What do verbs mean? We'd like to know. For that reason, we just launched VerbCorner, a massive, crowd-sourced investigation into the meanings of verbs.  Why do we need this project? Why not just look up what verbs mean in a dictionary? While dictionaries are enormously useful (I think I own something like 15), they are far from perfect. For one thing, it's usually very easy to find counter-examples even for what seem like straight-forward definitions. Take the following: Bachelor: An […]

[Continued from Part 2] Two weeks ago, I reviewed some of the experimental evidence for the importance of diversity. In . . .

Surface nanoarchitecture provides spatially and temporally resolved stimuli response of the material, and offers defi ned control over the behavior of biomolecules and cells at the solid-liquid interface.

If I had to hatch a murder plot with a science writer, Deborah Blum would be my first choice. Like Agatha Christie, Blum’s work frequently references poisons, skulduggery and murder most foul. Unlike Christie, Blum’s work is nonfiction. An award-winning journalist, Blum has written about issues ranging from primate research to the science of sex. But in recent years her focus has been on, broadly speaking, the science of murder. Her 2010 book, “The Poisoner’s Handbook,” chronicles an […]

Researchers have successfully developed a new technique for efficiently creating functionalized nanowires for the first time ever. The group focused on the natural propensity of amyloid peptides, molecules which are thought to cause Alzheimer's disease, to self-assemble into nanowires in an aqueous solution and controlled this molecular property to achieve their feat.