Anna Sumner’s craving for sleep began when she was an 18-year-old high school senior. She thought nothing of it. When it followed her to college, she blamed it on stress. She was working so hard, she told herself, her body just needed the extra rest. But it was more than that. She would choose naps […]
Month: November 2012
Today, I give thanks for the snood. My amusement begins with the word itself, which rhymes with rude. Try enunciating it several times in a row, slowly, and you’ll see what I mean. But the snood is more than just a delightful word and common crossword puzzle answer. It’s also a comedic example of sexual […]
It’s amazing what scientists can do nowadays. They can get right down into the center of an atom. They can tell us in detail about rocks on other planets. So it’s no wonder when they report there are a certain number of very large animals in an area – and they only have to count […]
Back in March 2012, more than 2,500 people declared their support for a pretty modest idea: that the world is full of interesting, relevant, important science stories that aren’t being told. No shocker there — that’s pretty much the operating principle of LWON, too, or one of them anyway. But these particular people did something […]
12 – 16 November This week, our site went boom. But we’re all better now. Cassie explored the compelling pseudscience behind chronic Lyme’s disease, and why it can sway even people who should know better. Ann considered gravity’s uncompromising brutality. Heather’s chilling story about how Fritz Haber changed her grandfather’s life is a reminder of […]
In 2009 science writer Laurie McClellen’s husband, Pat, fell ill. The exhaustion came first. He grew too tired to exercise. Even the office left him fatigued. “He was so tired that he needed a two-hour nap every night after work,” McClellan wrote in her account of the ordeal. Then came other symptoms. One night Pat forgot […]
We were stuck in a black hole for a while but we blasted loose and now we’re back home. And grateful for your patience. _____ Photo: Koshyk
From “On Being the Right Size,” by J.B.S. Haldane: “You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.” Recently, a couple of my friends have fallen. One, a woman, […]
