Weird Science tunes in to the water bugs’ penile chorus
Inching closer to smell-o-vision: Are you ready for random access aromas? Because an international team of researchers, backed by Samsung, has created "An X-Y Addressable Matrix Odor-Releasing System Using an On-Off...
First time ever: scientists see jets as black hole swallows a star
Gamma ray bursts are produced by some of the most energetic objects in the Universe, such as stars collapsing into supernovae. NASA's Swift observatory is designed to catch these rare events as they unfold, with hardware and sof......
Japanese detector spotted neutrino oscillations prior to earthquake
Japan's Super-Kamiokande detector was constructed to look for proton decays, but back in 1998, it made history by spotting the first indications of flavor oscillations in neutrinos, in which one type of neutrino (a muon neutrino,...
Ask Ars: are dual-band 802.11n routers worth the extra cost?
In 1998, Ask Ars was an early feature of the newly launched Ars Technica. Now, as then, it's all about your questions and our community's answers. Each week, we'll dig into our question bag, provide...
Brain training boosts working memory, but only in some people
When last we tackled the topic of brain training software, the prognosis did not look good. Although proponents of this software claim that it results in a general boost in mental performance, detailed testing...
How scientists turned a living cell into a green laser
Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) does exactly what its name implies: when excited by light from the blue end of the spectrum, it emits a satisfying green glow. But its deceptively simple name doesn't begin to convey how...
Weird Science eats glowing oatmeal for breakfast
Oatmeal just as good as eggs—for delivering radioactivity: It may seem rather weird to actually try to get radioactivity into food, but a standard way of measuring gastric transit times involves spiking some eggs with an ...
No new particle after all: Tevatron’s second detector comes up empty
The excitement that has been building regarding a possible new particle spotted in the Tevatron detector has been seriously dampened. The Tevatron's second detector, DZero, has now repeated the analysis performed by the C......
Clean, cheap hydrogen production from water using cobalt catalyst
For years, proponents of the hydrogen economy have argued that hydrogen will replace traditional hydrocarbon fuels for transportation purposes. But, so far, a lack of new, inexpensive methods for hydrogen production and st...
New genetic mutations trigger many cases of autism
Viewed from some perspectives, autism is a genetic disease. Studies of identical twins show that, when one sibling is affected, the other is also, with a frequency approaching 90 percent. Several genes associated with autism h...
Study on impact of microloans paints mixed picture at best
In 2006, a pioneer in the field of microloans was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize, and the concept has seemingly become even more popular since. It's easy to see why: the small, short-term loans are targeted...
Risk, probability, and how our brains are easily misled
The World Science Festival's panel on Probability and Risk started out in an unusual manner: MIT's Josh Tennenbaum strode onto a stage and flipped a coin five times, claiming he was psychically broadcasting each result to the a......
