Science Articles
Do your students understand about the importance of repeatability in science? It is one of the aspects of the scientific method that is often overlooked, but is a key element in the process of scientific discovery. There is a followup article to the report that a bacterium could integrate Arsenic into its DNA that shows how scientists repeating an experiment can support, or refute, the original findings. Check out the article at ScienceNews here….
Last month scientists were asked to censor the publication of their research findings into the H5N1 Bird Flu virus. Specifically they were asked to not publish their methodology of making the virus more highly effective at infecting mammals. The original article from ScienceNews is here. The article raises a number of questions about the ethics of scientific research. Have your students debate intentionally not publishing the procedures from the standpoints of reporting the science in a reproducible format and the threat of misuse of … Continue reading
What a great time to talk to your students about health and disease transmission. In November ScienceNews reported an article about how germs may survive longer outside of the body than previously thought. It also contains a link to a primary article from 2008 determining how long a virus can survive on money! Take a look at the ScienceNews article here…
Scientists have begun researching people with exceptional memories. They have found that people who could tell you what they did on a specific day in the past have an area in their brain that is more highly developed. Take a look at the article at ScienceNews here…
With Halloween approaching it’s a great time to discuss cryptozoology as well as the validity of scientific evidence. Have your students research a cryptid and discuss the scientific evidence available surrounding the legends. Some great examples might include Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, El Chupacabra, the Fiji Mermaid, or the Yeti. Recently a mutated “Cyclops Shark” was discovered. The article in discovery news helps to illustrate the level of scientific evidence necessary to support a “monster” sighting, as well as supporting evidence. … Continue reading
A beagle puppy named Tegon is the newest addition to transgenic research. Tegon has had a gene that produces a fluorescent protein added to her DNA. When exposed to UV light and given an antibiotic trigger, Tegon glows green. Read the full story at Discovery News here…
In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin made the assumption that the more closely related two species are, the more intense they will compete for similar resources. In order to test this hypothesis an ecologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology created a very interesting experiment using protozoa. Take a look at the full article here at Science News…
If you want to help students to see how scientists debate the findings of others, take a look at these two articles. The first is from December of last year. A group of scientists published an article showing that a bacteria could use Arsenic to build its DNA. ( Here is the original article from ScienceNews) This month a number of responses to the original article are posted in Science Online questioning the findings, as well as the methods of the … Continue reading
Have your students ever had difficulty visualizing how one species can travel across water to become a second species? Well it may be easy for students to visualize birds traveling across bodies of water to become isolated it can be more difficult to reach the same conclusions with terrestrial animals. Scientists are examining how fire ants form rafts to survive flooding These rafts can possibly float for months. The article addresses potential uses in engineering new types of boats, but … Continue reading
What would photosynthetic organisms look like in an environment with two suns? What if those suns were different colors than ours? Today, at the Royal Astronomical Society, some researchers are reporting on the hypothesis that they might appear Black or Grey in color to absorb more light energy. Check out the Science Shot from Science News here….