(Credit: Shutterstock)
The craft brew revolution is fueled by an earnest pursuit of hoppiness.
Many craft beer enthusiasts are drawn to the potent, bitter, aromatic flavors of a primo India Pale Ale (IPA), and brewers take pride in delivering a roundhouse kick to mouth in every bottle. Indeed, the names of IPAs often connote a cataclysmic struggle between man and beer: Hoo Lawd, Hopslam Ale, Pound Town, Hoptrocity, Ruination. You get the point.
As the names suggest, hops—the flowers of H ...read more
Our first approach to Aucanquilcha, my thesis volcano in Chile. Erik Klemetti
So, a few weeks back I got to tell a story about my experience as a geologist as part of a Story Collider show here at Denison. Let me tell you, it was an awesome experience, to share about what I’ve done as a scientist. At some point, I’ll be able to link to video and/or audio of my storytelling, but for now, I thought I’d share the story I wrote. Hope you enjoy it.
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It was a snowy day in Ph ...read more
(credit: Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock)
Crying babies, chronic snorers — they’re the usual targets of our displeasure when we fly. But, the real villains of the sky might be germs.
Flyers are packed into a cramped metal tube for hours on end where movement is limited. It seems like a microbe’s playground. But research on the topic is a bit inconclusive, despite worrying cases involving SARS and an aggressive type of influenza. Studies suggest that caution is warr ...read more
(Credit: Uber)
Uber’s self-driving car hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, overnight, according to the Tempe Police Department. The car was in autonomous mode with a human operator behind the wheel with no passengers, police told Discover in an email.
The pedestrian, a 49-year-old woman, was walking her bicycle near a crosswalk, but not within the lines, at about 10 p.m. Sunday when she was struck by the vehicle, according to Tempe police officers. She died o ...read more
An antiaircraft gun from the wreckage of the USS Lexingon, a U.S. Navy carrier that was sunk during the Battle of Coral Sea in World War II. Credit: Navigea Ltd.
When the aircraft carrier USS Lexington sank beneath the surface of the Coral Sea, it represented a significant casualty of history’s first clash between carriers during World War II. 76 years later, an expedition led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced that it had rediscovered wreckage from the carr ...read more
Lynne McTaggart is an author and leading alternative health proponent who was the foil for my first ever Neuroskeptic post, nearly 10 years ago. Ever since then I have occasionally been following McTaggart’s output.
McTaggart is believer in things like a “Zero Point Field (ZPF), a sea of energy that reconciles mind with matter”, an opponent of vaccines, and someone who thinks that spiritual and psychological change can cure advanced cancer.
Since my first post, I haven’ ...read more
Peterson before a centrifuge test. Gallaudet University Archives.
In the late 1950s when NASA was a brand new agency, the list of spaceflight unknowns was significantly larger than any list of knowns. And addressing that list called for some real creativity. When it came to dealing with space sickness, NASA turned to 11 deaf men for a baseline, and these men ultimately played a significant role in getting the first astronauts off the ground.
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This specific run of tests was do ...read more
Blakea attenboroughii (Credit: Darin Penneys)
Plants, they’re just like us.
We begin our lives as, really, parasites. A baby may bring some joy into the world, but it’s not contributing much beyond that. It takes feeding, cleaning, protecting, teaching and money to polish a human being into something approaching societal worth. After all, David Attenborough wouldn’t have been Sir David Attenborough without Frederick and Mary.Blakea attenboroughi shares at least one thing with ...read more
You don’t need hands to be right- or left-handed. Many kinds of animals have shown a preference for using one side of their body or the other. They include apes, whales, dogs, cats, cows, toads, fish and even honeybees. Now, with data from a rather unsavory source, researchers have found evidence for “tuskedness” in elephants.
Although humans aren’t alone in having handedness, we do seem to have the most extreme bias as a species. Other animals seem more evenly ...read more
