Earthworm in soil

Maybe Earthworms Aren’t So Great For Soil After All

Earthworms are often portrayed as beneficial to the environment, but in North America's temperate forests, they are a disaster in action.
Scientists collaborating

Scientific Researchers Need to Open Up to Collaboration

The apprenticeship model is cutting us off from addressing today’s complex questions. Fortunately, social avenues like ResearchGate and MCubed can help.
microbiome

Your Gut, Your Emotions

According to an international team led by UCLA researchers, our emotions may be partially driven by an unlikely source: our gut bacteria.
Be Here Now

The End of “Here And Now”

Thanks to the miracle of contemporary connectivity, I can be here, in one place physically, another place mentally, still others visually or financially.
platinum-iridium cylinder

What’s a Kilogram?

At the end of the nineteenth century, the kilogram was conceived as the mass of one liter of water at 4°C, the temperature at which water was densest.
WWI prosthetic arm

A Brief History of Prosthetic Limbs

Prosthetics have come a long way from the wooden big toe found on a a 3000-year-old mummy, or the Etruscan bridgework made of human teeth.
Pregnant woman portrait

When C-Sections Were Performed to Save Dead Babies’ Souls

In 1804, Charles IV, King of Spain, issued a legal admonition telling officials not to bury any pregnant woman without giving her a C-section first.
Jerri Sloan

Synthetic Fabrics Inspired a Cultural Revolution

The advent of synthetic fabrics played a surprising role in bringing women into the workforce, as Mercury 13 trainee Geraldine Sloan’s story illustrates.
Orca whale

How Killer Whales Kill

Orcas may look cute, but don’t be fooled. They display some of the most sophisticated hunting techniques of any animals on Earth.
Anna Atkins cyanotype

The Artful Science of Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins reportedly created the first photographically illustrated and printed book in response to another monograph she thought was shoddily done.