Babies as young as nine months appear to approve of people who like what they like — and approve of being mean to those who don't share their tastes. Kiley Hamlin, lead author of a study in the journal Psychological Science, discusses the importance of similarity to young children.
Originally published on Fri March 22, 2013 1:14 pm
According to the Institute of Medicine as many as 250,000 of 700,000 veterans of the first Gulf War suffer from an array of unexplained medical ailments. Guests discuss the latest research on Gulf War illness and its treatment and why it's been hard to pinpoint a cause.
Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science takes a water sample during his experiment out on part of the Great Barrier Reef. The water is slightly pink because his team is using a dye to trace an acid-neutralizing chemical as it flows across the reef.
Credit Richard Harris / NPR
Caldeira (left) tosses some plastic tubing that will pipe in the antacid, mixed with nontoxic red dye, from a floating tank nearby to see whether the reef will grow faster under less-acidic conditions.
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 4: Richard catches up with one of the gurus of climate science out on the reef.
Ken Caldeira loves a challenge, and he has a big one right under his feet. He's standing on an expanse of coral reef out in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It's being washed with water as the tide streams over the reef, from a lagoon to the open sea.
When a Florida man vanished into a massive sinkhole that opened underneath his bedroom in February, the case garnered national attention. Every so often, tragedies like this put sinkholes in the spotlight.
Researchers say that minor sinkholes occur all the time around the world without much notice.
The Star Jet roller coaster sits in the water on Feb. 19 after the Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., collapsed from the forces of Superstorm Sandy.
Credit Earl Wilson / The New York Times
Justin Gillis writes about climate change for The New York Times.
According to the historical record dating back to 1895, 2012 was the hottest year this country has ever seen. But it's not just that the temperature has risen — from deadly tornadoes to the widespread coastal damage inflicted by Superstorm Sandy, we seem to be living through a period of intensified and heightened weather extremes.
Just a little plunge into hot tea makes a chocolate-covered biscuit release its flavor more quickly in your mouth.
Credit Courtesy of the University of Nottingham
When chef Heston Blumenthal was a kid, he wondered why people loved to dunk their biscuits into tea.
Credit Courtesy of the University of Nottingham
Hooked up to a gadget that measures food flavors, chef Heston Blumenthal tests whether a cookie tastes better after it's dipped into tea.
Credit Screenshot from shazzandfred/YouTube
Hard-core scientific evidence that an English biscuit tastes better given a dip into tea? The MS-Nose measures more cookie aroma from a dunked biscuit than a dry one.
Originally published on Thu March 21, 2013 12:51 pm
Brits and Americans may have split less than amicably a couple of centuries ago, but we can still find cultural common ground when it comes to life's pleasures: The Beatles, Downton Abbey and dunking cookies.
Of course, the Brits call them "biscuits" and dip primarily in tea, while we are more promiscuous and are willing to plunge our treats into coffee, hot chocolate or even milk.
But does immersing a cookie into a warm beverage really make it taste better? And if so, why?
Originally published on Thu March 21, 2013 1:08 pm
The universe is a bit older than we thought, according to a group of European scientists who say they've snapped the most detailed image to date of the afterglow of the Big Bang.
Originally published on Fri March 22, 2013 10:01 am
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 3: Waiting for a boat to the next island, Richard meets some rowdy birds.
Weeds are not a true category of plant. A weed is simply a plant that's growing where a person wishes it weren't.
Originally published on Thu March 21, 2013 9:25 am
For vegetable lovers, the start of spring can be a cruel tease, hinting of a feast of just-picked peas and spinach and beets, but delivering instead tired iceberg and romaine shipped from distant climes.
"It's zero here right now," Terry Nennich reported Wednesday morning, the first official day of spring, from Grand Rapids, Minn. So much for spring. Not only was it well below freezing, but the ground remained blanketed by 2 feet of snow.
