science saturday

See a supernova from your back yard. This little piece in Wired on the discovery of the earliest known human tools in interesting not just for the discovery information, but for the way the writer breaks down how scientists pegged…

There was a new bird species discovered in the US for the first time in 40 years. The catch? It was discovered in a museum collection. Ornithologists are still trying to find a live one in the wild. Are you…

Physicists have figured out a way to stop coffee rings from forming, which is a bigger deal than you might expect. Stealing cars via text message. I expect this will appear on Leverage before too long. I linked to photos…

The TV show Cosmos is coming back, with Neil DeGrasse Tyson as host, and with Seth McFarlane as Producer. Lost in the hubbub over the crashing stock market was the launch of Juno. Here’s what it might discover about Jupiter.…

It’s starting to look like genetic structure, not mutation, is what makes us different from each other. The case for parallel universes. Really want to go zero-emissions on your car? Get your own solar charger. Smallest batter ever. How small?…

GIven the heat wave crushing the US lately, this piece on the link between hot weather and violence is really interesting, especially if you’re reading it from the comfort of an air-conditioned room. National Geographic gets at the reasons behind…

The Stanford Alumni magazine revisits the Stanford Prison Experiment forty years later, and catches up with some of the participants. I wonder if anyone will refer to this bear as the mitochondrial Eve of polar bears? Somehow I doubt it.…

Sorry to do this to you with the first link. Bug’s penis makes loudest animal sound. That’s the headline. I’m not making it up. Red wine could help counteract the negative effects of space travel. Scientific American explores what’s in…

That noise your dog makes? Humans had a hand in creating it. The tougher fuel economy standards recently put in place are a start but they’re not enough to either reduce demand for oil or create substantial reductions in greenhouse…

An Appeals Court has lifted the injunction against the National Institute of Health’s revised policy on funding stem cell research. That’s the science part of the link. The language part of the link? Part of the decision was based on…

A discovery might make hydrogen fuel cells much cheaper. There’s a rumor–and that’s all it is–of a Higgs boson sighting. SpaceShip Two completed its longest glide test to date. The Hubble Space Telescope sends the planet a rose on its…