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Magazine
In the June 23 SN: Emmy Noether gets her due, the 411 on ancestry testing, bonobo birthing buddies, a mysterious neutrino surplus, the oldest known lizard fossil, genetic genealogy in police work, Pluto’s dunes and more.
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Experiences
What genetic tests from 23andMe, Veritas and Genos really told me about my health
05/22/2018 - 12:00 Genetics, HealthDirect-to-consumer genetic testing first came on the market about a decade ago, but I resisted the temptation to see what health information is hidden in my DNA — until now.
As a molecular biology writer, I’ve been skeptical that the field of genetics is mature enough to accurately predict health (see related article). What finally motivated me to send away my DNA in the mail was the...
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News
Slower speed, tricky turns give prey a chance against cheetahs and lions
01/29/2018 - 10:00 Animals, Biophysics, EvolutionFirst, a note to any impala suddenly rushed by a cheetah: Do not — repeat, do not — just zoom straight off as fast as four hooves can carry you.
The best escape move, according to analysis of the most detailed chase data yet from big cat predators, is some fluky turn, even though turning requires a slower stride. Swerve far enough, and the cheetah will be racing too fast to make the same...
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Feature
Your phone is like a spy in your pocket
01/23/2018 - 12:00 Computing, TechnologyConsider everything your smartphone has done for you today. Counted your steps? Deposited a check? Transcribed notes? Navigated you somewhere new?
Smartphones make for such versatile pocket assistants because they’re equipped with a suite of sensors, including some we may never think — or even know — about, sensing, for example, light, humidity, pressure and temperature.
Because...
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Feature
Ticks are here to stay. But scientists are finding ways to outsmart them
08/09/2017 - 11:00 Animals, Science & SocietyThanks, Holly Gaff. Soon, anyone straining to tweeze off a mid-back tick can find answers to the obvious question: What if humankind just went after the little bloodsuckers with killer robots?
Gaff, who calls herself a mathematical ecoepidemiologist, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., is one of the few people collecting real field data on the efficacy of tick-slaying robots....
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Feature
Gun research faces roadblocks and a dearth of data
05/03/2016 - 15:00 Science & Society, Mental Health, HealthBuying a handgun in Connecticut means waiting — lots of waiting. First comes an eight-hour safety course. Then picking up an application at a local police department. Review of the application (which includes a background check and fingerprinting) can take up to eight weeks. If approved, the state issues a temporary permit, which the buyer trades in at state police headquarters for a permanent...
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Feature
Getting creative to cut methane from cows
11/18/2015 - 16:36 Animals, Microbes, ClimateView the video
In a pasture outside Edmonton, Canada, you’ll find a few dozen cows doing what cows do: mostly eating. The average animal spends eight-plus hours a day filling its belly, or as is the case with cows, bellies. Along with that enormous appetite, cows are born with the ability to digest almost any plant they can chew, thanks to a multichambered stomach and a helpful army of...
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News
Mission to Pluto: Live coverage
07/15/2015 - 17:39 Planetary ScienceThe New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto at 7:49 a.m. EDT on July 14, 2015. Astronomy writer Christopher Crockett wrote several updates from mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md., from July 12-15, and reviewed some of the mission's major milestones from the last several months. Check our Mission to Pluto editor’s pick for the latest on New Horizons...
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Feature
Rendezvous with Pluto
06/12/2015 - 11:55 Planetary Science, AstronomyView timeline
Tiny, far-flung Pluto is about to have a visitor — at least for a few hours.
On July 14, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will reach the dwarf planet and try to learn all it can about Pluto and its five known moons. Then the probe will leave Pluto behind, vanishing into the frigid darkness beyond the planets.
In its wake, New Horizons will introduce Earth to the...
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Scicurious
There’s more than one way to persuade people to vaccinate
02/19/2015 - 16:14 HealthMeasles used to sound like such an old-fashioned disease. But the current Disneyland measles outbreak has put it back in the news, with 141 cases reported so far this year in 17 states and the District of Columbia. While the outbreak has some parents who formerly delayed or refused to vaccinate racing to the clinic, others are becoming more entrenched in their belief that vaccination is both...
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Feature
Online causes may attract more clicks than commitments
06/27/2014 - 14:04 Psychology, Networks, Science & SocietyThe Save Darfur Cause on Facebook had all the makings of a slam dunk cyber success. More than a million people joined the social media site’s digital movement a few years ago to save the people of Sudan’s Darfur region from mass slaughter.
There was a hitch in Facebook’s humanitarian giddy-up, though: The vast majority of people who enlisted in the Save Darfur Cause recruited no one...