Tag: Quantum Stuff

Fifty years ago researchers working in the Afar region of Ethiopia recovered a remarkable fossil of an ancient relative of ours. This specimen of a female hominin, or member of the human family, soon became the most famous fossil in the world. If you’ve ever had even a passing interest in human origins, you have… Continue reading The Lucy Fossil’s Extraordinary Journey to Becoming an Icon of Human Evolution

Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman.  First, I just want to say that I believe radical optimism is going to be an important part of our tool kit in the months to come. So I’m going to do my best to bring you stories that show how… Continue reading Baseball Mud Bath Has Scientific Backing

November 11, 2024 6 min read I Destroyed a Car to Explore Some Music Myths Two years of experimentation taught a Nashville guitarist not every musical myth makes sense By Jim Lill edited by Daniel Vergano Jim Lill playing his guitar made from a car. This is the story of how (and why) I had… Continue reading I Destroyed a Car to Explore Some Music Myths

November 11, 2024 3 min read Worker Protections for Extreme Heat in Peril after Trump’s Election A Biden administration proposal that would require employers to provide cooling measures under extreme heat conditions may be scuttled by the incoming Trump administration By Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News A worker adjusts his helmet on a construction site in… Continue reading Worker Protections for Extreme Heat in Peril after Trump’s Election

I didn’t find math particularly exciting when I was in high school. To be honest, I only studied it when I went to university because it initially seemed quite easy to me. But in my very first math lecture as an undergraduate, I realized that everything I thought I knew about math was wrong. It… Continue reading How Geometry Revealed Quantum Memory

Space explorers need grit, strength and resolve to navigate the hostile environments beyond Earth. This might explain why around 60 percent of NASA’s astronauts have come from military service. A smaller fraction have had medical experience. And Jonny Kim is among the fewer than a dozen in NASA’s history to share both backgrounds. After serving… Continue reading Jonny Kim’s Third Act: NASA Astronaut

November 12, 2024 4 min read Methane Leaks Are Everywhere. The Trump Administration May Repeal Penalty Meant to Reduce Them A fee created to push oil and gas companies to plug methane leaks could be axed by the incoming Trump administration, hampering efforts to curb the potent greenhouse gas By Jean Chemnick & E&E News… Continue reading Methane Leaks Are Everywhere. The Trump Administration May Repeal Penalty Meant to Reduce Them

Fruit-flavored gummies. Tinctures. Creams. Today’s cannabis is not simply dried flowers in plastic baggies or the special ingredient in dorm-room brownies. These days, it comes in candy form, suppositories and even vaporizable dab and wax concentrates. This new cannabis is heavily engineered, cultivated and manufactured to reach THC concentrations of up to 90 percent (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol),… Continue reading We Need to Ensure Legal Cannabis Is Safe

November 13, 2024 4 min read The U.S. Must Lead the Global Fight against Superbugs Antimicrobial resistance could claim 39 million lives by 2050, yet the pipeline for new antibiotics is drying up. U.S. policymakers can help fix it By Howard Dean edited by Daniel Vergano Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of bacteria cultured from… Continue reading The U.S. Must Lead the Global Fight against Superbugs

[CLIP: Theme music] Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Plenty of us only think about insects when we’re trying to keep them out of our homes. But the truth is that our fates and fortunes are totally intertwined with all sorts of bugs. Here to tell us more is Barrett Klein,… Continue reading Insects Are More Than Just Pesky Pests