hamburger from space

Posted on January 28, 2003 by agnieszka

When was the last time a Hubble Space Telescope image made you hungry? Located some 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, the celestial object called Gomez’s Hamburger (in honor of its discoverer, Arturo Gomez) is a sunlike star nearing the end of its life. The “patty” is actually a thick disc of dust surrounding and hiding a central star, and starlight reflecting off the ejected dust forms the “bun.”

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 1/28/2003.
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walking stick, flying stick

Posted on January 28, 2003 by agnieszka

Stick insects, famed for their extraordinary ability to look just like, well, sticks, are now famous for something altogether different. They are the first creatures known to have re-evolved the ability to fly. Michael Whiting and his colleagues at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, reported in the Jan. 16 issue of Nature that the insects have lost and re-evolved wings at least four times over the past 300 million years. That’s not supposed to happen: A key evolutionary concept is that once a complex anatomical feature such as a wing or a leg is lost, it can’t come back. The surprising finding comes from DNA data from 37 stick-insect species that was collected as researchers were constructing the creatures’ family tree. Whiting suspects that re-evolution may have taken place in cockroaches and other insects as well. The theory of evolution may undergo a revolution if re-evolution does indeed exist.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 1/28/2003.
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trust me, it’s polish

Posted on November 24, 2002 by agnieszka

After a year in Boston, I still miss the Polish food of Chicago: the $5.95 all-you-can-eat buffets, the ubiquitous delis with strands of garlic-rich sausages in the windows. Tiring of pho, chicken tikka masala, and panang curry, I longed for the comfort food of my childhood. Continue reading →

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