Museum of Science and Industry

I think Charles Darwin was a pretty neat guy: an adventurer who traveled around the world and developed the theory of natural selection. But even he, who grew up loving natural history, found it "most disgusting" (written in his journal while on expedition in Argentina) to be bitten by what was probably a kissing bug. Good thing we don’t get kissing bug...

Hooray! It’s spring! It’s finally getting sunny outside! Happy dogs chasing balls! Long bike rides in the park! And of course, salesmen trying to get their hands on your hard-earned money. Because I'm sure any good salesperson already knows what recent research from Canada has found: when the sun comes out, our spending goes up.

It’s not just that we buy more, either. On a sunny day,...

For Pi Day, why not talk about sweets? Or, more specifically, taste! Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found that some carnivores have evolved to disable their sweet detector gene. Hyenas, for example, would not be able to fully enjoy a cherry pie this Pi Day. Other...

Where will you be August 5, 2012? I don't know about you, but my eyes will most likely be glued to NASA TV. That's the date that NASA's most recent Mars rover, aptly named Curiosity, will enter the Martian atmosphere.

The rover first has to travel 352 million miles to get to Mars. That's a piece of cake compared...

Back in 2010 I came across a really neat visualization tool designed to demonstrate scale in our universe. After being reminded about it by WIRED, I searched for it again and stumbled across an updated 2012 version created by Cary and Michael Huang. I thought I would share this tool with all of you to either just explore or for use as an educational tool.

My...