron neutrinos emitted by the radioactive source sometimes oscillating into a sterile neutrino that wouldn’t interact with the gallium. In some models, lightweight sterile neutrinos could comprise a fraction of the universe’s dark matter, though not all of it because they would… Continue reading What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly?
The School of Civic Leadership Looks to Protect the American Experiment
Etched onto the side of the Main Building at the University of Texas at Austin is a verse taken from John’s Gospel: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Justin Dyer says that this represents UT’s Austin’s North Star: “The university is a truth-seeking institution.” A faculty partner of the… Continue reading The School of Civic Leadership Looks to Protect the American Experiment
Whitley Streiber’s Communion (Aliens, UFOs, Visitors, Abduction)
Podcast: Download MYS320: Whitley Streiber’s 1987 book Communion told his story of alien abductions and became a bestselling book and movie. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine Streiber’s claims about the Visitors he describes and ask what really happened. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email | Watch this episode and… Continue reading Whitley Streiber’s Communion (Aliens, UFOs, Visitors, Abduction)