Wendy Science

Video presents four short films and an overview trailer on this summer's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which brought early-career biologists together with Nobel Prize–winners Sep 24, 2014 | | At this summer's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, reporter Lorna Stewart asks some big questions in biomedical science. In a series of four films, she asks laureates and young researchers about the implications of a globally ageing population, ponders the possibility of drugs without side effects, considers the scientific achievements of 40 years of cancer research, and grapples with the most recent developments in the battle against HIV. Get a taste in this trailer.

See Inside Some say its glory days are long gone, but the universe has life in it yet. Brand-new types of celestial phenomena will unfold over the coming billions and trillions of years By Time's seemingly inexorable march has always provoked interest in, and speculation about, the far future of the cosmos. The usual picture is grim. Five billion years from now the sun will puff itself into a red giant star and swallow the inner solar system before slowly fading to black. But this temporal frame captures only a tiny portion—in fact, an infinitesimal one—of the entire future. As astronomers look ahead, say, “five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years,” as humorist Douglas Adams did in 1980 in , they meet a cosmos replete with myriad slow fades to oblivion. By then the accelerating expansion of space will have already carried everything outside our galaxy beyond our view, leaving the night sky ever emptier. Lord Byron captured the prospect of such a celestial wasteland in h...

It only took about half a century, but the once-rare Delmarva fox squirrel () now has a healthy population once again, placing it in a position to finally leave the protection of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). If that happens, this giant squirrel—which can reach an astonishing 75 centimeters in length—would join just 29 other species that have been declared recovered under the ESA. The Delmarva fox squirrel has enjoyed legal protection since 1967, predating the Endangered Species Act of 1973. At the time it was declared endangered, the subspecies had lost 90 percent of its historic range, which once included almost the entire for which it is named as well as areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Deforestation and other habitat loss during the first half of the twentieth century pushed the squirrel out, while hunting also took a heavy toll. By the 1960s the subspecies could only be found in a few Maryland counties. Endangered-species protection brought an end to the squirrel huntin...

One morning last August, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's deep-sea robot, named Doc Ricketts, was snooping around the ocean floor in 1,812 meters of very cold water off the coast of northern California. It was gliding over an oblong mound 2,000 meters long and 60 meters thick, draped in places with a thin layer of khaki-colored sediment. Video from the robot's underwater camera suddenly revealed what looked like a dirty yet nonetheless luminously white snowbank—the kind found at the edge of a plowed parking lot, except for the clams and fish around it. This glowing ledge showed that the mound contained methane hydrate, a lattice of frozen water that traps methane gas molecules within its icy cages. If you grabbed a snowball of the stuff, you could light it on fire. Outcrops like this one are the proverbial tips of icebergs. Most methane hydrate deposits are trapped in sediments just below the seafloor, at the bottom of deep, cold oceans. Together the deposits are ...

As world leaders gathered at the U.N. to talk about global warming, mayors set about actually doing something about climate change Sep 23, 2014 | | In the 1980s, the Chinese city of Shenzhen had some 300,000 mostly impoverished inhabitants. Today, that city—the first to experience China's reform and economic opening—has more than 15 million residents and also hosts —a carbon market. Shenzhen's market to reduce global warming pollution covers some 620 manufacturers and other industries that collectively grew by 9 percent in 2013. The buying and selling of permits to emit CO2 pollution resulted in a drop of 500,000 metric tons in the manufacturing sector and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million metric tons for the entire city."If you can know Shenzhen can do this then you can believe Chinese government can do this as well," says Tang Jie, vice mayor of one of the largest megacities in China, who says the overall goal is to . "In 2020, our city will leap...

Excited to be fulfilling a dream at last. Photo by Substation Curacao; used with permission. I heard a screwing noise as the hatch of our sub was sealed. A bright orange hose from topside that had been inserted into the sub to blow fresh air as we loaded had been removed, and the interior felt warm and damp and close. All was still. Though I’d worried how I’d feel at this moment (like a mistakenly dead person might feel at hearing their coffin sealed?) what I felt was mostly excitement and anticipation. Laying on my stomach atop a towel and a big cushy pillow with my notebook and camera in hand, I didn’t feel claustrophobic.The huge concave window in front of me showed a blue limitless ocean — a whole world, previously forbidden, waiting to be explored. It was the opposite of confinement. It felt like freedom. Substation Curacao. Photo and copyright Me, as are the rest of the photos and videos in this post except where indicated. I’d only discovered the existence of the Curasub a few...

Kids who could keep a beat had superior skills related to reading and language than did those whose rhythm strayed. Cynthia Graber reports. Sep 23, 2014 | | [SOUND OF DRUMS] That’s a pre-school child , in sync with an adult drummer. And here’s a pre-schooler who can’t find the . [SOUND] Researchers find that the first child, who can match the drum beat, is more likely to have better early language skills and reading potential. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Kali Woodruff Carr et al, ] Rhythm is a key factor in communication. Speech rhythm provides important cues for meaning. Babies pick up rhythms, and we all use it to help identify syllables and words. An inability to properly process speech and sound—and rhythm—appears to be associated with reading problems. In the study, scientists tested 35 children between three and four years old. An adult drummer beat a tempo meant to mimic the speed of speech. Twenty-two children could beat a...