This spring, an 80-year-old Japanese chalk company went out of business.
Sarah Zhang's posts
Sarah Zhang
sarahzhang
We take it for granted that urinals flush. With each pull of the lever, gallons of clean water come to whisk away a…
The story of kuru, as classically told in biology textbooks, is a tragic one. The Fore population in Papua New…
Yeast labs have a distinctive smell—a bready scent familiar to bakers and brewers. But the frozen test tube of yeast…
Dinosaurs fossils, we’ve all been taught, consist of bone—their flesh, skin, and organs having decayed long ago. But…
There is no permanent solution for Fukushima’s radioactive water, which has been leaking out of storage tanks again…
Ever since humans started building tall things, birds have been pooping on them, including high-voltage power lines.…
French scientists have created the first synthetic polymers that can store information as bits of 0s and 1s. You…
Since 2012, the US has held the title of world’s number one wood pellet exporter. What’s the big deal with wood…
Every time a virus gets you sick, your immune system keeps a record. This essentially becomes a kill list that lets…
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The dream of regrowing limbs? It’s just gotten one step closer. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have…
Tri Alpha Energy does not have a website. Its office in California is unmarked. But this stealth company apparently…
The physicists who invented the nuclear bomb worked out of Los Alamos in New Mexico, but the people who did the…
It is not easy for a human to traverse the deep, cold waters of Antarctica. It is easy, however, for seals to swim…
The summer after I graduated from college, I took an RA job on campus that gave me a lot of free time, but not much…
Graphene, already a plenty weird wondermaterial, has an unexpected new property that could one day play a role in…
Inbox, aka Google’s attempt at fixing the cesspool that is email, is no longer invite only. You can download it…
There is gold out there on asteroids. Silver and platinum and titanium, too. And if we’re seriously going to mine…
The U.S. Air Force’s supersecret X-37B was launched into orbit for the fourth time last week, and amateur satellite…
Glaciology is in the middle of a slow-moving crisis. As the climate warms, glaciers are shrinking and then…