In the weeks after I bought a Fitbit, I noticed I was acting bizarre. I started carrying bags with my left arm so my right arm – the one with the Fitbit – could swing freely to ensure the Fitbit’s accelerometer would count my every step. In the evening, I would pace around my apartment […]
Miscellaneous
March 23 – 27, 2015 “How often do you get to document natural selection happening in a free-ranging population on such a short time scale? How many scientific studies look for that and don’t find it?” Guest poster Judith Lewis Mernit tells us about some very interesting bobcats. In medicine, the word “decompensate” does not mean […]
March 16-20, 2015 Cassie’s redux tells the story of Leroy, an HIV-positive former drug user who featured in her graduate thesis about Baltimore. Michelle converts the Science page of the New York Times into a St. Patrick’s Day miracle. It’s been a decade since polar bear cub Knut won the hearts of Berlin zoo visitors […]
Debunking Hollywood is LWON’s very occasional series that takes a hard science look at common TV and movie tropes. “Help!” The lifeguard straightens in his chair, craning his neck to find the citizen in peril. “Help!” Over there, by the barrier floats! The victim’s face is obscured by great splashes raised in her violent struggle for […]
I knew something was wrong the moment I opened the orchard gate. My guinea fowl were squawking like crazy, buckwheat!, buckwheat!, and none of my two dozen or so chickens were anywhere in sight. I scanned the area around the poultry barn for signs of a predator, but saw nothing. Until I reached the chicken […]
Dear friends! Forgive a change of form A deviation from the norm For on the feast of Saint Pat-rick A man who liked his Limerick We here present for all to see The science news from A to Z The facts from ‘cross the universe The Science Times, told in light verse Today above the […]
March 9-13, 2015 On Friday the 13th, Cassie told us the sad story of the people who died after taking a perfectly reasonable-seeming medicine, and what that means for the drugs we take today. Ann told us what today’s brilliant young astronomers are up to: crazy stuff, like figuring out a rule of thumb for […]
March 2 – 6, 2015 “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe hidden in laboratories and in front of chalkboards around the world there are scores of undiscovered hot, charismatic scientists hiding from the spotlight,” says Erik. “We need these people. Because God knows the pseudoscience nut jobs will take them if we don’t.” Abstruse Goose gets snippy […]
