What Periodic Videos did for chemistry, Sixty Symbols is doing for physics and engineering. Some behind the scenes action and general scienciness. [more inside]
posted by DU on Jun 26, 2009 - 13 comments

The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that military scientists tested hundreds of chemical and biological substances on them, including VX, tabun, soman, sarin, cyanide, LSD, PCP, and World War I-era blister agents like phosgene and mustard. The full scope of the tests, however, may never be known. As a CIA official explained to the GAO, referring to the agency's infamous MKULTRA mind-control experiments, "The names of those involved in the tests are not available because names were not recorded or the records were subsequently destroyed." Besides, said the official, some of the tests involving LSD and other psychochemical drugs "were administered to an undetermined number of people without their knowledge."
posted by Joe Beese on May 19, 2009 - 42 comments

The Cornell Evolution Project, which polls prominent evolutionary scientists about their religious beliefs, is part of a PhD thesis by evolutionary paleontologist and UCLA lecturer Greg Graffin. Mr. Graffin is also the lead singer of a band named Bad Religion, whose influential album Suffer turns 20 years old this week. [more inside]
posted by milquetoast on Sep 6, 2008 - 38 comments

Scientists for better PCR
Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers, Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending. Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do. [more inside]
posted by nihlton on Jan 11, 2008 - 23 comments

Brainbow. Using some very cool genetic tricks, Harvard scientists have found a way to make transgenic mice that express various mixtures of different coloured fluorescent proteins in their neurons. The result, individual brain cells with up to 90 distinct colours. Not surprisingly, this visually impressive work is in this month's issue of Nature.
posted by kisch mokusch on Nov 1, 2007 - 19 comments

Leonardo is overrated: the steam turbine was invented two millennia ago by Hero of Alexandria who developed the aeolipile as a toy. Hero was also responsible for the first vending machine (for holy water) and hydraulic automatic temple doors, along with advances in areas as diverse as physics and mathematics. A translation of Hero's influential Pneumatics is available online, featuring illustrated examples of many of his inventions, many of which are related to clever devices for drinking or prayer, or both.
posted by blahblahblah on Jun 20, 2006 - 18 comments

Punks, Politicos and Scientists of The World Unite! Depleted Uranium Bill passes the house. To pass the bill, Dr. McDermott took a less traditional route, working with bands like Anti-Flag and speaking to people outside the political sphere.
posted by usedwigs on Jun 1, 2006 - 16 comments

Why is Ice slippery? You would have thought this would be well defined in 2006. But scientists are still arguing about the key elements. Plus no clear definition of Ice IX...
posted by somnambulist on Feb 21, 2006 - 24 comments

A scientist is... Before and after drawings of scientists by seventh graders. Discussed at Cosmic Variance.
posted by tellurian on Feb 15, 2006 - 48 comments

Faces of Science, a collection of portraits of scientists is on display at the New York Academy of Sciences through Oct. 14. (Click the 'View Gallery' link underneath the bookcover). Mariana Cook, who took the portraits, has also had them displayed in The Guardian, and at the BioAgenda Institute (where they scroll by to the left of the screen). [Also be sure to check out the previous webgalleries at the NYAS. The Art of Science Fiction, and Hothouse Contemporary Floras are both good examples of their cool shows, as is One of a Kind.]
posted by OmieWise on Sep 28, 2005 - 4 comments

The US Postal Service has issued a series of postage stamps honoring great American scientists including: Josiah Willard Gibbs, thermodynamicist best known for the Gibbs Phase Rule; Barbara McClintock, geneticist who showed genes could transpose within chromosomes; John von Neumann, mathematician who made significant contributions in game theory and computer science; and Richard Feynman, infamous physicist best remembered for his work on quantum electrodynamics, the Manhattan Project, Feynman Diagrams, and his testimony at the Space Shuttle Challenger hearings.
posted by chicken nuglet on May 27, 2005 - 15 comments

What's That? You say you want to stay drunk for a longer period of time?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Feb 24, 2005 - 31 comments

Yet another dead microbiologist. Why was Joeng Im of the University of Missouri, a 72 year old protein chemist, stabbed to death, stuffed in the trunk of his car, and burned? Was it a random act of violence? Was it a former student bent on revenge? Or is this biologist merely following in the footsteps of 40 other microbiologists and other scientists who have mysteriously died in the past 4 years? Scientists like David Kelly, Steven Mostow, Ian Langford, , Don C. Wiley, David Wynn-Williams, Michael Perich, Gene Mallove, and dozens of other scientists? Is it too presumptuous, too "tinfoil hat" to suppose that someone is killing off the microbiologists of the world, for some nefarious purpose?
posted by Sir Mildred Pierce on Jan 14, 2005 - 46 comments

The Writings of Charles Darwin on the Web. Thanks to the British Library.
posted by plep on Nov 9, 2004 - 11 comments

Arsole? Putrescine? Dickite? Moronic Acid? This list of Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names (one NSFW image) proves that scientists can be funny, as does this Stuffy Scientists page, and Mark Isaak's terribly thorough Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature (see, especially, Puns). If you are tempted to wonder what the Father of Taxonomy might have thought of the irreverence of those last two collections, keep in mind that Linnaeus himself named this plant "Clitoria Mariana" in honor of an 'acquaintance', according to this page.
posted by taz on May 18, 2004 - 10 comments

Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement issued today.--would you believe the scientists or the people's (almost) choice? May need free reg for NY Times.
posted by Postroad on Feb 18, 2004 - 28 comments

The Bacteria Whisperer
“Bonnie Bassler discovered a secret about microbes that the science world has missed for centuries. The bugs are talking to each other. And plotting against us.”
posted by o2b on Mar 21, 2003 - 13 comments

Scientists do have senses of humor. Also, funny science cartoons appeal to many of us, like this one or this . Whacky patents also delight the mind and tickle the funny bone. Absurd humor makes us wonder what the heck is going on. And what the hell is Chindogu really all about? What are you favorite science sites with humor or absurdity?
posted by Morphic on Nov 14, 2002 - 14 comments

While scientists like Einstein and Heisenberg are familiar names, others like Nikolai Tesla have been largely forgotten by history, despite the fact that some of his work with electricity still cannot be replicated to this day. Despite this, claims of governmental conspiracies are probably fairly far from the truth.
posted by nick.a on Oct 12, 2002 - 19 comments

Marconi was a fascist anti-Semite , says The Age. Evidence has emerged that the father of wireless communications blocked all Jews from becoming members of the science-oriented Academy of Italy at the behest of Mussolini, long before Il Duce's racist laws became known to the rest of the world.
posted by brookish on Mar 19, 2002 - 34 comments

Doing science by stealth Scientists have found a way of subverting the error checking mechanisms of web servers to allow them to perform calculations without the owners permission. This "Parasitic computing" could potentially use the internet as a single giant distributed computer.
posted by astro38 on Aug 30, 2001 - 5 comments

Scientists discover possible microbe from space. Scientists has recovered microorganisms in the upper reaches of the atmosphere that may have originated from outer space. The living bacteria, are unlike any known on Earth, but the astrobiologists want to keep the details under wraps until they are absolutely convinced that these are extraterrestrial. Do not adjust your set...
posted by lagado on Nov 28, 2000 - 4 comments

"clouds and even rain showers seem to have been spotted on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Scientists have already labeled Titan a hot spot in the search for extraterrestrial life, and the new work adds to that enthusiasm." You bet it does.
posted by owillis on Oct 20, 2000 - 10 comments