(Credit: Alexander Raths/Shutterstock)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday that it would be removing a three-year funding pause on so-called “gain-of-function” research.
The type of research in question involves engineering viruses to give them capabilities not found in nature in order to facilitate research. This can be as simple as producing a higher yield for a certain vaccine strain, but has also involved giving viruses potentially dangerous traits. ...read more
Confocal laser scanning microscope image of the Cassida rubiginosa flagellum tip. (Credit: Matsumura, Kovalev, Gorb, Sci. Adv. 2017;3: eaao5469)
Male beetles often have thin penises longer than their bodies. Now scientists are discovering how these insects can have sex without breaking their narrow, lengthy penises, findings that could help lead to longer, stronger catheters for use in medicine.
Scientists experimented with thistle tortoise beetles, Cassida rubiginosa. The insects are about 8 ...read more
What’s going on in your computer? (Credit: Shutterstock)
Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don’t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate virtual currencies.
Several video streaming sites and the popular file sharing network The Pirate Bay have allegedly been “cryptojacking” their users’ ...read more
Holding in your poop because you don’t like pooping in public? Well, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. (Credit: Shutterstock)
You know the feeling when you have to poop, but there’s no toilet in reach or you’re too scared to stink up the stall at work? Then, instead of listening to Mother Nature, you end up holding in your poop?
Let’s face it, no matter how many times we hear “everybody poops,” it doesn’t make the endeavor any less awkward in ...read more
The city of Paris at night. By 2040, all oil exploration and production in France will end. Wikimedia Commons.
Today, Emmanuel Macron, the current president of France, announced that his country would no longer allow for oil exploration in its territory and by 2040, all oil extraction in France would be ended. Now, at first, you might be tempted to say this is merely symbolic as France isn’t exactly an huge oil producer, but you’d be wrong. France does have some significan ...read more
(Originally published 12/16)
CC BY-SA 3.0
Make sure you’re on Santa’s “nice list” this year. Lend your hands, hearts and brains to science during these 12 days leading up to Christmas!
On the 1st day of Christmas, the Forest Restoration Alliance gave to me:
A chance to monitor the invasive insects that attack both hemlocks and Fraser firs (the most popular Christmas Tree in North America).
On the 2nd day of Christmas, Audubon gave to me:
Two turtle doves that I ...read more
A feeding bot rolls through the racks of crickets at Aspire Food Group’s test farm in Austin, Texas. (Credit: Aspire Food Group)
When Gabe Mott, Shobhita Soor and Mohammed Ashour wanted to proposed building a commercial-scale cricket farm optimized with robots and data, the idea earned the McGill University students the $1 million Hult Prize, the largest student competition for social good, in 2013.
But when it came to launching the concept, they needed to leave convention behind, includ ...read more
(Credit: NASA)
In space, astronauts see stars in more than one way. Ever since the 1960s, space travelers have reported seeing bright flashes of light even with their eyes closed.
They’re usually described as either bursts or streaks, and are most often white. They seem to be frequent, too, many astronauts complained of trouble sleeping because of the disruptive scintillations. The culprit seems to be cosmic rays, highly energetic particles emanating from far-off sources that are normall ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
For many who value science, 2017 will be remembered as the dawn of a new era. January saw the inauguration of Donald Trump, a president who has denied climate change and filled his inner circle with anti-science activists. But the year was as much an awakening as an annus horribilis: Researchers and citizens alike, in the U.S. and beyond, chose to speak out at rallies, on social media and even in the political arena — unprecedented numbers of scientists are consideri ...read more
