Missing Links
How the World Wide Web has changed science

Woolly Bear Caterpillar IronChris

It's been 20 years this month since Timothy Berners-Lee proposed the Web as a means of organizing information generated at CERN. And if science enabled its creation, the Web has likewise changed science, providing new ways to observe and analyze information.

Also in today's links: self-doping caterpillars, old buzzwords and new buzzwords, and more.

  • Humans aren't the only ones to self-medicate. A new study finds that woolly bear caterpillars chew on leaves that contain alkaloids, which cure them of parasitic flies that feed on their innards. And the caterpillars infected with the parasites eat more of the leaves than their parasite-free brethren.
  • An organization is developing a method of "no-till" organic farming, which they say has the potential to sequester half of current CO2 emissions each year.
  • Of all the environmental buzzwords one hears constantly nowadays -- hybrids, green, clean (or not-so-clean) coal -- "acid rain" has largely fallen off the radar. Does that mean the problem's gone, or just the public awareness of it?
  • Speaking of buzzwords, I'm predicting the next big one will be "social jet lag": having your circadian rhythm be out of synch with your daily schedule. Researchers have found that this kind of discrepancy can have a more significant impact than just drowsiness. Researchers are trying to understand a link to a range of illnesses.
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

0 Comments



June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email

Contributing Writers:

Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email

circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps