Barcoding Bushmeat

I’m beginning to think that my LWON byline should read: Virginia Hughes, the one who writes about obscure applications of DNA testing. First there was the story about the scientist who found a rare DNA blip that could prove that the corpse in Napoleon’s tomb really is Napoleon. Then there was the team that screened [...]

Seeking clarity for the toughest decisions of all

Making decisions about your own medical care is tough. Making decisions about a child’s medical care is tougher still. But making decisions about care for your unborn child? Nothing is harder than that. And these days, there is no end to the decisions that must be made: genetic testing? Birth attendant? With or without medication? [...]

New Person of LWON: Erika Check Hayden

There’s this idea, and I don’t know who started it, but it’s definitely floating around, out there, that science journalists are disheveled, frazzled, socially awkward and overall, just not very cool. That nasty rumor, if I ever believed it, was quickly dispelled the day I met Erika Check Hayden. This woman is polished — in [...]

Stop the Presses. Please.

The subject line in the e-mail was, “Congratulations, I think….”  The message itself said, “Just read about Dark Matter finally outing itself.” “Huh?” I wrote back. “Haven’t you heard??? Dark Matter has been telescopically (is that a word?) observed!” The message came from a graduate student of mine during holiday break this past December. He [...]

Searching for Jim Gray

Re: Heather’s post on people who’d lost people in recent, godawful earthquakes and found them again via Google technologies.   I’d watched another high-tech-mediated search and though it doesn’t really bear thinking about, I’ll tell you anyway. On February 1, 2007, I got an email from an astronomer named Alex Szalay saying in case I hadn’t [...]

Mapping Baltimore’s Addiction

Baltimore has a hard-core drug problem. The evidence is unmistakable. Head down an alley in the wrong part of town and you’re liable to find a discarded needle, some broken vials, and maybe even a shell casing or two. Why, yes. That was a gunshot. See that guy on the corner? No, he’s not tired. [...]

Corvid Cousins

Ann, I see your crows and raise you ravens. With a beak like a Swiss army knife and an intellect to match, the raven is an icon, mascot and pest, as mysterious as it is ubiquitous. For me, as for most people up North, these winged scavengers hover just below my conscious radar. They steal [...]

Google in Our Hour of Need

In late February, I had my first experience of worrying from afar about a good friend caught in a catastrophic earthquake. The anxiety started just before six in the evening of February 21st, after I’d knocked off work for the day and idly flipped on the radio to catch some news. I was only half [...]