We helped uncover a public health crisis in Flint, but learned there are costs to doing good science
Feb 29, 2016 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
Our team of more than two dozen students and research scientists at Virginia Tech has spent much of the past year analyzing and publicizing unsafe drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Our open science research...
Here's how we could build a colony on an alien world
Feb 26, 2016 14:52 pm UTC| Science
If the human race is to survive in the long-run, we will probably have to colonise other planets. Whether we make the Earth uninhabitable ourselves or it simply reaches the natural end of its ability to support life, one...
Leap day: fixing the faults in our stars
Feb 26, 2016 04:48 am UTC| Science
The number 2016 divided by 4 equals 504, exactly with no remainder, which makes the year 2016, like the upcoming years 2020, 2024 and 2028 (and beyond), a leap year. We will get an extra day, February 29. This pattern...
Should scientists engage with pseudo-science or anti-science?
Feb 25, 2016 04:48 am UTC| Science
The ABCs flagship science journalism TV programme, Catalyst, has riled the scientific community once again. And, in a similar vein to Catalysts controversial 2013 report on the link between statins, cholesterol and heart...
The mysterious biomechanics of riding – and balancing – a bicycle
Feb 25, 2016 04:27 am UTC| Science
Humans have been riding bicycle-like machines for close to 200 years, beginning with the Draisine or velocipede in 1817. While riding and balancing a bicycle can seem simple and effortless, the actual control process...
Could big dinosaurs swim? Scientists follow the footprints
Feb 24, 2016 14:12 pm UTC| Science
How far can you trust a footprint? Dinosaur footprints are fascinating but theres a question over how reliable they are at providing information about the palaeobiology of the creatures that made them. While certain prints...
What is time – and why does it move forward?
Feb 22, 2016 16:22 pm UTC| Science
Imagine time running backwards. People would grow younger instead of older and, after a long life of gradual rejuvenation unlearning everything they know they would end as a twinkle in their parents eyes. Thats time as...