Can cosmology untangle the universe’s most elusive mysteries?
By M. Mitchell Waldrop From the Big Bang to dark energy, knowledge of the cosmos has sped up in the past century — but big questions linger Read more
What is the protein of the future?
By William R. Aimutis OPINION: It’s sustainable, nutritious and delicious. Scientists need to ramp up efforts to meet this urgent need. Read more
What we are reading
The case of the bad statistics
In 2003, a Dutch nurse was convicted of murdering four patients — the nurse’s shifts, the timing of the deaths and other evidence circumstantially pointed to malice. But statistician Richard Gill saw something else: coincidence. Would the courts agree? For Science, Cathleen O’Grady tells the story of Gill, the trial that would draw him away from quantum mechanics into activism, and how math can be used to reveal terrible secrets — or to make ones up where none had been.
Carbon-credits illusion
When companies want to reduce their carbon footprint, they can counteract or “offset” their own emissions by spending extra money supporting green projects, such as those that protect rainforests. The DC-based nonprofit Verra is a major player in this voluntary offset market, verifying projects and issuing carbon credits to participating brands, including Disney, Shell and Pearl Jam. Now a new, nine-month investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Source Material finds that an overwhelming proportion of Verra’s rainforest certifications may be bunk, Patrick Greenfield writes in the Guardian. It’s a system that urgently needs to be fixed, says one of the scientists involved in the investigation, or else private companies will walk away “from any kind of willingness to pay to avoid tropical deforestation and that would be a disaster.”
Moon o’clock
There may be a Lunar Standard Time in our future. Space agencies and academic scientists are drafting plans for an official Moon-based time system, which will aid in communication and cooperation as lunar exploration ramps up, reports Elizabeth Gibney for Nature. Planners must hammer out many details, from redefining the lunar day to suit Earthlings’ needs for 24-hour cycles to more weighty matters: For instance, should official lunar time be anchored to Earth’s or stand on its own? Such independence could enable a first step toward a communications network out to Mars and beyond, “a Solar System internet,” says one NASA engineer.
Art & science
CREDIT: JAIME CULEBRAS / WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Eye to eye
With her toes outstretched and her arms supported on a leaf, this Mindo glass frog looks like she’s conducting a tough interview. In a way, she is: The air around her was filled with the high-pitched chirps of male Mindo glass frogs when Spanish photographer and conservation scientist Jaime Culebras took this photo.
Culebras, who has lived in Ecuador for several years, hiked to the foothills of the Andes Mountains to capture this close-up. While the Mindo glass frog isn’t camera-shy, the species is reliably seen only in a small patch of montane and cloud forest in northwest Ecuador. The frog’s see-through skin might make spotting the amphibians even harder. Recent research in other glass frog species found that the transparency likely comes from red blood cells leaving tissue to gather in the liver during sleep.
Culebras’s effort to track down this species was rewarded with recognition from the London Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. This and 24 other photos are up for the People’s Choice Award, which the public can vote on until 2 pm GMT/6 am PST on February 2.
