Outer space is generally—and rather accurately—viewed as being inhospitable to life. According to a Scientific American article from 2008, a human being can survive exposure to the vacuum of space for only about two minutes. The best-known space survivors, microorganisms called tardigrades, can survive a mere ten days. Clearly, life in its functional form doesn’t…
The first shots in the ongoing battle between pathogenic bacteria and medical science were fired in 1928, when Sir Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin. His landmark discovery kicked off a chemical arms race that continues to this day, with scientists striving to develop effective antibiotics faster than their disease-causing counterparts can evolve strategies to foil them….
The first “Men in Black” film came out in 1997, eliciting rave reviews from anyone and everyone who had a soft spot for corny sci-fi. The film had it all: alien weaponry, Will Smith cracking wise, giant cockroach monsters, and, of course, the nifty memory-erasing “neuralizer.” The neuralizer was a sleek pen-sized device that fired…
Having a good sense of direction is a point of pride for most people. It’s embedded in our culture: real men never ask directions. They might drive the family minivan several dozen meandering miles through inner-city wherever, but they don’t need directions, honey, so just drop it. A recent study at Johns Hopkins University and…
The Four Corners region in the southwest United States enjoys a sort of relaxed notoriety. The “four corners” of the Four Corners belong to four of the more tidily quadrilateral states: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Tourists like to stop by for a quick jaunt, crossing four states off the bucket list in the…
Some diseases, disorders, or injuries can be frightening because their eventual result is death. However, there are other afflictions that are terrifying to contemplate because they represent not an end to life, but rather a drastic and unimaginable change in the way we live. One such case is spinal cord injury. Depending on the site…
Humans like sugar. In this, we are not alone: the labyrinthine web of interconnected chemical reactions that support life are centered on the breakdown of varied sugars. Bacteria like sugar; slime molds like sugar; birds, bees, and most anything that walks, hops, swims or crawls likes sugar. The majority of sugar on Earth comes from…
Most people are at least passingly familiar with the theory of biological evolution. As a tool for understanding the world around us, biological evolution helps explain the bewildering variety of life seeded across the planet. Life, however, does not just happen; even the simplest living cells are home to countless reactions and processes, each of…
Once upon a time, the Group A streptococci were decent bacterial pathogens. Every now and then, they would wind up in a nice comfortable set of human lungs and take the opportunity to cause a little pneumonia. Sometimes a few cells would get really lucky and find their way into the blood, causing meningitis or…
As a science, tissue engineering has been around for more than 20 years. Many recall the infamous Vacanti Mouse of 1997 – an early effort that sparked a media circus as it involved an unfortunate hairless mouse with a human ear grafted jauntily onto its back. While the Vacanti Mouse might seem slightly ghoulish, the…
Cancer and chemotherapy: there are perhaps no two words more unnerving in all the medical lexicon. Almost everyone has been touched by cancer in some way and many have witnessed the ravages chemotherapy visits upon those who undergo it. Part of the reason chemotherapy is so damaging is that it cannot target cancer cells exclusively….
Pacemakers are small surgically implanted electronic devices that correct irregular heartbeats. They are in no way a new technology, having exited in various incarnations for decades. One memorable version from the 1970s is actually nuclear-powered, transforming the heat from decaying plutonium into electrical energy for zapping heart muscles into rhythm. The Los Alamos National Laboratory…
