Science

  • Bogus Science (12)
  • Environment (23)
  • Medicine (105)
  • Nature (59)
  • Space (8)
  • Tuesday, February 21
    / / Feb 2012

    Last Fall, America’s favorite focus drug suddenly went into short supply.


    Sunday, February 19
    / / Feb 2012

    The stories of a record-setting chain of transplants.


    Saturday, February 18
    / / Feb 2012

    “In the very near future, the act of remembering will become a choice.”


    Friday, February 17

    A profile of Taylor Wilson, who achieved nuclear fusion at age 14.


    Thursday, February 16

    Inside the world of targeted marketing.


    Wednesday, February 15

    The story of a high school star who died minutes after hitting a game-winner to end an undefeated season, and the family and friends he left behind.


    On Mike Powell, a Chicago-area high school wrestling coach who hasn’t allowed a life-threatening illness to interrupt his life’s work.


    Monday, February 13
    / / Feb 2012

    How an industry that couldn’t miss did just that.


    Sunday, February 12

    “Look, people’s lives are people’s lives, and some of them can’t cope or be as organized as some of us might like. But it’s only in the area of sex that we get involved in the ethics of promoting risk-taking, the idea that we should withhold information or devices because we don’t want people to need them. Would you make the same argument about cholesterol drugs? Saying, If we give people a drug that will reduce cholesterol, they won’t be as likely to exercise and eat properly like they really should?”


    Saturday, February 11

    A visit to the newly on-the-market Jamesburg Earth Station, a massive satellite receiver that played a key role in communications with space, and its neighbors in an adjacent trailer park.


    On Alison Winter’s Memory: Fragments of a Modern History, and issues of memory in the 20th century.

    Underlying the compelling feeling that we are our memories is a further common-sense assumption that our entire lives are accurately retained somewhere in the brain ‘bank’ as laid-down memories of our experience, and that we retrieve our lives and selves from an ever expanding stockpile of recollections. Or we can’t, and then that feeling that it’s on the tip of our tongue, or there but just out of range, still encourages us to think that everything we have known or done is in us somewhere, if only our digging equipment were sharper.


    Friday, February 10

    Jaroslav Flegr and his theory about Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cat feces:

    If Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”