Two leafhoppers mating. (Credit: Umberto Salvagnin) For the amount of damage they can cause, leafhoppers are tiny little bastards. One invasive species, the glassy-winged sharpshooter, is only about 12mm long, but the insects are responsible for millions of dollars of damage to crops every year. They use needle-like mouthparts to vacuum up plant sap, at the same time dispersing Xylella fastidiosa, a bacteria that can spread things like phony peach disease, periwinkle wilt, and citrus variegate ...read more

Fissure 8 lava fountain and flow, seen on June 10, 2018. USGS/HVO. The eruption that started near Leilani Estates on KÄ«lauea’s Lower East Rift Zone is now in its second month and so far, there is little to indicate that the eruption might be ending soon. Fissure 8 (webcam) is still the dominant player in the eruption, currently erupting three lava fountains that reach ~50 meters (~180 feet) and feed the lava flows that have erased Kapoho Bay. What†...read more

Bear witness to the changing face of our planet using an easy-to-use tool for accessing a trove of satellite data A comparison of views of Shanghai acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite, one on March 26, 2000, and the other on March 10, 2018. (Images: NASA Worldview. Animation: Tom Yulsman) The longest continuous daily satellite observation record of Earth ever compiled is now available for all of us to peruse. All you need is access to a computer. Multiple instruments aboard ...read more

There is a growing research literature on the ‘Neuroscience of Love’. But what exactly is this ‘love’ that is being studied? Sociologist Gabriel Abend asks these questions in a new paper called The Love of Neuroscience published in Sociological Theory. Last year I discussed one of Abend’s previous papers which asked more general questions about how neuroscientists define the objects they study. In the new paper, Abend looks specifically at ‘love’ and h ...read more