Science & Technology

What would you do if you could live forever? Would you climb every mountain? Read every book? Formulate plans for world domination? Embarrassingly, our greatest scientific minds have been beaten to the punch by a tiny little jellyfish, measuring no more than five millimeters across.

When neuroscientist Frank Sharp looks at a classroom of elementary-school students he sees the signs of Tourette Syndrome. Kids fidget, they squirm, they tic.

Have you ever met someone and recognized their face, but without any distinct memory from where? Or have you ever smelled something that invokes a strong emotion in you, but you had no idea why?

If you recently bought a new computer, plan to or are tired of your word processor, you should check out OpenOffice.

Scientists at UCLA have collaborated to create a microscope that displays images of neurons in 3D.

How can a car that runs 100 miles per gallon change the world? A car is just a car, and even one that reaches efficiencies never before seen on the world’s roads will not make any difference on its own. The real change comes when that car ceases to be just a car, and becomes a paradigm of the future.

Inside the Consilience of Art and Science exhibit at the Pence Gallery is a large sculpture in a corner by a window facing the street. From a distance it appears to be a large piece of white manufactured plastic, about six feet tall and with irregularly shaped holes. On closer inspection, the sculpture is actually constructed from plastic wrap twisted and wired together. Noises of birds and insects softly permeate the small room.

When it comes to nature, I take after my mom. While my dad thinks an unruly shrub needs a good pruning, my mom happily lets sweet-pea plants sprawl across the yard. She’s the one who saves worms on the sidewalk and tries to make necklaces out of fox vertebrae. She’s no hippie. Like me, she’s just fascinated with nature and science.

Here’s something I never knew: It takes 500 gallons of blood to produce one gallon of milk.

Nine months after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers John Kessler of Texas A&M University and David Valentine of UC Santa Barbara finally uncovered optimistic data in the haze of tar balls and oil-slicked water.

Few things in this world feel better than a full night’s sleep; a night from which you wake up feeling refreshed, energized and clear-headed.

According to the California Tomato Growers Association, the average American eats almost 80 pounds of tomatoes annually.