NPR

How do 'torpedo bats' work? We asked baseball physicists to explain

If you were making a bowling pin on a lathe and suddenly decided to make a baseball bat instead, the result would look something like the "torpedo bat" that is the talk of MLB's new season. After some ...
Kaleido Scope

What is DNA, and why it’s a key to understanding life, health, and disease: UAB experts explain how our DNA shapes who we are

DNA is often called the blueprint of life, but what does that really mean? Elizabeth Worthey, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Genetics in the Heersink School of Medicine, explains everything ...
Ars Technica

How a mysterious particle could explain the Universe’s missing antimatter

Everything we see around us, from the ground beneath our feet to the most remote galaxies, is made of matter. For scientists, that has long posed a problem: According to physicists’ best current ...
The New York Times

James Reason, Who Used Swiss Cheese to Explain Human Error, Dies at 86

Mistakes happen, he theorized, because multiple vulnerabilities in a system align — like the holes in cheese — to create a recipe for disaster. By Michael S ...
The New York Times

Major Medical Prizes Given to Cell Biology and Cystic Fibrosis Pioneers

Many winners of the annual Lasker Awards have gone on to win a Nobel Prize in medicine or other fields. Lucy Shapiro of Stanford University was honored for her 55-year career investigating how ...