Browsing: Science

One thousand Swiss citizens voluntarily buried their cotton underpants for two months—not to keep the Underpants Gnomes from stealing them, but as part of a citizen science project to map out soil health across Switzerland. The results of this unique experiment were reported in a new paper published in the journal Plants People Planet.

Antibodies play a central role in your body’s immune defense. But they’re also nearly ubiquitous in biological research, being essential for several widely used lab techniques. While some researchers need to go through the process of producing their own antibodies, antibodies to many key proteins are commercially available and can be ordered for overnight delivery.

Fashionistas of a certain age no doubt remember the late designer Stephen Sprouse, who gave Blondie’s Debbie Harry her distinctive Bowery punk style. Sprouse’s first collections in the mid-1980s made a major splash, melding graffiti prints, a playful ’60s aesthetic, and bright Day-Glo colors that won admirers such as Andy Warhol.

Mummified human and animal remains have long been in demand among collectors, and such items are sufficiently rare that their acquisition may involve unregulated, occasionally clandestine trade practices—if not outright illegal ones. According to the authors of a paper published in the International Journal of Cultural Property, the risks to would-be collectors aren’t just legal.…