Astrophysicist Patrick Treuthardt wasn’t looking for a rare galaxy. But while gazing at a cluster of galaxies, he happened to notice a small, unobtrusive speck. The speck turned out to be PGC 10000714, an elliptical galaxy surrounded by two rings of stars. It’s one of the rarest types of galaxies in the universe and Treuthardt found it by chance.
A lot of major scientific discoveries can happen by accident, failure or just plain dumb luck.
New Stem Cell Cancer Treatment is on its way to Human Testing
June 2, 2017
In a previous post, we discussed how removing a glioblastoma tumor—one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer—can actually make the tumor’s remnants grow more quickly.
This Important Food Safety Instruction is Often Missing in Cookbooks
May 30, 2017
I love cooking: the smells, the spices, the science... Making food and water safer to consume stacks right up there with the use of tools and fire as the oldest human experiments.
Fruit Fly Mating Mixup May Be Driving Species to Extinction
March 17, 2017
Be honest, how many times have you looked at a hornet and called it a yellowjacket, seen a stink bug in your home and worried it could be a kissing bug or mixed up the various species of flies and ticks?
Dr. Anthony Atala says the promise behind regenerative medicine is that it harnesses the body’s natural healing powers to actually cure, rather than just treat, a disease.
There are several areas of study and treatment: injectable cell therapies to promote healing; replacement tissues and organs produced in the lab; and the use of bio-compatible materials that promote tissue regeneration from within the body.
And it turns out this groundbreaking medicine isn’t limited to humans.
Binge Drinking Tells the Brain to Binge Eat
May 17, 2017
When I first started college, one aspect of campus nightlife completely mystified me. Every Saturday night, a run-down, silver food truck called Uncle Dickie’s set up shop on the edge of the campus frat quad, party central, and at around 12:30 a.m., shambling students would drift towards the truck in search of greasy fries drenched in fake cheese.
Ouch. I scratched myself shaving this morning.
It stung a little. Just to be safe I washed it off and then put a dab of antibiotic ointment on it. No problem.
But the question being asked more and more is: for how long will the antibiotic method continue to work?
The sad fact is we may be entering what scientists are calling the post-antibiotic era. If this is the case, that scratch I happened to get while shaving this morning could turn out to be fatal. It’s all thanks to superbugs—more formally known as drug-resistant bacteria.
As a reporter, you need to keep your eyes and your mind open, because sometimes you stumble upon another story that is just as interesting as the original topic you started working on and begs to be told.
This is one of those stories.
MRIs Could Help Predict Whether Infants at High Risk Will Develop Autism
May 12, 2017
Radiation in Space Could Be Harmful to Far-Travelling Astronauts
May 12, 2017
Star Trek makes it look so easy. In that universe, one can conquer physics by travelling at faster-than-possible warp speed, beat computing and math by disintegrating someone at one point and building them back up at another, and surpass laws of thermodynamics with phaser beams.