Lorence G. Collins, Skeptical Inquirer
Christians who call themselves creationists believe that a creator formed the universe, Earth, and its life, but beliefs about creation and evolution exist along a considerable spectrum.1 Among the landscape of modern evangelical Christianity, many contemporary young-Earth creationists (YECs) have a narrow view of what constitutes biblical creationism.
Emily Willingham, Sci American
In an idealized version of human existence, wealth lifts all boats, gender equality prevails and everyone behaves freely as the individuals they are.Such a gender-equal fictional utopia starts from a premise that equal access to wealth and opportunity will erase the divide between men and women. But what if the utopian predictions are wrong?
Dan Vergano, BuzzFeed
In an unprecedented public dispute, scientists advising the FDA can't agree over whether to allow the strongest painkiller on the market to be sold as an under-the-tongue tablet.The drug, sufentanil, is an opioid 500 to 1,000 times more potent than morphine, and up to 10 times more powerful than fentanyl. The FDA approved an injected form of the drug more than two decades ago for severe injuries and use in surgery.
Meg Neal, Popular Mechanics
One of the most important science experiments of all time was a complete and utter failure.In 1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley set up their project in the dormitory basement at a university in Cleveland, Ohio. The idea was to bounce light beams off mirrors in different directions and measure their speeds. The two researchers thought their hoped-for resultcapturing light moving at different velocitywould help to prove the existence of aether.
Akshat Rathi, Anthropocene
Fast-forward Earth about a million years. Humanity has come and goneperhaps wiped out by a pandemic or some cataclysmic event, like the dinosaurs before them. Aliens or maybe even intelligent descendants of today's apes are digging for clues to what happened long ago. They may or may not find human bones, and they may or may not find metallic remnants of our modern lives.
Brian Kahn, Earther
After nearly four months of waiting for El Nio, the switch is likely to be flipped on this winter. Rejoice, my fellow Ninoheads.There are signs that El Nio, a climate phenomenon characterized by a warming of waters in the eastern tropical Pacific, is imminent according to an update released on Thursday by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).
Stephen Skolnick, Phys Central
As someone whose job it is to help people understand and appreciate physics, I absolutely hate the way most people talk about Isaac Newton and how he developed his theory of gravity. It's not the apple bit that I have a problem with; that's an important part of the story, and even historically accurate! The thing that kills me is the way the idea is framed, and the gulf that it creates between his observation and his insight. What do I mean by that? Let's unpack the story, as I remember first being told it.
Sabine Hossenfelder, Backreaction
In the beginning, reheating created a hot plasma of elementary particles. The plasma expanded, cooled, and emitted the cosmic background radiation. Then gravity made the plasma clump, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, whatever that means.Cosmologists call it the dark ages, the period in the early universe where matter is already too cool to emit radiation, but not yet clumpy enough to ignite nuclear fusion
Robert Service, Science
In chemistry, structure rules because it determines how a molecule behaves. But the two standard ways to map the structure of small organic molecules, such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, and vitamins, have drawbacks. This week, two research teams report they've adapted a third technique, commonly used to chart much larger proteins, to determine the precise shape of small organic molecules. The new technique works with vanishingly small samples, is blazing fast, and is surprisingly easy.
Eleanor Cummins, Popular Science
It's not all fun and video games. In advance of Red Dead Redemption 2, set to debut later this month, members of the team told Vulture they were logging 100 hour weeks to deliver the long-awaited game to fans on deadline. Originally framed as a boast, the familiar claim soon generated backlash, and brought to the surface a question usually carefully repressed: How much work can kill you?
Rafi Letzter, Live Science
Look at that iceberg. It's beautiful. Perfectly rectangular. An object of near geometric perfection jutting into a polar sea of the usual squiggly, chaotic randomness of the natural world. It calls to mind the monolith from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Ruth Itzhaki, Conv
More than 30m people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease the most common form of dementia. Unfortunately, there is no cure, only drugs to ease the symptoms. However, my latest review, suggests a way to treat the disease. I found the strongest evidence yet that the herpes virus is a cause of Alzheimer's, suggesting that effective and safe antiviral drugs might be able to treat the disease. We might even be able to vaccinate our children against it.
