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The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City has unveiled an exhibit, Race to the End of the Earth, that allows anyone to see and experience the difficulties involved in the original journey to the South Pole. In 1910, two men, Norway’s Roald Amundsen and England’s Robert Falcon Scott, led independent teams in hopes of becoming the first explorer to reach the South Pole and come back to tell the tale. The explorers both approached the daunting task extremely differently…

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Look at a map of North America, and trace with your finger (or, visit this Google Map and trace with your mouse) a path from the coast of British Columbia, around Alaska, through the Bering Strait. Pass by Barrow, a city at the northern edge of Alaska, then turn east and continue until you reach the Baffin Sea. Do you notice that the route gets a bit trickier just east of the Beaufort Sea? Welcome to the challenge of the Northwest Passage: a smattering of Canadian islands that are enshrouded …

In the 1940s and 50s, a few scientists (George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman among others) predicted the continued existence of the photons that last scattered in the very early universe. Theoretically, those photons had continued to travel through the universe, cooling as the universe expanded. The early theorists tried to predict what the temperature of these photons would now be (with varying degrees of success). These photons should be all over the place and hence providing a constant “background” to any antenna on earth. In addition, they should …

Hello and welcome to my first post as a Talking Science contributor! I’m excited to join this roster of fine bloggers. To help introduce myself, I would like to share my experience as a volunteer scientist on a research cruise with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is to be the first of a multiple-post series about NOAA’s survey cruises, and the research that these surveys support. I’ve also included a few photos from the trip to help tell my story – enjoy!
Until April 2009, most of my …

Greetings, Dear Readers.
If you are lucky enough to catch this post, then you will have stumbled upon the first of many entries in my new weekly blog: Jesse Battles Ridiculousness. Herein will lie one of the few places left in this vast world of ours where TalkingScience and Science Friday lovers alike can seek refuge and enjoy the sanctuary of a land (or Web page) where only facts, evidence and logic reign supreme and are the necessary cornerstones to every argument presented.
That is not to say that this is an …

Earlier this year I received an award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). AIBS is a scientific society of life science educators and researchers, K-12 teachers and college professors, dedicated to sharing biological discovery and knowledge. AIBS recognized and promoted the achievements of underrepresented minorities, including persons with disabilities, in the biological sciences. The students are competitively selected to be part of the AIBS Diversity Scholars program. This year, I was selected as the 2009 Diversity Scholar, the last one it seems.
Though the Diversity Scholars Award has ended, …

Carnivals are like online Zines, you know, those independent creative publications you created in high school or college. Carnivals are a collection of blog articles about a topic. Like a magazine, there is a publication date – some are published quarterly, monthly, or weekly ; an editor – which usually rotates among interested parties; and a theme.
I participate in a few Carnivals (see my bottom side bar). It helps me share my work with larger audiences. It’s also a great way for non-bloggers to get into blogs and see how …

My mom writes in a comment:
I think I would like to know what the consequences are of discovering or measuring dark matter. Also, does what you are doing have any relation whatsoever to things like the Hubble telescope or general space travel that people seem to be doing more and more of? Might your discoveries, for instance, give us an idea of the future of the universe as we know it?
xox MOM
These are good questions. What would be the consequences of discovering dark matter? When people ask me this question, …

Asparagus-induced aromatic pee is an event that has always amazed me because it happens so quickly. When you eat asparagus, it goes into the stomach to be broken down by acids in the stomach, just like any other food. The nourishing elements of the meal are absorbed into the blood stream and the food molecules travel through the bloodstream to the liver and kidneys for purification. This is all normal and good. Waste that is collected in the kidneys is excreted in urine. Asparagus, unlike other vegetables, contains asparagusic acid. …