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  To kick off this week's Science Friday, say hello to the world's newest mammal, the olinguito (oh-lihn-GEE'-toe) . Well, technically, it's not new, but it had somehow escaped notice by scientists, as it lives in the upper reaches of trees in South America and comes out only at night. The National Zoo in Washington had one for a year back in the ( Read more... )

Perhaps the biggest scientific story of the week has been the promise of a new vaccine for malaria, a scourge that has taken countless lives over the centuries. That one has been so widely reported that there's little point in including another article about it here. However, I would like to give bonus points to the media talking head, mentioned ( Read more... )

Just listened to a radio interview with science writer Annalee Newitz, whose many projects include founding the science news website io9.com. Her new book, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, is scheduled to be released next week and seems like an intriguing read ( Read more... )

In an era of SpaceX and Blue Horizons, plans for private exploitation of space resources, NASA budget cuts, shifting priorities, scrubbed missions, and neglected conversions from English to metric units that cause Mars orbiters to crash, it's easy to look at everything and conclude that the space program is hopelessly broken. But NASA has been ( Read more... )

You probably don't know who he is, but Eugene Polly was the guy who invented the wireless remote, freeing us forever from the burden of actually having to get up and walk across the room to change channels. The remote, of course, has given us endless hours of viewing pleasure, completely free of activity or exercise or the need to leave the side ( Read more... )

"No one can really feel at home in the modern world and judge the nature of its problems -- and the possible solutions to those problems -- unless one has some intelligent notion of what science is up to. Furthermore, initiation into the magnificent world of science brings great esthetic satisfaction, inspiration to youth, fulfillment of the ( Read more... )

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  Quantum communications is one of those things that sounds like science fiction, but it recently took another major step toward becoming reality. Physicists have created the first long distance quantum link between two atoms. In this case, "long distance" simply means across the street, but as the technology progresses, it may soon be possible to ( Read more... )

I found two interesting new books while browsing Barnes and Noble's science section yesterday. I have no idea if I'll have time to read these anytime soon (meaning within the next several weeks). But I thought I'd list them here since it's likely that some of my readers would find them of interest.

Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can ( Read more... )