What happens when scientists get their hands on the remains of a dinosaur encased in ancient amber? Fortunately, life doesn’t imitate art to the extent to which we should be…
Continue ReadingAs of last month, the periodic table of elements hanging in your classroom, office, or bathroom is officially out of date. Early in December 2016, the chemistry community officially recognized…
Continue ReadingHave you ever wondered what it would be like to see the surface of another planet up close? Well, NASA researchers in Cleveland are making this possible right here on…
Continue ReadingIf I told you that a tumor DNA sequencing research study found 25% of lung cancer patients have a mutation in the gene KRAS, would that truly mean that if…
Continue ReadingIn the past, the largest obstacle that separated humans was distance. In the first half of the 20th century, we built machines that made it possible to drive non-stop from…
Continue ReadingI watched the man at the table next to me begin to sweat profusely. I was enjoying wings with my family, and he had clearly chosen one of the spicier…
Continue ReadingI was sitting at my kitchen table with a scattered mess of textbooks and notes studying for my first graduate school final. The white board was filled with incoherent scribbles…
Continue ReadingIt can be tempting in science, and in life, to believe that every stone has already been turned, that the most impactful steps in your field have already been made,…
Continue ReadingBeverly Crusher. Roy Hinkley. Emmett Brown. Samantha Carter. Sheldon Cooper. The Doctor. Abby Sciuto. Temperance Brennan. What do each of these scientists have in common? From creating a Geiger counter…
Continue ReadingThe votes are in, and to the surprise of pundits and pollsters everywhere, Donald J. Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States. However, many scientists are…
Continue ReadingWinter is officially still three weeks away, although the alternating 30° F nights and 75° F days makes that difficult to remember. The arrival of winter means that it is…
Continue ReadingThe holidays can be stressful for a number of reasons. Take a minute to count up your own stressors. As a graduate student or burgeoning academic, do any of these…
Continue ReadingMeasuring Chemical Chatter If a brain could talk, what would it say? Probably nothing profound or understandable. Rather, it would emit a bustling clamor of messages between neurons. These messages…
Continue ReadingThe electron microscope (EM) was first tested by Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska at the Berlin Technische Hochschule in 1931, remarkably overcoming the resolution limits of visible light for the first…
Continue ReadingCongratulations to Dr. Margaret Scarry! A longstanding faculty member of the Anthropology Department at UNC-CH, Dr. Scarry was recently promoted to the Director of the Research Labs of Archaeology (RLA)…
Continue ReadingImagine a future where the plants in your garden not only grow delicious vegetables, but keep an eye on the soil and water conditions while they’re at it. Is the…
Continue ReadingThis past October, CBS 60 Minutes aired a feature on Artificial Intelligence. They were taking a peek into the world of Watson, a computer system developed by I.B.M that can…
Continue ReadingWe all get that same question over and over again from everyone we meet — the old friend at the grocery store, an uncle at a family reunion, or even…
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