We begin life sniffing. Recent research suggests that human sperms are guided on their long, dark journey up the fallopian tube to a waiting egg by a chemical attractant emitted by the egg. The sperm, it seems, is a nose with a propeller.
Biology
Photo by Marek Szturc on Unsplash
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The matter of the mind: How does it work?
Dear Mr. Raymo,
As you may recall, I wrote to you several months ago regarding the connection between quantum physics and consciousness. You replied by expressing skepticism that the “fuzziness” of the quantum world has anything to do with the freedom and creativity we associate with consciousness. If not, then how does physics explain these things?
Droplets produced by a sneeze • CDC Public Health Image Library (Public Domain)
We don’t need cold virus, but cold virus needs us
AH-CHOO!!! Excuse me. I had meant to write about something profound this morning, the origin of the universe, perhaps, or the evolution of consciousness. But, you see, I have this…
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No place for politicians to meddle
After the turmoil and confusion that accompanied the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, you may not want to hear any more about Washington and sex. But there is another story that has been quietly unfolding — about Washington, sex, and science — that deserves a wider airing.
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Memories were made of this
It’s a familiar story, but I’ll tell it again.
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If the key fits, you’ll smell it
An old vaudeville joke goes like this:
“I’ve got a goat without a nose.”
“You’ve got a goat without a nose? How does it smell?”
“Awful.”
Image by Thomas Wensing (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Believing in DNA
A [February 1990] issue of Science contained a photograph, made with an electron microscope, of a portion of DNA extracted from a single-celled organism called trypanosome.
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Radishes and science
All over New England spades are turning earth. It’s that time of year to ask the perennial question: Is gardening a science or an art?
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Ah, those Victorians
In the days before television replaced nature in the lives of children, parents told their offspring about the birds and the bees. Or so it is said.
Photo by DrKontogianniIVF
The unsimple apple
I have a colleague, a physicist, who tells his students, “If it’s not simple, it’s not physics.” He does not mean that physics is easy. He means that physics is the study of things simple enough to be described mathematically.