Storm-chasing for science can be exciting and stressful – we know, because we do it. It has also been essential for developing today’s understanding of how tornadoes form and how they behave.In 1996 the movie “Twister” brought storm-chasing into the public imagination as scientists played by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton raced ahead of tornadoes to deploy their sensors and occasionally got too close. That movie inspired a generation of atmospheric scientists.With the new movie “Twisters ...read more
If evolution happens gradually as genetic changes are passed from one generation to the next, you’d expect the fossil record to show the transitional forms along the way. But it doesn’t always do that. In some cases, the fossil record clearly shows a pattern of gradual change from ancestor to descendent. But more often, it seems to show jumps from one species to another with no transitional forms in between. “It's quite rare to actually have examples in the fossil record where something ...read more
Strange as it may seem, early germ theorists could tell us a lot about today’s attitudes toward climate change.While researching for a new book about the history of emerging infections, I found many similarities between early debates over the existence of microbes and current debates over the existence of global warming.Both controversies reveal the struggles of perceiving an unseen threat. Both reveal the influence of economic interests that benefit from the status quo. But most importantly, ...read more
As La Niña continues to stir in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the latest analysis shows there’s a 70 percent chance it will develop between August and October.The climate phenomenon shifts the world's atmospheric circulation, changing weather patterns around the globe. Characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface waters in large swaths of the tropical Pacific, it also usually takes the edge off human-caused heating of the planet, albeit temporarily.But even taking that likely cooling eff ...read more
One of the most frequent questions astronauts get asked is, how do you go to the bathroom in space? For decades, their reply has been the same icky answer: they essentially soil their suits. Astronauts in transit (space stations have more sanitary solutions — but even those can sometimes go awry) have long depended on what are essentially adult diapers to absorb their urine. For short missions, this is merely uncomfortable, and just a bit gross. But for longer journeys — like, perhaps ones p ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine