Music can spark creativity in math and science From records to boom boxes to CDs and iPods, music has long been part of the lifeblood of being a teenager. Learning math and science in class is not always such a priority. Parag Chordia, director of the Music Intelligence Lab at Georgia Tech, is

View an animation showing how the free-floating Jupiter-mass planets are found. Freelance writer Robert Brault offers a metaphor for the night sky, “A trillion asterisks and no explanations.” By supporting astronomers, the National Science Foundation (NSF) helps to provide

Scientists find surprising response to higher levels of carbon dioxide in 13 species of grassland plants Yarrow, it’s called, this flowering plant also known as “little feather” for the shape of its leaves. Prized as a garden plant that repels unwanted insects while attracting

National Science Foundation awards rapid-response grants to establish ocean radionuclide levels from Fukushima Among the casualties of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan was the country’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A result of the loss of

Virtual reality immerses students in proteins and peptides How do you get to know a protein? How about from the inside out? If you ask chemistry professor James Hinton, “It’s really important that students be able to touch, feel, see … embrace–if you like, these

These bird brains are proving to be smarter than we thought When African Grey parrots talk, do they mimic sounds or consciously understand their speech? Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at both Brandeis and Harvard universities believes African Greys actually know what they’re

Carbon nanofibers with the same chemical properties as the activated charcoal used in respirators have a similar ability to absorb chemical pollutants. Their photonic structure means that they will change color as pollutants accumulate, a warning that the filter canister has lost effectiveness.

Digging in the ground to plant trees may be an excellent gateway to further involvement in politics and civic affairs, concludes a new University of Maryland study, based on work with New York City environmental volunteers. “The more a person is involved in environmental stewardship, the

Researchers eavesdropping on complex signals from a remote Wisconsin lake have detected what they say is an unmistakable warning–a death knell–of the impending collapse of the lake’s aquatic ecosystem. The finding, reported today in the journal Science by a team of researchers

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that electrical oscillations in the brain, long thought to play a role in organizing cognitive functions such as memory, are critically important for the brain to store the information that allows us to navigate through our