Park rangers often explain the natural world to people—sometimes around campfires, and sometimes on Twitter. I know because I was one. As a ranger, it wasn’t my job to tell tall tales to the American taxpayer. The National Park service offers the public only deeply-vetted facts. At Katmai National Park, in subarctic Alaska, I introduced visitors to the largest volcanic eruption to occur on Earth in over a century. Atop the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala National Park, I showed visitors silverswords—profoundly silver-colored plants __that grow...
Just as there is nothing better than biting into a raw, ripe tomato picked from the heirloom plant in your backyard, there is nothing worse than the mealy, watery, flavorless slice of tomato __that so many people settle for everyday on sandwiches around the world. In a paper published today in Science, researchers announced __that they've figured out which genes control the complexities of tomato flavor, and say that they can re-introduce flavor to the commercially-grown tomatoes of the world. Researchers have known for a while that favoring shape,...
Multimedia Fellow What can you do with a camera? Take photos, make movies … what else? What can you do with a voice recorder. An LED light. A synthesizer. A 145-year-old publication with a stated mission to tell the most amazing stories in science and technology? You tell us. Popular Science is seeking a multimedia fellow to help us reach our community on every platform imaginable. You’ve gotta be handy with __that digital imaging steel and an internet native. This is a paid position for someone who can work 35 hours a week for 6 months. If you...
Image copyright S.Matesanz Image caption Studies have shown __that domesticated species of crop (left) are larger than their wild relatives (right) The seeds of domesticated plants could offer clues as to why cultivated crops are larger than their wild cousins, researchers have suggested. Increased size is common among domesticated plants but the reason for increased growth is little understood. The increase in the biomass is of interest...
Image copyright Simon Roffey Image caption Extensive tests were carried out on the skeleton A medieval skeleton found at a UK burial site has revealed clues to the history of leprosy, say researchers. The remains were excavated from the site of one of UK's earliest known hospitals, near Winchester, Hampshire. Scientific detective work suggests the man was a religious pilgrim who may have caught the disease on his travels. University...
Update, January 25: Reports on the gag order have received a great deal of attention. This piece been updated to reflect additional information released since its original publication. In the summer of 2015 a tropical storm slammed into the mountains of Myanmar and triggered one of the largest landslides not caused by an earthquake in a decade. We know this because of pictures—stunning in their devastation—taken with a satellite run by NASA. We know this because of government science. On Monday, news broke __that the Environmental Protection...
Image copyright Getty Images Simple actions to help protect homes from flooding are still being ignored by government, MPs say. The Commons environment committee said it was disappointed __that ministers weren’t addressing what it called the UK’s fragmented, inefficient and ineffective flood management. The government rejected the criticism, saying it had accepted many previous suggestions on flooding from the MPs. But the report says policies...
The crack __that looks set to spawn a giant iceberg in the Antarctic has continued to spread. The rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf has grown a further 10km since 1 January. If the fissure propagates just 20km more, it will free a tabular berg one-quarter the size of Wales. That would make it one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded, according to researchers at Swansea and Aberystwyth universities, and the British Antarctic Survey. News of the...
A gentle pulse of electricity can make bacteria dance (or rather, swim) to scientists’ tune. Researchers reported on Tuesday in Nature Communications __that electricity can flip certain genes in Escherichia coli cells on or off, making the microbes wave their limb-like flagella or relay info to their neighbors on command. Messing with these unsuspecting bacteria is the first step to making new biosensors and other devices __that mix living cells with manmade materials. But it’s not the only way that bacteria—or bigger creatures—can be controlled...
Today marks the end of President Barack Obama’s second and final term. From his first inaugural address to his final State of the Union address, Obama has promised to advance science and technological innovation in the United States. “Being pro-science is the only way we make sure __that America continues to lead the world. Our policies reflect that,” the president told Popular Science last year. As America says goodbye to its 44th president, we here at Popular Science are taking one last look back at the Obama administration’s greatest scientific...
Image copyright ESA Image caption Aeolus will operate at a relatively low altitude of 320km British engineers have finished assembling a satellite __that experts believe could have a transformative impact on our weather forecasts. The Aeolus spacecraft will fire a laser into the atmosphere to make the first three dimensional maps of wind speed and direction across the entire planet. The data will be incorporated into the models...
Mind-controlled zombie mice do well on Google News. So do headlines about flipping a "killer instinct" switch. That's why press releases love phrases like that, and why you’ve probably seen headlines with nearly identical phrasing for the past day or so. Here’s the problem: they’re all pretty misleading. On Thursday, neuroscientists at Yale University published a paper in the journal Cell showing how they could trigger a mouse’s predatory instincts with a clever genetic trick. Key word: instinct. They’re not engineering mice to be mindless killers,...
I’m three and half years into a lifelong diet. It’s not to lose weight or build muscle, and there are no cheat days—no, not even for a freshly-baked chocolate croissant __that I can smell a block away. I get a metal probe put down my throat every year so my doctor can confirm __that I’m really, truly, 100 percent adhering to my diet. As if that wasn't awesome enough, I also get to pay anywhere from 30-500 percent more for basic food. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have celiac disease. My diet is that eye-roll-inducing, clichéd trope that...
Image caption The discovery was made at the Giant's Causeway In a small grey puddle tucked into a corner of the world famous Giant's Causeway, scientists have made an extraordinary find. A colony of stromatolites - tiny structures made by primitive blue-green algae. Stromatolites are the oldest known fossils in the world. The tiny algae or bacteria __that build them are also thought to be the most ancient life form __that is still...
Image copyright Danielle Dufault/Royal Ontario Museum Image caption The feeding tentacles were used to filter water for food A strange animal __that lived on the ocean floor 500 million years ago has been assigned to the tree of life, solving a long-held mystery. The creature has eluded scientific classification since the first fossil was discovered 175 years ago. The extinct hyolith has a cone-shaped shell, tentacles for feeding...
Media captionDr Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews explains her findings and translates one of the chimps' gestures Researchers say they have translated the meaning of gestures __that wild chimpanzees use to communicate. They say wild chimps communicate 19 specific messages to one another with a "lexicon" of 66 gestures. The scientists discovered this by following and filming communities of chimps in Uganda, and examining more than 5,000 incidents of these meaningful exchanges. The research is published in the...
Media captionLead researcher on the chimp study, Dr Catherine Hobaiter, explains how the new type of tool use spread through the group of animals Researchers have captured the spread of a new type of tool use in a wild population of chimps. They say this is the first clear evidence of wild chimpanzees developing a new culture. As the team filmed the animals at a field station in Uganda, they noticed __that some of them started to make a new type of leaf sponge - something the animals use to drink. This new behaviour soon spread...
Researchers have used camera traps to film tool-use __that is unique to chimpanzees in Ivory Coast. The footage revealed __that the clever primates habitually make special water-dipping sticks - chewing the end of the stick to turn it into a soft, water-absorbing brush. Primate researchers examined the "dipping sticks" and concluded they were made specifically for drinking. The findings are reported in the American Journal of Primatology. Lead researcher Juan Lapuente, from the Comoe Chimpanzee Conservation Project, in Ivory Coast, explained...
Image caption Exposure to infectious diseases is more likely in cities People from traditionally urban areas could be genetically better suited to fighting infection, say researchers. The University of London team looked at how many people carried a specific gene variant known to give them resistance to TB and leprosy. It was more common in those from areas with a longer history of urbanisation, where the diseases were more likely...
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