Discover, September 1, 1994

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Here, according to Nilesh Patel, is how you paint the legs of an ant: Begin by finding the right paint. Don’t use Wite-Out (it flakes off), and don’t use oil-based paints (they’re so thick that they make ants walk as if they’re wearing casts). Acrylic is best, says Patel. And be sure to get the thinnest, finest brush your local art supply store has to offer.

Next, chill the ant well. Patel, a 23-year-old senior at the University of California at Berkeley, takes his ants to the integrative biology department’s temperature-controlled room, which he cools to 40 degrees. Inevitably the cold-blooded ants become sleepy.

Continue reading “See How They Run” →

Discover, July 31, 1994

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Discover, July 1, 1994

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Lasers have become ubiquitous: they read the prices of our groceries, play our compact discs, and even clean our clogged arteries. Now, thanks to a group of French physicists, the world has its first saser- -a device that amplifies sound the way lasers amplify light. The saser isn’t of much use yet, but one day the researchers hope to turn it into the world’s most sensitive listening device.

Continue reading “The Sound Laser” →

Discover, June 1, 1994

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Most fireflies flash at random, each to its own drummer. In Tennessee there are fireflies that do it differently: they synchronize.

The fireflies that will emerge this June around the United States will generally flash in a random-looking fashion, each one sending its own signal–except for the ones that live in the clearing next to the Faust family cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Those fireflies will send out five to eight flashes in unison, stop for a quarter of a minute, and then do it again.

Continue reading “Fireflies in Lockstep” →

Discover, May 1, 1994

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On the one hand, greenhouse gases aren’t piling up in the atmosphere as fast as they used to. On the other hand, it can’t last.

Something surprising has happened: the accumulation of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the gases that trap heat and warm the planet, has slowed down. Carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, has in recent years been increasing at around half its previous rate. Methane, less abundant than carbon dioxide but 20 times as effective (molecule for molecule) at absorbing heat, may be on the verge of leveling off. The same is true of chlorofluorocarbons, which are better known as ozone destroyers but are the most efficient heat absorbers of all.

Continue reading “Good News and Bad News” →