Life, the Multiverse and Everything...
As databases of information about people’s lifestyles and medical ailments grow, ever-stranger omens of our health seem to emerge. Today’s computer-powered studies allow researchers to look beyond obvious health risks of the past. New analyses show, for example, that finger length, grip strength and even height may be reliable predictors of cancer, longevity and heart [...]
Despite coming under attack by congressional Republicans, federal science funding has received a major and mostly overlooked boost. The America Competes Act, passed by Congress shortly before Christmas, calls for $46 billion in science and technology research funding over the next three years. Final approval awaits the signature of President Barack Obama, who in a [...]
<< Previous | Next >> In a year full of major advances, over-hyped findings and controversial studies, it was tough for the Wired Science staff to choose which breakthroughs were the biggest in 2010. So we’ve collected the ones that stood out the most to us. From synthetic life and three-parent embryos to the possibility [...]
Clumps of dust in the desert shatter like glass on a kitchen floor. This similarity may mean the atmosphere carries more large dust particles than climate models assume. Dust and other airborne particles’ effect in the atmosphere is “one of the most important problems we need to solve in order to provide better predictions of [...]
After nearly 6 months of smashing particles, the Large Hadron Collider has seen signs of something entirely new. Pairs of charged particles produced when two beams of protons collide seem to be associated with each other even after they fly apart. “It is a small effect, but it is very interesting in itself,” said physicist [...]
Cracks in ice could have served as a safe environment — much like a cell — for the first life on Earth to replicate and evolve. A new study adds plausibility to the ‘RNA World’ hypothesis that argues life began with a single stranded molecule capable of self-replication. “I always thought that the idea of an [...]
Plants picked by Victorian collectors up to 150 years ago are a valuable new source of data for ecologists seeking to understand how climate change will affect the timing of flowering plants. Scientists have used the carefully labeled and dated specimens of the early spider orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, to examine the affect of spring temperatures [...]
Since Tim Geithner did not predict the economic crisis, Nassim Taleb has no interest in listening to him talk about it now. The author of The Black Swan, a book about risk and … [Read More...]
A leaked internal memo from physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva reports a … [Read More...]
The more one probes the universe at smaller and smaller scales, the weirder matter and energy seem … [Read More...]
Can you recall a moment when you could honestly say 'I told you so', but when no one listens? Well … [Read More...]
