Famous Scientists

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Quirky Holiday Gift Ideas for Science Nerds

A roundup of unique (if impractical) science gifts, from glass anatomical models to retro adding machines

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Painting Portraits With Bacteria

Microbiologist Zachary Copfer has created detailed portraits of famous artists and scientists in petri dishes

In a new study, scientists evaluated female job applicants as less competent and hireable than males, even though their credentials were identical.

Are Scientists Sexist? New Study Identifies a Gender Bias

A new study indicates that the gatekeepers of science, whether male or female, are less likely to hire female applicants to work in labs

Powell and Lealand No. 1

Sherlock Holmes and the Tools of Deduction

Sherlock Holmes’s extraordinary deductions would be impossible without the optical technologies of the 19th century

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The DC Derecho of 2012

A devastating storm swept through Washington Friday night. By Saturday morning we were all left wondering, "what in the world had happened?"

The Turing test, a means of determining whether a computer possesses intelligence, requires it to trick a human into thinking it’s chatting with another person

Are You Chatting With a Human or a Computer?

Converse with some of the world's most sophisticated artificial intelligence programs—and decide how human they seem

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What Really Sparked the Hindenburg Disaster?

Seventy-five years later, opinions still vary on what caused the airship to explode so suddenly

The Islamic Empire (top) and Baghdad (bottom), circa 770-910 AD

Arabic Manuscripts: It Used To Snow in Iraq

Baghdad was the bustling capital of the vast Islamic Empire a thousand years ago, when the city's climate was much different than today

Alan Turing’s Prediction About Patterns in Nature Proven True

With nothing but numbers, logic and some basic know-how, the inventor of the Turing Test explained how to make a stripe

Cats and earthquakes were popular subjects this year.

Top Ten Science Blog Posts of 2011

Cats, zombies, earthquakes, chickens--our readers have an eclectic taste

The Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University

Read Sir Isaac Newton’s Works Online

Cambridge University is digitizing its collection of works by Newton and other revolutionary scientists of the past

John de Lancie and Anna Gunn in the world premier of Alan Alda's Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie at the Geffen Playhouse directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Q & A with Alan Alda on Marie Curie

A new play explains how despite the many challenges, the famous scientist didn’t stop trailblazing after her first Nobel

There are 200 million European starlings in North America

The Invasive Species We Can Blame On Shakespeare

There are 200 million European starlings in North America, and they are a menace

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Six Secrets of Polonium

This rare and dangerous element, discovered by Marie Curie, is found in cigarettes and was used to poison an ex-KGB agent

Marie Curie, in Paris in 1925, was awarded a then-unprecedented second Nobel Prize 100 years ago this month.

Madame Curie's Passion

The physicist's dedication to science made it difficult for outsiders to understand her, but a century after her second Nobel prize, she gets a second look

A combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86, which was determined to have started out as SN 185

The First Supernova

In 185 A.D., someone in China looked up in the night sky and saw a new star

A building in the northern reaches of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, that was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane

The Great New England Hurricane of 1938

Katharine Hepburn's Connecticut beach house and 8,900 other homes were swept into the sea

Great White Egret, by Antonio Soto, photographed March 2009, South Florida

How the Great White Egret Spurred Bird Conservation

I was certain that the bird's plumage had to have been faked, but all the photographer did was darken the background. Those feathers were real

Wood models of human heads in the NIST Museum collection

Why Did the Standards Bureau Need These Heads?

The NIST Museum has placed images of several items on the website of its Digital Archives and is asking the public for help

Blogger Sarah brought NASA-mission-themed cookies to the office last week

Why I’m Not Sorry to See the Space Shuttle End

I have to say, when I think about the end of the Space Shuttle program, I'm really not that sorry to see it come to a close

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