Teresa Riera Madurell, member of the European Parliament from Spain, was appointed last month as the rapporteur responsible for establishing Horizon 2020, the next European Union (EU) research-funding programme that will run during 2014–20. The former computer scientist leads five other parliamentary rapporteurs who, over the next year, will craft four legislative documents that will [...]
Science writing:I studied astronomy but I've reported on everything from behavioral science for magazines such as Scientific American MIND and New Scientist to the behavior of scientists for Science Careers and Nature.
--Lucas Laursen
Monsanto to face biopiracy charges in India An Indian government agency has agreed to sue the developers of genetically modified (GM) eggplant for violating India's Biological Diversity Act of 2002. India's National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is alleging that the developers of India's ...
Vikings Navigated With Translucent Crystals?
In some Icelandic sagas—embellished stories of Viking life—sailors relied on so-called sunstones to locate the sun's position and steer their ships on cloudy days. The stone would've worked by detecting a property of sunlight called polarization. Polarization ...
In some Icelandic sagas—embellished stories of Viking life—sailors relied on so-called sunstones to locate the sun's position and steer their ships on cloudy days. The stone would've worked by detecting a property of sunlight called polarization. Polarization ...
Sounding out cancer cells A device that filters cancer cells from human blood using sound could help to identify tumour cells that have spread. Finding tumour cells in the blood indicates a cancer has metastasised – but the molecular markers ...
Feature: (Stem cell) banking crisis Like most stem cell biologists, Helen Mardon obtained her first cell lines from someone she knew. Later, when she needed more material, she chose to pay for a line from a commercial dealer. Eventually, the ...
Mixed Drinks, Mixed Messages One minute you’re feeling festive and the next you’re wishing you’d had one less drink. This spring, a pair of studies sent equally mixed signals about long-term alcohol consumption that might baffle even the most ...
In The Fold Mom wanted you to be a doctor, but you were too busy playing videogames to take the MCATs? Now is your chance to make amends. Foldit, a new online game, taps our inner competitive streak to ...
Plants Gone Alpine These days it seems like everyone is into fast-and-light alpine climbing, even plants. Now, according to researchers in Germany, valley plants are racing up the flanks of the Bernina Alps, Switzerland. The range is home ...
Overwhelmed drug regulators seek cure in cooperation I have the lead news story in Nature Medicine this month, on how medical regulators are joining forces to keep up with their duties [html] [pdf]: Regulatory authorities such as the US Food and Drug ...
Synthetic Stones Capture Carbon
While scrubbers in smokestacks at coal plants can pull out toxic gases like sulfur dioxide, scientists haven’t yet developed a cost-effective technology to remove carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust. Now European researchers have tinkered with ...
While scrubbers in smokestacks at coal plants can pull out toxic gases like sulfur dioxide, scientists haven’t yet developed a cost-effective technology to remove carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust. Now European researchers have tinkered with ...
How To Avoid Retirement
In Japan late last year I met a professor who moved to Tokyo to avoid mandatory retirement at his institute in Kyoto. My story about how to stay in academia past your nominal retirement date ...
In Japan late last year I met a professor who moved to Tokyo to avoid mandatory retirement at his institute in Kyoto. My story about how to stay in academia past your nominal retirement date ...
Virus-resistant cassava could be available by 2015 Cassava breeds that are resistant to two major viruses could soon be available to farmers in Africa. Cassava mosaic disease and brown streak disease stunt the growth and rot the roots of crops, respectively. Mosaic disease alone ...
Feature: Braving Iceland’s Volcano The propeller-driven six-seater churns straight toward the brown plume over Eyjafjallajökull, unlike other aircraft taking off from Reykjavík airport. Inside, accompanied by a seasoned pilot, sits Björn Oddsson, a graduate student at the University of ...
Tweeting The Lunar Landings Just read Apollo 13. Forget being a fireman. I want to be an astronaut! About 13 years ago Imagine if wide-eyed kids and journalists had Twitter during the space race and in the decades after. I might ...
Seismic “Noise”–Oil Prospecting Data Could Decipher Ocean Mixing See this story as it appeared in the magazine [pdf], online version at SciAm.com [html], read the Portuguese translation [html em português] or read on: Three decades ago researchers discovered what are essentially ...
Mantle Recycles Far Faster Than Thought The magma that rises from the mantle, forming new islands, may blast more than it bubbles. Where those plumes of magma originate -- at the core-mantle boundary or the mantle-crust boundary -- and how ...
Europe’s research plan starts to take shape
Teresa Riera Madurell, member of the European Parliament from Spain, was appointed last month as the rapporteur responsible for establishing Horizon 2020, the next European Union (EU) research-funding programme that will run during 2014–20. ...
Teresa Riera Madurell, member of the European Parliament from Spain, was appointed last month as the rapporteur responsible for establishing Horizon 2020, the next European Union (EU) research-funding programme that will run during 2014–20. ...
The Story Is Dead. Long Live the Story. Artist and self-styled experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats is hoping to persuade the art world to join scientists in the Copernican Revolution—nearly 5 centuries late. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus made the humbling observation that the ...
Optical Fiber Watches Wounds Monitoring a wound as it heals should get easier thanks to a new kind of optical fiber that could become a part of everyday bandages. The fiber’s coating alters in color in response ...
Iceland’s Monster Bares Its Heart This past spring's eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland was a nightmare for travelers, but it gave scientists in Europe unprecedented access to a complex eruption right in their backyard. Old workhorses of ...
Brewing a Cup of Volcanic Tea Many families along Iceland's fertile southern coast can spin a good yarn about a close escape from an exploding volcano. Take Kristín Vogförð's grandfather, who was tending sheep on the eastern slopes of Katla when ...
Brain Freeze Some of us sing, and some of us just mouth the lyrics, but we all rely on our brain to coordinate even the simplest motor behaviors. Scientists interested in the brain activity behind motion ...