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Having recently left an academic post, I’ve been thinking about what will happen to the data that I collected during my previous role that remains unpublished. Will it, like so much data, end up stuck in the limbo of the proverbial ‘file drawer’? The ‘file drawer problem’ is generally understood to mean “the bias introduced into the scientific literature by selective publication – chiefly by a tendency to publish positive results but not to publish nega ...read more

A proposed dinosaur family tree rewrite may sound like a crazy idea, but remember, not that long ago scientists thought Iguanodon looked like this (hint: we know better now). (Credit Samuel Griswold Goodrich/Illustrated Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, 1859) Earlier this year, a trio of paleontologists led the charge to rewrite the most fundamental thing we believe about dinosaurs. Their call to action generated controversy and, more importantly, serious academic discussion. Now, a b ...read more

(Credit: Shutterstock) For years, experts thought Alzheimer’s, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, originated in the brain. After all, it’s the organ that takes the beating: Proteins build up in the brain, forming plaques or tangles that can damage cell function. And depending on which hypothesis you’re reading up on, the critical damage that kick-starts symptoms comes from either beta-amyloid proteins, the traditional suspects, or tau proteins, a relatively new but incr ...read more

C’mon, you’re not really afraid of this cute little guy, are ya? Photo Credit: Plamuekwhan/Shutterstock Few groups of animals are as feared as spiders. Doctors estimate at least 5% of people are arachnophobic, meaning they are terrified of the eight-legged critters. But such fear is largely misplaced. Of the nearly 47,000 species of spider on the planet, only 200 or so can actually bite through our tough skin and deliver venom that causes any kind of reaction. And of those, onl ...read more

(Credit: current value/Shutterstock) To be human is to be curious. Our constant interrogation of the world around us has led to pretty much every bit of knowledge we hold as a species. This is what scientists do, through carefully controlled experiments and quantitative data collection. Some questions, though, have been deemed too dangerous, or too foolish to pursue. What’s a passionate scientist to do when society frowns upon their research? Put themselves under the ...read more

With many of us spending our time online, we tend to be laser-focused on preventing our personal information from falling into the hands of nefarious hackers. But let’s not forget about the security of print-based communications. Remember how the ink appears and disappears on the Marauder’s Map that appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? Basically, scientists are trying to recreate this bit of magic to protect information. But instead of using a password to make t ...read more

An artist’s conception of a black hole emitting a relativistic jet. (Credit: G. Pérez Díaz (IAC)) The mysteries surrounding black holes make for some fascinating research. Whether consuming dead stars or anchoring baby galaxies, black holes are one of the most perplexing astronomical phenomena. Especially when they shoot out jets of supercharged plasma akin to Star Wars’ world-destroying Death Star superlaser. These streams of plasma are known as relativistic jets, an ...read more

An ant-hunting Zodarion maculatum spider. Photo by Antonio Pizarro via iNaturalist Humans in North America only spend one night a year in costume with the hopes of feasting on tasty treats. For Zodarion spiders, that’s just called Tuesday. These clever mimics pretend to be ants to sneak close to their prey. And if in danger, they’ll use the corpse of their latest capture to complete the charade. The spiders in the genus Zodarion are ant specialists&mdas ...read more

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