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Astronomers have long recognized that galaxies come in a variety of forms, and that any galaxy’s size and shape offer a glimpse of its history. A fast-spinning giant galaxy whips up a beautiful spiral pattern like that of our familiar Milky Way; if two giant spiral galaxies collide, they may become an even bigger star swarm called an elliptical galaxy. Around all these mighty giants, diminutive “dwarf” galaxies dance by the dozens—these may be leftovers from the giants’ formation....

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.–AccuWeather.com reports nearly 1,200 tornadoes have been reported in the United States so far this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2011 is a year destined for the tornado record book. Among these tornadoes, four have been deadly and rated at EF-5, which is the highest rated strength for a tornado. The death toll has surpassed 500, significantly higher than the average annual fatalities of about 60....

Imagine that you are evaluating two equally suitable job candidates’ applications for a position in your successful yogurt company. Both make equally impressive claims about their potential future contributions, and you are left with a difficult decision: Should you rather hire Chen Meina, or Shobha Bhattacharya? People often face situations like this, where decisions need to be made, even with limited knowledge. For instance, if I told you that turtles are deaf, unless you are an expert in sea-dwelling reptiles, you probably have little information to help you decide whether the statement is true or false....

Every new technology causes initial public discomfort. It took society a long time to accept cell phones as commonplace. Before that, television. And before that, tractors. So when people scoffed at Google Glass, I rolled my eyes. “Here we go again,” I thought. “Knee-jerk objection to new technology.” The biggest concern seems to be distraction. Google Glass looks like a pair of glasses, minus the lenses; it’s just a band across your forehead, with a tiny screen mounted at the upper-right side....

When the First World War engulfed Europe in August 1914 it was widely believed that sea power would be a decisive factor. In the decade before the war, Germany had begun to expand their fleet of battleships to challenge the dominance of British naval power. This arms race has been cited as one of the causes of the war. Sea power was indeed decisive in the war. But it wasn’t the large fleets of giant battleships that were significant....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) was an intermittent conflict fought between England and France that started when king Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE) squabbled with Philip VI of France (r. 1328-1350 CE) over feudal rights concerning Gascony and trade with the Low Countries. Edward also asserted that he was the rightful king of France and pressed this claim by winning great victories at the battles of Crécy (1346 CE) and Poitiers (1356 CE)....

Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The nude figure is a universal visual theme, deeply rooted in the history of art, and it is seemingly ubiquitous in the art of the ancient civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean. The Antikenmuseum, in Basel, Switzerland, recently opened a new exhibition - Naked! The Art of Nudity - which carefully examines every facet of nude art in the ancient world, probing its meaning and legacy in Western conceptions of beauty and morality....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Satan, or the Devil, is one of the best-known characters in the Western traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Surprisingly, this entity was a late-comer in the ancient world. Satan, as a totally evil being, is nowhere to be found in the Jewish Bible. He evolved during the height of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (beginning c....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Te Papa Tongawera (or simply Te Papa) is New Zealand’s innovative national museum situated near the foreshore of beautiful Wellington harbour. Te Papa Tongawera means “container of treasures” in Te Reo Maori, which is the indigenous language of Aotearoa (New Zealand). It is a fitting name because at Te Papa you will find 2....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Buddhism was introduced from China to ancient Korea in the 4th century BCE and adopted as the official state religion by the Kingdoms of Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla. The faith split into separate divisions across Asia, one of the most important being Seon (Son) Buddhism, also called Chan Buddhism, but better known in the western world by its Japanese pronunciation, Zen Buddhism....

The Man Who Knew Infinity IFC Films, 2015. In theaters April 29 For the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, every positive integer was a personal friend, according to his colleague John Edensor Littlewood. Starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan, this biopic portrays the brief life of the visionary mathematician, who achieved incredible breakthroughs in such fields as number theory, infinite series and mathematical analysis—including devising a landmark formula to calculate how many different ways one could sum up each positive integer....

If you excel at a sport, you may want to look away when greener athletes take their turn. A new study finds that watching a novice’s actions can deteriorate expert performance. In experiments reported online last fall in Scientific Reports, researchers asked expert dart throwers to watch videos of novices and predict where their darts would land. The experts got feedback throughout the process, which helped to improve their predictive abilities....

From clownfish to catfish, grouper to great white, the diversity of fish in the sea is nothing short of astonishing. Now scientists have managed to account for this wide assortment, at least in part, by tracing the evolution of the organ that allows the creatures to swim at different depths. To change their buoyancy and move up and down in the water, fish inflate an internal organ called the swim bladder....

Geologists and politicians have been arguing for several years about whether hydraulic fracturing of shale to release natural gas can cause earthquakes. Finally, a comprehensive study released today by the National Research Council has settled the question: yes, fracking can. The number of earthquakes linked to fracking operations is very small, however; many more temblors are linked to conventional oil and natural gas extraction. Furthermore, the greatest risk of earthquakes due to fracking does not come from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressurized water and chemicals....

The number of U.S. undergraduate degrees being awarded in most STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) has risen steadily in recent years{link to G Sci page}. Yet some American employers say they are having trouble finding candidates to fill STEM jobs. The mismatch is not occurring because of an actual shortage of graduates; the numbers of job openings and new degree holders align fairly closely. And the shortfall is not because more foreign-born students are returning home after earning U....

Old debates die hard in the study of human origins. In October 2004 paleoanthropologists announced the discovery of a new human species that lived as recently as 17,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores. Homo floresiensis, also known as the hobbit, was an overnight sensation. Just over a meter tall, with a brain a third the size of our own, the creature was in many ways as primitive as our 3....

During the 2004 hurricane season, six major storms formed in the North Atlantic basin and four of them made landfall in the U.S. to devastating effect. Now researchers writing in the journal Nature report that they have developed a new method for forecasting hurricane activity, which could help hurricane-prone states better prepare. Mark A. Saunders and Adam S. Lea of University College London based their new system on measurements of wind taken at heights between 750 and 7,500 meters above sea level....

Computer models, weather satellites and ice cores are valuable tools for scientists who study how Earth’s climate is changing. But a new study suggests that researchers can add another weapon to their arsenal: the knowledge gathered by indigenous people who have spent generations living off the land in rhythm with weather and seasons. Researchers at the University of Colorado credit a combination of scientific data and traditional environmental knowledge from two Canadian Inuit communities for shedding new light on an overlooked aspect of climate change....

We spend a substantial part of our days visually scanning an area for something we want—our keys or ketchup, for example. For scientists the way we do so “provides a window into how our minds sift through the information that arrives at our eyes,” says Jason Fischer, a cognitive neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University. Past research has focused on readily apparent visual characteristics such as color, shape and size. But an object’s intrinsic physical properties—things we know from experience but cannot see, such as hardness—also come into play....

Plants have evolved an impressive range of strategies to ward off hungry, leaf-chomping insects. Well-known defenses include foul-tasting toxins, sticky resins and sharp thorns, and now scientists have identified yet another example: microscopic wrinkles that make leaves harder to walk on. Wrinkles form in many leaves’ cuticles—coatings that limit water evaporation, mediate gas exchange, and protect the plant from pathogens. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science, finds that along with the cuticle’s inherently slippery surface, its tiny wrinkles also help discourage insects....