Blogs - Page 18 of 56 - This Week in Science

Biology

How India Brought Tigers Back from the Brink—And What It Means for the Planet

Once upon a time—not in a fairy tale, but in real life—tigers ruled the forests of Asia. They prowled across vast landscapes, a symbol of power and majesty. Fast forward to the 21st century, and their story looked grim. By the early 2000s, the world’s wild tiger population had plummeted to just 3,600. Conservationists sounded […]

Read more →

Uncategorized

Why Thousands of People Move Like a Giant, Invisible Vortex

Picture this: You’re at a massive festival, packed shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people. Suddenly, the crowd starts moving—not chaotically, but in a coordinated, eerie swirl. No one is directing it, yet somehow, everyone moves in sync. What’s going on? Are we all just mindless particles caught in a human tornado? It turns out, […]

Read more →

News

Next Week in Science, February 21, 2024

It’s discouraging, I know. Some colleagues over at the Tango 2 Foundation have provided a nice form letter to and link to help contact your representatives and tell them to use the power of the Legislative Branch to stop this freaking insanity. You can find your reps here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials Here’s a script, but please modify […]

Read more →

News

NSF Layoffs 2025: Massive Budget Cuts Threaten U.S. Scientific Research and Innovation

In a devastating blow to American scientific research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced sweeping layoffs and budget cuts in 2025, threatening to dismantle a significant portion of the U.S. research infrastructure. The NSF, which provides nearly 25% of all federally supported basic research funding to U.S. universities and research institutions, could see its […]

Read more →

Biology

The Cannibal Bees: How Honey Bees Eat Their Own to Survive

Picture this: A thriving honey bee colony buzzing with life, queen bees laying thousands of eggs, and worker bees tirelessly tending to their larvae. But then—disaster strikes. The flowers dry up, pollen runs out, and suddenly, the colony faces a brutal choice. Starvation or… cannibalism? That’s right. When food gets scarce, worker bees do something […]

Read more →

Biology

Are We Living in a New Epoch? Scientists Just Measured How Much We Know

Picture this: A future geologist cracks open the Earth’s crust and finds layers of plastic, radioactive isotopes from nuclear tests, and chicken bones—yes, chicken bones—fossilized into the rock. Welcome to the Anthropocene, a proposed new epoch where human activity has become the defining force shaping the planet. But here’s the real question: How many of […]

Read more →

Biology

Can Darkness Erase Time? The Secret Life of Cave Spiders

If you were trapped in a pitch-black cave with no access to the sun, would your body still know when to wake up and when to sleep? Turns out, evolution has been running this eerie experiment for millions of years, and the results are weirder than you’d expect. A team of researchers recently dove deep […]

Read more →

Society

How Counter-Terrorism Laws are Choking Civil Society

What do climate activists, LGBTQ+ support groups, and humanitarian organizations have in common? According to counter-terrorism laws worldwide, they could all be threats. Yes, you read that right. Governments have long justified harsh regulations in the name of national security. Still, a growing body of research reveals an unsettling side effect. These laws are being […]

Read more →

Announcements

Next Week in Science, February 14, 2025

One thing’s for sure, lots of scientist and scientific support staff will be losing their jobs. We already know about the indirect rate cut, which I need to blog a bit more about because I have mixed feelings. Well, the journals keep publishing at least. Join the Science Adventure: The stakes for science have never […]

Read more →