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Science

Wednesday

To Dodge Blame, Officials Prep Public For Worst

In preparing the public for a disaster, officials want to make the right call, but they also want to avoid blame. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

Hidden Brain

To Dodge Blame, Officials Prep Public For Worst

Because people are more likely to blame public officials if there is a repeat of a previous disaster, officials tend to disproportionately focus their safety efforts on preventing similar disasters in the future, researchers say. So, for example, officials might over-react to a hurricane in light of Katrina, even if the real threat to public safety may lie elsewhere.

To Dodge Blame, Officials Prep Public For Worst

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'Kitchen Science': The Dinner Is In The Details
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Fresh Food

'Kitchen Science': The Dinner Is In The Details

Fresh Air

In How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science, Russ Parsons answers all sorts of food science questions, including why meat browns, why sauces emulsify and how frying is different from roasting.

'Kitchen Science': The Dinner Is In The Details

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Tuesday

Tube Burgers: The World Of In Vitro Meat

"Can something be called chicken or pork if it was born in a flask and produced in a vat?" asks Michael Spector. "Questions like that have rarely been asked and have never been answered." iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Fresh Food

Tube Burgers: The World Of In Vitro Meat

Fresh Air

Would you eat a steak grown in a laboratory? Science writer Michael Specter examines the progress scientists have made in developing test-tube meat. "Depending on what your definition of any sort of life is, this is as fundamental as any animal is," he says.

Tube Burgers: The World Of In Vitro Meat

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Monday

Think You're An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Maybe Not
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Shots - Health News

Think You're An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Maybe Not

Researchers say there's no evidence to support the widely held belief that there are distinct visual, auditory and kinetic learning styles. Though an industry has sprung up around the idea, psychologists recommend other approaches to help kids retain information.

Think You're An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Maybe Not

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Saturday

Does Jobs Have Place In History Beside Edison, Ford?

Steve Jobs holds up an iPhone at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June 2010. Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO on Wednesday. Paul Sakuma/AP hide caption

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Paul Sakuma/AP

Business

Does Jobs Have Place In History Beside Edison, Ford?

Comparisons can be drawn between the former Apple CEO and other great innovators like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, both technological titans in American history.

Does Jobs Have Place In History Beside Edison, Ford?

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At New Madrid Fault, Shaky Guesses On Next Quake

The New Madrid earthquakes broke up rock like this section of rock face, which was later filled with sand. This photo, from Mississippi County, Mo., was taken in 1904. M.L. Fuller (Image 336)/USGS hide caption

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M.L. Fuller (Image 336)/USGS

At New Madrid Fault, Shaky Guesses On Next Quake

St. Louis Public Radio

The massive New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 were strong enough to make the Mississippi River run backward. Now, 200 years later, seismologists and geologists are studying the region to assess the likelihood of another huge quake.

At New Madrid Fault, Shaky Guesses On Next Quake

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Friday

Science Diction: The Origin Of 'Chemistry'

The word chemistry is said to have roots in either ancient Egypt or Greece. Science historian Howard Markel discusses the word's origin, and the modern naming of the field of chemistry by British natural philosopher and alchemist Robert Boyle in his 1661 treatise, The Skeptical Chymist.

Science Diction: The Origin Of 'Chemistry'

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Environment

NOAA Warns Of Gap In Future Forecasting Abilities

NASA and NOAA satellites have been tracking Hurricane Irene as it barrels up the coast. But one type of NOAA satellite, which orbits the poles and helps predict severe weather like tornadoes and blizzards, may soon be out of commission--with no scheduled replacement--leaving NOAA with a blind eye.

NOAA Warns Of Gap In Future Forecasting Abilities

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Reflecting On Sept. 11, 2001

A Look Back At 9/11 In 'I Heard The Sirens Scream'

In a new book, "I Heard the Sirens Scream" Pulitzer Prize winner Laurie Garrett gives her account of the World Trade Center attacks ten years ago, and tells how she thinks those events, combined with the anthrax attacks that came shortly after, changed the country's course.

A Look Back At 9/11 In 'I Heard The Sirens Scream'

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Did You Feel It?

A relatively rare East Coast earthquake centered in Virginia shook people from Canada to Georgia. Carnegie Institute of Washington geophysicist Diana Roman explains the geology of the region, and the factors that allowed the earthquake's seismic waves to travel far and wide.

Did You Feel It?

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Research News

Water Striders Don't Stride, They Row

David Hu, mechanical engineer at Georgia Tech, wanted to understand the basic physics of how water striders glide. By filming them stride on food coloring and building his own robotic strider, he found out that the secret to the stride is in the paddle.

Water Striders Don't Stride, They Row

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Elusive Higgs Boson Still Hiding From Physicists

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have narrowed the range of energies at which they might find the Higgs boson, a particle predicted to give all others their mass. Science historian Amir Aczel discusses whether the particle might not exist, and how math sometimes leads physicists astray.

Elusive Higgs Boson Still Hiding From Physicists

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