How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature by Scott D. Sampson Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2015 352 pages $25 Many preschoolers and their parents know paleontologist Sampson as “Dr. Scott” on the television program Dinosaur Train, where he adds science commentary to the show’s animated dino tales and closes each episode with this exhortation: “Get outside, get into nature and make your own discoveries....
THE USE OF VOCALIZATIONS, such as grunts, songs or barks, is extremely common throughout the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, humans are the only species in which these vocalizations have attained the sophistication and communicative effectiveness of speech. How did our ancestors become the only speaking animals, some tens of thousands of years ago? Did this change happen abruptly, involving the sudden appearance of a new cerebral region or pattern of cerebral connections?...
When Apollo 8 launched for the moon in 1968, the heavens were primarily the domain of the two superpowers. Today space has been opened to myriad nations by vast technological advances and increased international cooperation. A telling example of the new celestial order came two months ago when India launched its first moon mission, the unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft. The satellite, now in lunar orbit, carried Indian instruments as well as those from the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and Bulgaria—an arrangement far removed from the nationalist striving of the U....
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may not launch on Halloween (Oct. 31) after all. Despite previous delays, progress on the highly anticipated Webb—billed as the successor to the iconic Hubble Space Telescope—has been steadily ongoing. For example, in May, the mission team recently unfolded Webb’s giant, golden mirror for the last time on Earth in the last major prelaunch test for the telescope’s mirror system. The telescope is set to be shipped in August to Kourou, French Guiana, where Webb will launch to space atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center....
Nationwide protests against racial injustice have shone a spotlight on U.S. corporations’ lack of diversity. Despite decades of initiatives to increase the number of Black executives, only 1 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are Black. While there are many reasons for this disparity—including systemic racism and discrimination and a lack of economic opportunity—psychologists have recently uncovered a startling potential factor: the tendency to view God as white. Christianity, the dominant religion in the U....
The electricity sector could shave up to 18 percent off its energy use and carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 by aggressively embracing smart-grid technologies, according to a new analysis. Smart grid-related savings would come from a number of factors, most significantly from a “conservation effect” as consumers incorporate feedback on their energy use, the study found. Additional factors include the use of power diagnostics to tune homes and smaller commercial buildings and increased use of wind and solar generation....
Key concepts Microorganisms Soil Biology Oxygen Sunlight Ecosystem Introduction Our planet recycles and reuses everything on it needed to support life. It’s an amazing, giant recycling system called the biogeochemical cycle. You can actually model this on a small scale by using a plastic bottle and mud to build what’s called a Winogradsky column. In this activity you’ll build your own Winogradsky columns and investigate how including different nutrients affects which soil microorganisms flourish and which fail....
Key concepts Mass Center of mass Balance Physics Games Introduction Have you ever played a game at a carnival, trying to win a stuffed animal or other prize? It might look easy—until you try it. Why are those “simple” games at the fairs, carnivals and Mardi Gras festivals so hard? Is it really lack of skill or coordination or do those midway vendors use some basic laws of science to help them set up the games in their favor?...
When a troubled 13-year-old named Joe first entered the Kids in Transition program in 2007 in Camden, N.J., he hardly spoke to his therapist. Like many teens at this residential mental health treatment facility, he was admitted because he had trouble controlling his anger, had run away from home several times, and had a history of run-ins with the law, according to Heather Foley, a social worker with the program. Therapists typically encourage patients like Joe to get at the core of their problems via face-to-face role-playing—pretending to be in a situation and having the patient practice how to handle it....
Yesterday, the United States started the yearlong process of formally withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, making good on President Trump’s threat nearly 2 and a half years ago to leave a global climate deal he called “onerous” and “severe” to the U.S. economy. The State Department’s letter to the United Nations means that the United States will stand virtually alone outside the global climate deal on Nov. 4, 2020, one day after the presidential election....
MILL VALLEY, Calif.—A 7-year-old with her bike helmet still on saw more than marshes and the shimmer of an inlet in the northern San Francisco Bay when she looked through a black viewfinder next to a popular bike path near her home. “Look, Mommy, it’s the floods!” exclaimed Ashlyn. Her mother, Tanya Steinhofer, had never stopped at the devices before, but now she took a look. The two viewfinders, called Owls, show panoramic virtual-reality images of how sea-level rise would change this area....
The fact that some states have passed or are considering legislation that will severely undermine the authority of public health agencies is very disturbing and potentially harmful to the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities at large across the entire country. This movement to limit the legal authority of these agencies has the potential to affect their ability to do what they do best: protect the public and save lives....
Sunday’s Nautica New York City Triathlon resulted in two deaths, both from cardiac events that arose during the event’s initial swimming leg. A 64-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman were pulled from the Hudson River before they could complete the 1.5-kilometer swim from a wharf near Manhattan’s 96th Street down to the West 79th Street Boat Basin. Both athletes were taken to a nearby hospital in cardiac arrest. Police said 26 others were removed from the water needing assistance for minor injuries or pains that arose during the swim portion of the competition....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. During his reign as dictator from 49-44 BC, Julius Caesar had a number of notable impacts on the city of Rome. One of the initial crises with which Caesar had to deal was widespread debt in Rome, especially after the outbreak of civil war when lenders demanded repayment of loans and real estate values collapsed....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The foundation of the Assyrian dynasty can be traced to Zulilu, who is said to have lived after Bel-kap-kapu (c. 1900 BCE), the ancestor of Shalmaneser I. The city-state of Ashur rose to prominence in northern Mesopotamia, founding trade colonies in Cappadocia. King Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1791 BCE) expanded the domains of Ashur by defeating the kingdom of Mari, thus creating the first Assyrian kingdom....
Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In this exclusive interview, Niloufer Mavalvala, author of The Art of Parsi Cooking: Reviving an Ancient Cuisine, speaks to James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) once again about the joys of Parsi cuisine and her new title: The World of Parsi Cooking: Food Across Borders....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Women in the Mongol Empire (1206-1368 CE) shared the daily chores and hardships of steppe life with men and were largely responsible for tending animals, setting up camps, childrearing, producing food and cooking it. Having rather more rights than in contemporary cultures to the east and west of Mongolia, women could own and inherit property, were involved in religious ceremonies and could be shamans, and the wives of senior tribal leaders could voice their opinions at tribal meetings....
Severe drought choked much of the Northern Hemisphere this summer, from China to Europe to the western United States. Scientists say climate change is at least partly to blame. Climate change increased the odds of drought across the hemisphere by as much as 20 times, according to a new study from the research consortium World Weather Attribution, which specializes in the links between climate change and extreme weather events. Zeroing in specifically on Europe, which saw one of its driest summers in decades, climate change may have made the drought three to four times more likely to occur....
Sprawling blooms of cyanobacteria have swathed the surfaces of lakes and oceans around the world for billions of years. But the serene, blue-green algae may be leaching a neurotoxin into the aquatic food chain, according to a study published May 3 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ). The report revived a nearly 50-year-old debate over the role, if any, of the toxin in the process of neurodegeneration....
(Credit:Jason Cipriani/CNET)Apple has tweaked an online article about the dangers of jailbreaking in the wake of a recent hack of iOS code.The article shows a last-modified date of Sunday, the same day the evasi0n jailbreak tool for iOS 6.0 through 6.1 was due to reach the public. The tool didn’t actually pop up until Monday, but the timing of the modified article certainly points to concern on Apple’s part.Exactly what was updated in Apple’s article is difficult to know....
