by Leslie Willoughby | May 5, 2015 | Posts
Monterey County>> Fragrant, tender, and sweet, strawberries brighten produce aisles nationwide. The use of pesticides assures their abundance and affordable price. Yet the chemicals that protect the berries may extract costs beyond those paid by shoppers. They...
by Chris Cesare | Mar 17, 2015 | Posts
Cross-post from the Inside Science Currents Blog Cozying up with a good book can transport a reader anywhere, from Victorian England to the desolate craggy plains of Mordor. We take for granted how seamlessly our mind’s eye paints these elaborate pictures, but...
by Kerry Klein | Mar 16, 2015 | Posts
After decades as a science reporter, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey Rex Buchanan now finds himself at the epicenter of a media frenzy. When Rex Buchanan became interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey in 2010, earthquakes there were...
by Leslie Willoughby | Mar 12, 2015 | Posts
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake occurred offshore of Japan and kicked off a tsunami. At the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the natural disasters knocked out...
by Kim Smuga-Otto | Feb 17, 2015 | Posts
Dear Scicom Slug, A few years ago I paid $99, spit into a tube and signed up for 23andMe, a direct to consumer DNA testing service. Through their site I learned my genes gave me a low chance for most cancers, a higher chance for diabetes (not much of a surprise given...
by Leslie Willoughby | Jan 19, 2015 | Posts
Like any classic work of art, the moon means different things to different people. For millennia, humans have used its omnipresent face as a canvas for storytelling. Today, we see Earth’s faithful satellite in everything from the children’s book “Goodnight Moon” to...
by Lisa Marie Potter | Dec 27, 2014 | Posts
Christmas time draws nature-lovers outdoors to watch the sky. They are uninterested in magical sleigh rides, however — their binoculars follow flocks of birds. December 14 through January 5 marks the 115th annual Christmas Bird Count in which thousands of...
by Chris Cesare | Dec 26, 2014 | Posts
Walking up the stone path leading to Our Green Thumb community garden, I peer over the fence and notice that some of the plots look better than others. “You can tell which ones are student plots,” says Trent Hodges, my guide and a master’s student in International...
by Rex Sanders | Dec 26, 2014 | Posts
After moving 50 times in 50 years, I finally settled down in a deep redwood canyon, across a potholed single lane road from a large state park. Eleven years later, my wife and I are still discovering the hidden treasures in our little 0.44-acre property. Compared to...
by Leigh Cooper | Dec 24, 2014 | Posts
The remains of eggs Benedict, hash browns, and Bloody Marys littered the brunch table as my girlfriends and I exchanged stories from the previous month. Among the tales of work, men and family, one story stood out. A friend explained how she and her partner had...
by Nala Rogers | Dec 23, 2014 | Posts
By Nala Rogers, Inside Science A spider buries her fangs in a clear oakworm moth on Andy Warren’s porch after luring the moth down from the oak canopy. Courtesy Andrew D. Warren (Inside Science) — Andy Warren spent the summer of 2014 driving around the...
by Kerry Klein | Dec 19, 2014 | Posts
On Oct. 8, 2013, Carolyn Branecky received news no Ph.D. student ever wants to hear: her research project could be pushed back a year, or worse. The U.S. government had shut down a week earlier, and federally funded research was put on hold until Congress voted on a...
