A composite image of the supernova Cassiopeia A. A similar event may have triggered wildfires and led to ecological changes on Earth millions of years ago. (Credit: NASA)
In one fiery burst, an exploding nearby star millions of years ago may have helped change the course of life on Earth.
Upon its death, this supernova sent high-energy charged particles, called cosmic rays, racing across the universe. Now, a new study says those cosmic rays may have led to an uptick in wildfires across t ...read more
(Credit: sirirat/Shutterstock)
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics can spread among microbes in just two hours, reports a team of researchers. The finding, though alarming, could also lead to better ways to treat bacterial infections that do not promote the spread of antibiotic resistance.
“It all happens very quickly,” said Christian Lesterlin, a geneticist at the University of Lyon in France, who led the new research. Lesterlin and his team discovered that bacteria can transf ...read more
Changing Methods of Science Communication
When we discuss science communication, we often talk about it as either targeted at professional scientists or as targeted at the public. However, with the increase in citizen science and public engagement in science, new ways to communicate about science — modes that exist somewhere between separate professional and public genres — have developed apace.
In my new book, Science Communication Online, from The Ohio State University P ...read more
A paper in a peer-reviewed medical journal makes the suggestion that physicist Stephen Hawking's disability, which famously confined him to a wheelchair and robbed him of his speech, was psychosomatic in nature.
Hmm. I think this says more about the author than it does about Hawking.
The paper is called Delusional Health Beliefs and it comes by British doctor Peter May. It was published a few days ago in the Medico-Legal Journal.
May begins the paper by discussing conversion di ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine