The human body today has many replaceable parts, ranging from artificial hearts[1] to myoelectric feet[2]. What makes this possible is not just complicated technology and delicate surgical procedures. It’s also an idea — that humans can and should alter patients’ bodies in supremely difficult and invasive ways.
Where did that idea come...
Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime that’s 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Seem difficult? Well, that’s basically what the Hubble Space Telescope does.
After months of technical issues, NASA announced June 4 that Hubble would shift into one-gyroscope mode[1]. This...
Microbiome research to date has been much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant[1]. How much can be said about an elephant by examining just its tail? Researchers have studied what is most readily available – stool rescued from a flush down the toilet – but have been missing the microbial masterminds upstream in the small...
Quantum computing is like Forrest Gump[1]’s box of chocolates[2]: You never know what you’re gonna get. Quantum phenomena – the behavior of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic levels – are not definite, one thing or another. They are opaque clouds of possibility or, more precisely, probabilities. When someone observes a...