Science/Technology

It all begins with a storm — a typhoon sweeping past the Philippines, a tropical cyclone growing near Australia, or a hurricane building along the Mexican coast. These are sources of swell, an undulation that can trundle mile upon mile across the open ocean.

As it approaches shore, wind, bathymetry (the topography of the sea floor) and obstacles such as islands or jutting peninsulas all shape the way the swell transforms into a wave that crashes on the beach.

Photos from New Horizons' trip past Pluto have revealed new details of the dwarf planet's surface — including three-mile-high water-ice mountains and deep layered craters.

“This is the apex, these are the highest resolution images,” says planetary scientist William McKinnon, who is New Horizons' deputy lead for geology, geophysics and imaging. He and his team have recently received a new batch of photos from the outer reaches of our solar system, and they’re beginning to theorize about what the images might reveal from Pluto’s history

Just months ago, former President Jimmy Carter announced he had melanoma that had spread to his brain. Recently, however, he made the shocking announcement that he was cancer-free. He owes his condition to a new cancer immunotherapy drug known as Keytruda that is giving researchers, cancer patients and doctors new hope in the war on cancer.

Dr. Antoni Ribas who work on immunotherapy treatments for cancer at UCLA says the idea behind the drug is to use the patient's own immune system to attack the cancer.

Improv is something you expect to find on Saturday Night Live, not in the science lab. A couple of acting teachers, however, are beginning to introduce improv acting and communication techniques to the science syllabus. “JRN 503: Improvisation for Scientists” is a course now on offer at New York’s Stony Brook University.

Alan Alda is an actor, director, screenwriter and board member for the World Science Festival. He’s also one of the people behind the new improv class for scientists at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York.

Could you explain the electromagnetic spectrum, continental drift, or the basics of nuclear power using just the 1,000 most common English words? That’s the challenge XKCD’s Randall Munroe took on in his latest book, "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words."

Munroe has had many different jobs: comic artist, NASA roboticist. Now he has combined his many skills to put out an illustrated book explaining some of the world’s more difficult concepts in simple language.