In this search for the origin of one of the world’s most common genetic diseases, emerging research in evolutionary medicine raises new questions about our history, development, and future as a species.
The panel on “Quantum Biology and the Hidden Nature of Nature” at the World Science Festival last month was particularly memorable. Skip to 5:30 to hear John Hockenberry give an informative and humorous introduction to these strange bedfellows—biology and quantum mechanics. Paul Davies, Seth Lloyd, and Thorsten Ritz then join Hockenberry for a fascinating conversation….
Planets form more commonly in star systems with relatively high concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, a new study suggests. Such heavier elements are necessary to form the dust grains and planetesimals that build planetary cores, according to the study, which was carried out by researchers Jarrett Johnson and Hui Li of Los…
Two recent scholarly works on millennialism leave this reviewer with a new understanding of the perverse human yearning for apocalypse
The source of the rain that filled your town reservoir, or flooded your nearby river, or never arrived to water your crops, is most likely the ocean. The ocean contains 96% of the free water on Earth, and it acts like a massive water pump. It is powered by heat evaporating water into water vapor….
In the debate over gun control sparked by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, most gun-rights advocates have been conspicuously silent. Not John Lott. Quite the opposite, he has been the loudest conservative voice publicly defending firearms. Mere hours after the massacre, he tweeted, “The most consistent feature of these attacks are that…
The climate change we are currently experiencing, while disconcerting and increasingly uncomfortable, is not unprecedented when viewed through the historical prism of life on Earth. A study led by researchers from Texas A&M University’s Department of Oceanography looks back at the water cycle that affected the Western United States in an era dating back some…