Heat rises, cold falls, and like a pan of soup on a hot stove, the earth boils, exceedingly slowly. The boiling is called convection: columns of heat rise from the earth’s hot core, move up through the viscous solidity of the mantle, cool at the crust, roll over and fall back down. The crust that […]
Nature
Last summer, I wrote an article for the magazine New Scientist about a bold new initiative to provide low-cost in vitro fertilization—for as little as $300 per cycle—to poor women in developing countries. The article, entitled Cheap IVF offers hope to childless millions, described initiatives by the Swiss-based Low Cost IVF Foundation and the European […]
I thought I’d made the case against parasitic wasps with evidence and eloquence. I thought that would be the end of it. But no: counter-arguments were made (even if insects did evolve first, Josie, I can still feel superior), gauntlets thrown down, aspersions cast (you think I didn’t notice “delicate flower,” Heather?), and lines drawn […]
My apologies to all the delicate flowers out there. But here is a video that will actually make you feel sorry for a vampire bat. Assassin bugs really do come by their names honestly.
I was going about life one day, visiting my step-daughter the entomologist who showed me, in a microscope, a pale green little aphid which was eating a leaf. Inside the aphid was a tiny parasitic wasp which was eating the aphid. Through the aphid’s transparent body, I could see the wasp’s buggy little eyes. I […]
At 5:04 on the morning of July 16, 2010, I woke up because the bed was vibrating, as was the floor. A small rumbling noise moved through the room and on out, and I thought, “earthquake,” and went back to sleep. It turned out to have been a magnitude 3.6 – pretty big for these […]
BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
In 1909, 20,000 garment workers in New York City went on strike, demanding a 52-hour workweek, paid overtime, and union recognition. The “uprising,” as described in Susan A. Glenn’s marvelous book Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation, began a cycle of labor organization that helped build the garment industry unions. […]
