6,100 hundred people applied to become astronauts - with its rather fuzzy, non-specific meaning compared to when I was a kid - for the candidate class of 2013. 8 have been chosen. "These new space…

Since the dawn of time [citation needed], mathematicians have been fascinated with what prime numbers are, how many there are (see below), tests for primality, and crucially, finding a pattern in…

A recent review of research on the response of plants, marine life and animals to declining sea ice in the Arctic found that sea ice decline and warming trends are changing the vegetation in nearby…

Rep. Randy Hultren(R) and Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D - but not the anti-science crackpot one, that one is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) have introduced House Resolution 276, which would recognize the last…

In my previous article, you learned how to use the 555 test circuit as a cable tester. It can also be used to test whether different materials conduct or don’t conduct electricity such as plastic,…

A $12 million program wants to revolutionize current farming methods by giving crops the ability to thrive without using costly, polluting artificial fertilizers. Four teams are using synthetic…

Since man discovered agriculture, farmers have used ingenious ways to pump more nitrogen into crop fields; farmers have planted legumes and plowed the entire crop under, strewn night soil or manure…

Astronomers have assembled images from more than 13 years of superheated gas - 5,000 light-years long - as it is ejected from a supermassive black hole. Even in such a cosmically short time frame, it…

A study shows for the first time that chromosomes rearrangements (such as inversions or translocations) can provide advantages to the cells that harbor them, depending on the environment they are…

Art is forever was true in the case of internationally renowned sculptor Mary Hecht. Despite an advanced case of vascular dementia, Hecht was able to draw spur-of-the moment and detailed sketches of…