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Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Fen Montaigne’s book, Fraser’s Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica. On December 3, 1959, Richard L. Penney, a pioneering penguin researcher, snatched five male Adélie penguins from their rookery on Wilkes Land, in eastern Antarctica. He affixed numbered bands to their flippers, placed the Adélies in cloth bags, and had them flown halfway across Antarctica to McMurdo Sound, on the Ross Sea....

Key concepts Physics Lever Force Tools Mass Introduction Have you ever wondered how ancient people could lift very heavy objects, such as large stones, to build pyramids? A lever is a simple machine that can help people do just this. It can also help make other kinds of physical work easier by giving the user a mechanical advantage. Common examples of levers you might see around you are seesaws, scissors, wheelbarrows and even the your own jaw....

Gardeners sometimes encounter them in their backyards—spongy yellow masses squatting in the dirt or slowly swallowing wood chips. Hikers often spot them clinging to the sides of rotting logs like spilled bowls of extra cheesy macaroni. In Mexico some people reportedly scrape their tender bodies from trees and rocks and scramble them like eggs. They are slime molds: gelatinous amoebae that have little to do with the kinds of fungal mold that ruin sourdough and pumpernickel....

Small changes in the sun’s brightness can have big impacts on our planet’s weather and climate. And now scientists have detailed how that process might work, according to a new study published August 28 in Science. For decades some scientists have noted that certain climate phenomena—warmer seas, increased tropical rainfall, fewer clouds in the subtropics, stronger trade winds—seem to be connected to the sun’s roughly 11-year cycle, which causes ebbs and flows in sunspots that result in variations in solar output....

From Simons Science News (find original story here) Imagine you’re a puny peacock, rendered weak by bad genes or poor nutrition. You hope to attract a peahen, who mainly cares about the length of your tail. Growing a long tail would greatly enhance your sex appeal, but the encumbrance might prevent you from fleeing a predator that a fitter male could evade (and getting eaten dramatically reduces your chances of mating)....

KINGSLAND, Ga. – Lightning strikes above the live oaks lining the practice field in this coastal town in southeast Georgia. Coach Jeff Herron blows his whistle three times, giving the evacuation orders. A cheer of “Hey!” erupts from the 160 football players as they happily hustle off the field and into the gym. Coach Herron doesn’t share their enthusiasm. A lost practice puts his Camden County High School Wildcats – three-time state champions, in ‘03, ‘08, and ‘09 – even further behind schedule....

It was hailed as an elegant confirmation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity — but ironically the discovery of gravitational waves earlier this year could herald the first evidence that the theory breaks down at the edge of black holes. Physicists have analysed the publicly released data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and claim to have found “echoes” of the waves that seem to contradict general relativity’s predictions1. The echoes could yet disappear with more data....

Did NASA fake the moon landing? Is the government hiding Martians in Area 51? Is global warming a hoax? And what about the Boston Marathon bombing…an “inside job” perhaps? In the book “The Empire of Conspiracy,” Timothy Melley explains that conspiracy theories have traditionally been regarded by many social scientists as “the implausible visions of a lunatic fringe,” often inspired by what the late historian Richard Hofstadter described as “the paranoid style of American politics....

From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). One January afternoon five years ago, Princeton geologist Lincoln Hollister opened an email from a colleague he’d never met bearing the subject line, “Help! Help! Help!” Paul Steinhardt, a theoretical physicist and the director of Princeton’s Center for Theoretical Science, wrote that he had an extraordinary rock on his hands, one that he thought was natural but whose origin and formation he could not identify....

In 1927 the aviation world marveled at Charles A. Lindbergh’s nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh was in it for more than thrills: he was after the $25,000 Orteig Prize. In a 21st-century encore, the 12-year-old nonprofit X Prize Foundation conceives and manages competitions for daring innovators. The foundation’s game plan is to define an exciting target that benefits humanity, bait it with a large stack of cash, and draw out the best in design and invention from private, nongovernmental teams....

Men enrolled several years ago in studies of two different high-blood pressure drugs quickly developed potent side effects, yet the drug trials were not halted. In fact, today both drugs are highly successful money makers for the drug companies, Pfizer and Upjohn Corporation. The reason: men found the side effects of both drugs tolerable—indeed, delightful. Miraculously, both drugs answered man’s ancient quest to boost masculinity. One, Viagra, cured erectile dysfunction and the other, Rogaine, fostered hair growth on the scalps of balding men....

Key concepts Chemical reactions Physics Gravity Rockets Thrust Pressurization Introduction Have you ever marveled at how fireworks, toy rockets or real spacecraft can launch into the air? It can be an amazing thing to witness. It is thrilling to see something lift off against Earth’s gravity. The strong push required to launch a spacecraft comes from a chemical reaction in its rockets. This means that every time you see a spacecraft launch, you’re watching chemistry at work....

Graphene seems to be a gift that keeps on giving. This much hyped material, which consists of a one-atom-thick layer of carbon and is the basic unit of graphite, is known for its strength, conductivity and other useful properties. It holds promise for a slew of futuristic uses, from high-capacity batteries to lighter and stronger aircraft wings. It is slowly finding its way to market in conductive inks and specialty sports gear....

In December 2011 British newspaper headlines warned that London’s Big Ben was about to topple over. Locals instinctively blamed the London Underground’s Jubilee Line Extension, which opened in 1999 and sends trains rumbling under the tower and the Palace of Westminster. What most did not know, however, was that rumors of the tower’s doom, like Mark Twain’s death, were greatly exaggerated; a reporter misread the final report on the extension’s construction and its impact on the tower, which was filed in 2009 and released last year under the U....

In an unprecedented disclosure, Exxon Mobil Corp. told investors this week that it believes climate change poses a risk to its bottom line, but the firm made no gestures toward a future without oil and gas. Rather, the world’s largest oil company maintained that all sources of energy, including fossil fuels, will be necessary to meet the future global demand and that the best path toward managing greenhouse gas emissions is through technology advancement and adoption of energy efficiency programs....

Neuroscientists are exploring previously uncharted territories in the microscopic world of the neuron—observing brain cells while they work, detecting microscopic evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in the living brain, and even engaging in some mind reading. The 1990s were touted as the “decade of the brain,” but scientists in the 2000s are examining the living brain with far more fantastic precision. To study the functions of neurons at the microscopic scale, researchers typically use fine-glass electrodes, but that method cannot provide the precise location of the cells while the animal is alive....

Every time I think the ACV craze has finally settled down, another magazine article, website, or new product line proves me wrong! Apple cider vinegar does have a few things going for it but, as you might have suspected, its powers have been vastly over-estimated in the popular imagination. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Here are a few things that ACV probably won’t do for you: ACV won’t magically melt the fat from your body As I talked about in a podcast from way back in 2009, the acetic acid in vinegar has been shown to boost metabolism and cause you to burn an extra calorie or two....

LANSING, Mich. - In the glacier-carved hillsides of northwest Michigan where half of America’s tart cherries grow, buds that look like half-burst popcorn will erupt any day into brilliant white blossoms. But in that six-county area flanking Lake Michigan, climate change is already in full bloom. The state is two degrees warmer on average than it was 30 years ago, and it’s generally wetter, said Michigan State University geographer Jeffrey Andresen, the state climatologist....

Dear EarthTalk: Why are wetlands so important to preserve?—Patricia Mancuso, Erie, Pa. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs, riverbanks, mangroves, floodplains, rice fields—and anywhere else, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities there. They are widespread in every country and on every continent except Antarctica. If all the world’s wetlands were put together, they would take up an area one-third larger than the United States....

What did you eat for dinner one week ago today? Chances are, you can’t quite recall. But for at least a short while after your meal, you knew exactly what you ate, and could easily remember what was on your plate in great detail. What happened to your memory between then and now? Did it slowly fade away? Or did it vanish, all at once? Memories of visual images (e.g., dinner plates) are stored in what is called visual memory....