Communities of tiny plants and organisms protect arid landscapes. Now their survival is threatened.
On a cool September morning, a caravan of international scientists rumbles past the iconic formations of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Over the eons, wind and water have carved this landscape into a maze of stunning red sandstone arches and spires. The researchers marvel at the formations, so different from their own backyards — places as distant as China, Niger, Australia and Spai ...read more
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Getting an edge with high tech and lowly microbes.
In 13th-century China, a field worker was killed with a sickle — and all villagers’ sickles were alike. So the investigator had every worker lay down his tool in a field, and observed that just one sickle attracted blowflies, which were known to seek out blood. Its owner, the culprit, immediately confessed. The Chinese sickle slaying is one of the first reported cases of forensic investigation. The role of science in evidence co ...read more
See the light on dark matter and dark energy.
Say the universe is a restaurant entrée. Astonishingly, everything that we can discern on the plate, so to speak — protons, paramecia, people, planets, pulsars, you name it — altogether adds up to a mere sprig of parsley. To a cosmic garnish such as ourselves, the vast majority of the universe is invisible, an empty plate dominated by “dark” matter and a “dark” energy. The effects of these phenomena are ...read more
You're almost there.
Forget reality: In virtual reality, you can be whomever and wherever you want. VR makes the unreal real, using computer software and hardware that responds to our body’s movements to immerse us in a convincing alternate existence. There’s plenty of space to roam. VR places can be huge. In Second Life, an early pioneer of virtual worlds, you can attend university, own a blimp, have blue fur — whatever. It includes more than 600 square miles of otherworl ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
