Archive: 2012

-- All scientists are driven to explain how and why things are the way they are. The differences among the various scientific disciplines lie in the scale and location at which we choose to investigate these basic questions. Two of the most fundamental…

-- The Human Microbiome Project (HMP). If asked what it is, perhaps you would see that the name resembles that of the Human Genome Project and guess that it is a large effort devoted to some sort of DNA sequencing involving humans. This is partially…

-- Memory encompasses everything from thoughts of childhood friends to a mental list of what we need to pick up at the grocery store. It is essential for our sense of self, and allows us to learn from our previous experiences. In general, a memory is a…

-- Behind every Olympic victory is an incredible amount of physics, biomechanics, and engineering. With the Olympic Games in full swing, let’s take a look at the science behind three of its most popular events: running, swimming and gymnastics.

Most visits to a doctor or hospital occur when a patient feels under the weather, but is unsure of the cause of the symptoms or the best way to treat them. For example, sniffles and a sore throat could be caused by seasonal allergies or the flu, each of…

-- Two groups of scientists — one based in the Netherlands and the other in the United States — have carried out detailed studies on the experimental evolution of the A/H5N1 virus, more commonly known as the “bird flu”. Public health officials have…

The Turing Centenary Conference was held this June at Cambridge University. Cambridge had special significance for Alan Turing, as he spent his formative undergraduate years there and returned there shortly after his PhD. The conference brought together…

Barbara Liskov is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is a member of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She has spent the past forty or so years finding and describing new ways…

Ann Druyan, an American author and producer specializing in cosmology and popular science, once said For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness, and comet personally. We…

Can we build a functional brain using computers? In order to answer that question, we need to know how the brain is built in nature. The human brain is composed of more than 10 billion cells called neurons that can be electrically activated upon…