Two political science professors claim a strong majority of US biology teachers either don’t advocate the theory of evolution, or flat out promote either creationism or intelligent design. The research came from Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer of Penn State. They looked through the results of a wider survey of 926 biology teachers in public […]
A Rube Goldberg machine is, of course, a machine engineered to perform a simple task in a very (or very, very, very) complicated way. I’m not sure I would recommend any of these “how to” videos for efficiency’s sake, but they sure are fun to watch. How to Unroll Toilet Paper: How to Creme an […]
Though not a science joke, my favorite bar humor is this bit of music geekery: Three notes walk into a bar – a G, an E flat, and a C. The bartender looks up and says “We don’t serve minors.” So the E flat leaves and the other two have a fifth between them. What’s […]
Anyone who’s been to elementary school soon learns that larger children tend to hold the social power — or at least hold a physically dominant position. Now, though, it appears that lesson may be learned even earlier. Researchers at Harvard and UCLA, led by an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Copenhagen, made […]
It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch: mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil … it’s frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.
Next time you complain about ageing reruns on TV, spare a thought for astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope. They suspect they’ve just seen something from 13.2 billion years ago. NASA has reported the sighting of what appears as a tiny dim object, but is actually a galaxy of blue stars about one-hundredth the […]
Wired is a science and technology magazine. Weird Tales is a fantasy and horror pulp fiction magazine. And Wired Tales is a new project from freelance writer Will Hindmarch. The challenge? To write a couple of short stories every month based on features in Wired magazine. The first issue launched yesterday and I heard about […]
Newly published test scores suggest most school students are falling short of proficiency in science study, with a high proportion failing to reach even a basic level. The figures, which cover tests in 2009, come from the National Assessment of Educational Assessment Progress, which is also known by the catchier brand name “The Nation’s Report […]
British researchers plan to send a cellphone into orbit to discover if it will still work. If it does, it could mean major changes to the way satellites are used. The project, run by the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited will involve sending a satellite named STRaND-1 into orbit. The 30cm-long satellite […]
By Adrienne Crezo Contributing Writer, [GAS] Last week, NASA announced that their Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected antimatter produced by thunderstorms on Earth. Though it was long suspected that lightning activity (associated with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs) potentially created antimatter particles, this latest announcement is the first hard evidence of the phenomenon. So, […]