The Last Word On Nothing | "Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing" - Victor Hugo

Dust on our crust

By: Christie Aschwanden | April 24, 2013

Spring is a nervous time for skiers and farmers. I’m both of these, and every April I watch the weather even more closely than usual. As a skier, I’m waiting for crust — the year’s most magnificent snow conditions.

Spring’s warm temperatures compress the winter’s deep snowpack and when the freeze/thaw cycles line up just right, a firm crust forms on the top of the snow. This crust provides an ideal surface for skate skiing. In mid-season, skaters are confined to the groomed tracks, but come crust season, you can ski anywhere and everywhere without slogging. Conditions are fast and fun. It’s skiing at its finest. Crust cruisers often find themselves spontaneously emitting sounds of glee, such as “yippeeee!” Continue reading →

Debunking Hollywood: Science On the Fringe

By: Erik Vance | April 23, 2013

I am just sitting down to dinner at makeshift cafeteria a few miles away from a Maya dig site, called Xultun, in the jungles of Northern Guatemala. It’s my third day there, and I am still not used to the howler monkeys and giant insects. But most of the students around me have been here for weeks or months and they happily chat away as they dig into home-cooked chicken with tortillas and refried beans.

Sitting there all alone, I listened in on their conversations.

“That was during the rule of Tuun K’ab’ Hix, who captured Aj Wosal and put him under the power of Naranjo,” says one undergraduate archeologist. Then for a few minutes I can’t hear as an argument breaks out. When I pick it up again it’s, “… so the palace of Godalin falls to the Paks from the north, who are fierce fighters.”

Did you hear it? If weren’t careful, you’d miss the change from actual 6th Century Maya king to what I inferred was World of Warcraft. Pretty much the only way to separate archaeology from a fantasy battle was by the tenses they used.

In the past, I have written about how domestic décor reflects our passion but at that moment I discovered that it goes much further than that. Many of the young archeologists in that camp were huge fantasy nerds (takes one to know one, believe me). Same for science nerds. I ask you, is there any scientist or science writer out there who does not like science fiction? Don’t bother responding, the answer is no. Continue reading →

Guest Post: Dumped! by Google

By: Tienlon Ho | April 22, 2013

One recent Thursday morning, I logged into my email and made an alarming discovery. Instead of opening my inbox, Google directed me to a notice:

Account has been disabled . . . . In most cases, accounts are disabled if we believe you have violated either the Google Terms of Service, product-specific Terms of Service . . . . or product-specific policies . . . . it might be possible to regain access to your account.

It was like I’d gotten dumped, via text message, by someone en route to Cabo. The vagaries left me reeling. Continue reading →

The Last Word

By: Sally Adee | April 20, 2013

April 15-19

Can a country have post-traumatic stress disorder? This week, guest poster Amy Maxmen reported back from two weeks in Sierra Leone, where survivors and perpetrators eke out an uneasy truce after a ten year war.

Cassie realised in the aftermath of the Boston bombings that no matter how fast Twitter and CNN can get you the news or how close to the ground they can get you, no technology can shake that feeling of helplessness like turning off the TV.

Michelle observed that the money spent to save a single animal could have saved an entire herd – and explained why that’s just fine.

Forget everything you knew about hot flashes: Ann explained why estrogen’s got nothing to do with it.

And Cameron introduced us to the concept of state microbes. What’s Oregon’s? Hint: beer.

Broadening the Beam of Compassion

By: Michelle Nijhuis | April 18, 2013

A few years ago, my neighbor in Colorado decided to learn something about animal rights.

I thought this was a pretty interesting project under any circumstances, but it was especially interesting because my neighbor is Michael Soule, the biologist credited with founding the field of conservation biology.

Like a lot of conservation-minded scientists, Michael was suspicious of animal-rights activists, disliking their focus on individual animal welfare rather than the survival of species and habitats. (The suspicion is mutual: Conservationists and animal-rights activists have clashed over invasive-species eradication, DIY feral cat control, hunting, and many other issues.) But Michael realized he hadn’t tried to understand the animal-rights perspective. So for a year, he subscribed to magazines, read websites, and talked to activists. And he realized that animal rights and conservation had much more in common than he’d thought.

Continue reading →

Fast Journalism and Senseless Acts of Violence

By: Cassandra Willyard | April 17, 2013

On September 11, 2001, I was visiting a teacher in a one-room school in Kikijana, Bolivia, a tiny community nestled high in the mountains. After school let out, the teacher switched on a battery-operated radio. The broadcast was in Quechua, a language I don’t really speak, so I tuned out. But the teacher was listening. “Conoces los torres gimelas?” he asked. I nodded. Yes, I’d heard of the twin towers. I could almost conjure a faint outline of the skyscrapers.

A plane ran into them, he told me. I pictured a small aircraft. I imagined a pilot thrown wildly off course. I thought the incident was an accident. Continue reading →

Whereas the Microbe

By: Cameron Walker | April 16, 2013

An important decision faces Oregon’s lawmakers this week. It concerns a $2.4 billion industry, an organism that’s important in genetics and other research, and a ritual that boosts the happiness of the multitudes, starting around 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

I know, I know. I could have just said that Oregon is considering making brewer’s yeast its state microbe—a designation that, if approved, would make it the first state with its very own microbe. But I don’t usually give microbes enough respect, even though they’re as essential as the air I breathe (in fact, cyanobacteria shaped our oxygen-rich atmosphere). Continue reading →