January 14 – 18, 2013 Cameron discovers the etymology of anatomy: know why the top vertebra in the neck is called the atlas? Sure you do. “There’s something delightful about coming across unfamiliar words for all the things that move me through the day,” she says. A swarm of starlings is called a murmuration. “No […]
Christie
This morning I awoke to the kind of day that offers an easy excuse to skip the walk. The temperature gauge read -3F (-19C) when I crawled out of bed, and by the time I’d finished the tea and hot porridge my husband had prepared, it was still only -1F. But the dogs were eager, the […]
December 24 – 28 This was Secret Satan week, in which we science writers confronted our secret fears; which subjects do we find most daunting? Why do they scare us? Ann got us off to a great start last week with an erudite explanation of why biology’s not for her. Richard goes into a cold […]
For the holiday season, we here at LWON are confronting our fears of certain sciences. We are choosing our most daunting subjects and writing about why they scare us. Heather: Today Christie and I are fessing up to the science that has often given us the cold sweats, the one that freaked us out at […]
Dec. 17 – 21 Refereeing by a goal-line technology called — as Sally says, “(awesomely), Hawk Eye” — is outsourcing our judgment to a technology and its algorithms. Is that going to work? Given the history of human judgment, sure, why not. Here’s Guest Sujata Gupta with a story about macaques with SIV that get […]
At a recent holiday party, I was talking to an older acquaintance when out of the blue, I felt him rub his junk on my hand. I was already on my way out. My husband was a few feet ahead of me, and I’d just grabbed the sauté pan that had contained my potluck dish. […]
November 19 – 23 I hope you nice people in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving. This week, Ginny introduced us to the sleep molecule. Jessa explained the 21st century superbear. It’s a hybrid between a polar bear and a grizzly, and it’s straight out of the anthropocene. Christie considered a status symbol shared by […]
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 […]