Russians finally hit Antarctic Lake Vostok after 20-year drilling project
After several days of uncertainty, the head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute has confirmed that a drilling project that started over 20 years ago has finally made it through nearly four kilometers of ice to re...
For cold water corals, warming is beating acidification to drive a growth spurt
The release of excess CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other processes doesn’t just affect our air; it also affects our oceans. The oceans absorb as much as 30 percent of the...
Lasers plus a crushing magnetic field may make fusion more efficient
Ever since I first heard about the idea, I have loved inertial confinement fusion. The basic concept involves blowing stuff up with lasers to get some energy, then doing it again and again as fast...
Revenge is ours: extracting energy from a cockroach
I love science. The joy of discovery in pure research combines with applied science to leave me fantasizing about future technology. Add in the occasional WTF moment and the comedy inherent in poorly prepared presentations,......
SkyLight combines iPhones and microscopes
We've seen lots of photo accessories that let you add filters and lenses to your iPhone, but SkyLight is the first to let you add a full-fledged microscope. It's a platform that attaches to a microscope and aligns the phone's camera with the eyepiece...
Volcanoes, rather than a quiet Sun, may have triggered the Little Ice Age
I’m not a big guy. It doesn’t take a tremendous shove to send me crashing to the floor. But what does it take to knock the Earth’s climate off balance? In the case of the...
Week in science, with unusual amounts of insanity
It was a crazy week for science. Normally, when we say that, we mean there was a lot of important news going on; this week, some of the actual stories involved a fair degree...
Indiana backing away from bill allowing creation "science" into classrooms
Earlier this week, we reported on efforts by an Indiana state legislator who was interested in getting creationism inserted into the state's science classrooms. He managed to get a modified bill, one that was less sectarian but ......
FDA whistleblowers say government retaliated with spyware
A group of former FDA scientists who spoke out against the agency's allegedly flawed device-approval process are suing the feds for intercepting Gmail and Yahoo Mail messages by installing spy programs on their work compute......
Study of deadly flu sparks debate amidst fears of new pandemic
The 2009 flu pandemic, although not especially deadly, revealed just how quickly a new influenza virus could elude surveillance and spread internationally. It also left health experts eying the disease that many fear could......
Ars and nature.com at the American Museum of Natural History: good stuff
For nearly a year now, Ars has worked with nature.com to organize a monthly panel discussion called Science Online NYC. We're pleased to announce that, in February, we'll also be working with the American Museum of Natural Histo......
Book Review: The Infinity Puzzle
The Infinity Puzzle sounds like one of those wooden gadgets that you can play with for a few minutes before wanting to hurl it across the room in frustration, but the infinity puzzle of this book's title actually...
