Sarah Zhang, Atlantic
Recently, a DNA test appeared with a premise so far-fetched that its fate was profane and merciless ridicule. Soccer Genomics offers personalized, DNA-based training regimens to young players, and its goofy ad went viral amid internet outrage. It is, alas, only the most recent example of the growing field of sometimes-dubious lifestyle DNA tests.
David Rothery, Conv
It may seem that Mars was once a much more exciting planet. True, there are dust storms and possible water-seeps occurring today, but billions of years ago it was a dramatic place with huge volcanoes, a giant canyon system and branching river valleys being formed.But now planetary scientists have identified what looks like more recently formed volcanoes, in geological terms. Excitingly, they may have once provided the perfect environment for microbial lifeforms to thrive.
Lee Billings, Scientific American
Not all planets have a home. For decades, astronomers and science fiction authors alike have speculated about orphaned orbs cast adrift from their home stars, endlessly wandering the boundless reaches of interstellar space. Most theorists hold that such ejections should be quite common during the chaotic tumult of a planetary system's early days, when closely-packed worlds whirling around a star can scatter off each other like billiard balls in a break shot.
Maria Temming, SciNews
Walls can't talk, but scientists can now read stories written in their subatomic particles. And that could make it harder to store radioactive material in secret.Nuclear radiation rearranges the electrons in insulators such as brick, glass and porcelain. So comparing the positions of electrons in atoms at different spots on walls, windows and floors could provide a rough snapshot of where radioactive material was once stored and how strong it was, researchers report online July 3 in Health Physics.
Nancy Atkinson, Seeker
A new look at archival data from a lunar orbiter mission along with laboratory tests of Apollo moon rocks confirms what numerous studies have been pointing to over the last decade: There is water in and on the moon. But this latest research suggests the moon's interior contains substantial amounts of water that has been retained since its formation.
David Gorski, Science-Based Medicine
In retrospect, I find it rather odd that I never paid much attention to Goop. Goop (or is it goop?), as you might recall, is Gwyneth Paltrow's beauty/health/wellness website (and, of course, online store) that's been in the news a fair amount over the last several months. The reason is that Paltrow combines celebrity, beauty, and wellness with pure quackery, and every so often Goop publishes something advocating pseudoscience so outrageous that it attracts the attention of not just skeptics... Читать дальше...
Massimo Pigliucci, Nautilus
During my career as a scientist and a philosopher I have written and edited, thus far, 14 books. Of these, seven are for the general public. Of those, only one (my very first one, as it turns out) was for children. The same picture emerges if one looks at the lifetime production of major science (and philosophy) popularizers, from Richard Dawkins to Stephen Jay Gould in biology, Brian Greene to Janna Levin in physics, Nigel Warburton to Rebecca Newberger Goldstein in philosophy.
Ramin Skibba, FiveThirtyEight
Aliens could be hiding on almost any of the Milky Way's roughly 100 billion planets, but so far, we haven't been able to find them (dubious claims to the contrary notwithstanding). Part of the problem is that astronomers don't know exactly where to look or what to look for. To have a chance of locating alien life-forms which is like searching for a needle that may not exist in an infinitely large haystack they'll have to narrow the search.
Dan Vergano, BuzzFeed
There's no evidence that the TSA's list of suspicious behaviors including yawning, whistling, staring, and complaining about security too much actually help spot terrorists, a new federal report finds.Security lines are a familiar and dreaded part of modern air travel for some 2 million passengers daily, conducted by Transportation Security Administration screeners at 440 airports nationwide, with shoes, belts, and laptops offered up for X-ray screening.
Ethan Siegel, Forbes
The biggest lesson from Einstein's general theory of relativity is that space itself isn't a flat, unchanging, absolute entity. Rather it's woven together, along with time, into a single fabric: spacetime. This fabric is continuous, smooth, and gets curved and deformed by the presence of matter and energy.
Ross Pomeroy, RealClearScience
In 2015, a team of researchers primarily based out of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at the University of Indiana surveyed 2,021 American adults about their sexual behaviors. Participants completed the extensive, fifteen-minute questionnaire in the comfort of their own homes under total anonymity. Their responses, made public recently in the journal PLoS ONE, reveal the sexual behaviors and preferences of American adults in greater detail than ever before.
Erik Vance, Slate
For years, nutrition experts have been trying to figure out the best diet for people who want to lose weight and have more energy. They haven't been terribly successful. Very few innovations in that field have lasted (beyond eating less and exercising more). Of course, that hasn't stopped us from trying: There's the Atkins diet, the all-cabbage diet, the morning-banana diet, the werewolf diet, the Israeli army diet, the Master Cleanse, the Zone, the charcoal cleanse, the alkaline diet... Читать дальше...
Joseph Jebelli, The Guardian
The terror of Alzheimer's is that it acts by degrees, and can therefore bewilder family members as much as its victims. Those who first notice the onset of Alzheimer's in a loved one tell of forgotten names and unsettling behaviour, of car keys found in the fridge and clothing in the kitchen cabinet, of aimless wanderings.Naturally, they want to understand the boundaries of normal ageing and whether these are being crossed. Often, the answer arrives when they're greeted as complete strangers... Читать дальше...
Angus Bezzina, Cosmos Mag
For years, scientists have relied on a complicated series of technical observations and calculations to determine the mass of black holes, but new research has shown that in some cases this arduous task can be replaced with a method so simple that even school-children can do it.In the traditional method, since black holes do not emit any discernible light, scientists calculate their mass from the orbits of the stars and gas around them, which requires extremely complex... Читать дальше...
Neuroskeptic, Discover
A number of so-called scientific journals have accepted a Star Wars-themed spoof paper. The manuscript is an absurd mess of factual errors, plagiarism and movie quotes. I know because I wrote it.Inspired by previous publishing stings, I wanted to test whether predatory journals would publish an obviously absurd paper. So I created a spoof manuscript about midi-chlorians the fictional entities which live inside cells and give Jedi their powers in Star Wars. I filled it with other references to the galaxy far... Читать дальше...
Ed Yong, The Atlantic
In 1995, if you had told Toby Spribille that he'd eventually overthrow a scientific idea that's been the stuff of textbooks for 150 years, he would have laughed at you. Back then, his life seemed constrained to a very different path. He was raised in a Montana trailer park, and home-schooled by what he now describes as a fundamentalist cult. At a young age, he fell in love with science, but had no way of feeding that love. He longed to break away from his roots and get a proper education.
