Felicity Muth writes What We Understand about Cats and What They Understand about Us: One way in which we frequently attempt to interact with the animals that live with us is by pointing at things. It is possible that this shows our limitations rather than our animal friends since this is a particularly human means…
Science/Nature
Cats, Science/Nature
That Time a Cat Co-Authored a Physics Paper
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Eric Grundhauser writes In 1975, a Cat Co-Authored a Physics Paper: Jack H. Hetherington was a professor of physics at Michigan State University in 1975, when he finished what would become an influential and often-cited physics paper. The academic writing, entitled Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He, was an in-depth exploration of…
Education, Mendacity, Science/Nature, Technology, Trump
For Mr. Trump, It’s STEM, Schwem, Whatever…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images In response to a question about whether state-sponsored hacking against an American political party should go unpunished, Donald Trump grew expansive, giving his typically thoughtful perspective on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and (even) epistemology: “I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very…
Planning, Science/Nature, Weather
The Plan to Drain the Mediterranean: Atlantropa
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Science/Nature, Space
The Search for a Ninth Planet
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Science/Nature
Valley of the Last Dinosaurs
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Animals, Nature, Science/Nature
Film: Using Technology to Reverse Extinction
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Science/Nature, Space
The End of Darkness
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Science/Nature
Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian from Great Big Story on Vimeo. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has over 144 million different objects in its collections. A sample of these collections are on display to the public, but 99 percent of the Smithsonian’s treasures remain behind the scenes. Scientists work with these objects…
Science/Nature, Space
A Simulation of the Milky Way
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
At Caltech, they’ve published a video simulation of the Milky Way: Animation of our Milky Way galaxy based on a detailed supercomputer simulation. The movie zooms in and out of the galaxy, showing what it would look like in visible wavelengths. Blue regions are young star clusters which have blown away the gas and dust…
Animals, Science/Nature
The Origin of Dogs
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
How and when did wild wolves turn into domestic pets? Science tells us that humans were behind the domestication of what is now man’s best friend—but the timeline of the transformation has always been mysterious. In this video, Atlantic science writer Ed Yong explains the surprising origin of dogs in light of new research. Via…