Sciences

The God Particle Complex

8.6 Earthquake in Indian Ocean Triggered Aftershocks in L.A.'s Backyard

If you've noticed that the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Rim seems to rock like a frat party every time there's a giant earthquake, new science might just back up your observation. A new study by U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Fred Pollitz documents how the Pacific Rim went bonkers following ... More >>

Earthquake 'Swarm' in Imperial Valley Still Raging, Could Signal Larger SoCal Event

An underground thunderstorm of seismic activity, officially called a "seismic swarm," hit a farm town called Brawley in the Imperial Valley yesterday -- gearing up around sunrise with some magnitude 2s and 3s, peaking with a magnitude 5.3 and 5.5 just after noon, and rolling into Monday morning with ... More >>

Enjoy the Heat Wave While You Can: Los Angeles May Be in for a Long, Stormy Winter

As the mercury rises this week and your commute gets a couple shades sweatier, we don't want to hear you whining to the L.A. Daily News that you're "very tired of it being constantly warm." Seriously -- be grateful, people! Because it's looking like you'll have plenty of time for your miserable rai ... More >>

Caltech Nerds Discover Key to Universe, Higgs Boson

They might not get the chicks (or studs), but nerds might have just figured out the key to the universe. While you were gargling beer and lighting streamers in your pants over the holiday, a global consortium of scientists was celebrating over juice boxes: They might have discovered the long-predic ... More >>

It's The Hottest Year Ever, America

If your face melted off in March, you nearly died during the second weekend of Coachella in April, and now you're wondering if there is hell on earth in May, you're not that crazy. And it's not just an Inland Empire thing either. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said recently t ... More >>

Sombrero Shaped Galaxy Has Multiplied

It turns out the so-called Sombrero Galaxy -- shaped like the Mexican hat -- is now two. Ay Dios mio: Leave us Latinos alone for two seconds and -- boom! -- we multiply. Well, not exactly. The Sombrero was two all along, NASA Spitzer Science Center researchers at Caltech said recently:

10 Awesome Photos of Space, From 'The History of Space Photography' Show in Pasadena

Four hundred years ago, stargazing was practically illegal. The Roman Inquisition sentenced Galileo for supporting Copernican astronomy, and most people still believed the earth was flat. Fortunately, science has since come a long way, and now, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena has made space e ... More >>

Wrekmeister Harmonies Score Wavelength at Cinefamily

Michael Snow's game-changer, with live music

The Ig Nobel Awards: Researchers Invent a Wasabi Fire Alarm

Anne Fishbeinwasabi, etc. at Kiyokawa​ The Nobel committee has been awarding their coveted prizes this week, which fact may have overshadowed the announcement of the 21st annual Ig Nobel (get it?) awards, sponsored by the Annals of Improbable Research and handed out last Thursday at a Harvard ... More >>

Weird Science: Bad Hare Day

Not N. rex. Even scarier, the Donnie Darko bunny.​Enormous bunny rabbits, six times the size of today's rabbits, roamed Minorca three to five million years ago, reports Discovery News. Too big to hop, the well-marbled creatures, ominously known as N. rex, dragged their cottontails around the C ... More >>

Sea Levels are Rising Faster Than Expected, Say L.A.-Area Scientists

Could LA one day look like Kevin Costner's Waterworld?​Scientists at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has discovered that the gigantic ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting much faster than anyone ever expected. As a result, the seas could potentially rise much faster, as well, e ... More >>

Amateur Astronomers Invite the Public to Informal Viewings

Red State Blue State Smackdown: Red States to Sue California Over Global Warming Law

​The attorneys general of Alabama, Nebraska, Texas and North Dakota will sue California over its Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB32, which requires 80 percent carbon emission reductions by 2050, California Watch reports. First, though, the potential litigants are awaiting the results ... More >>

El Ninos Getting Stronger, More Frequent, According to JPL In Pasadena

JPL​Get ready for the storm of the century: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena this week unleashed a study showing that El Ninos, those wet-weather generators for Southern California, are growing stronger and more frequent. There has been some speculation that the warm Pacific water ... More >>

Lily The Whale Is Back In Dana Point

KTLA News​We watched television news coverage of the wayward gray whale inside Dana Point Harbor this week and wondered if marine biologists were right: All they could do is stand by, they said, even as onlookers asked if there was more that could be done. It turned out there was: The whale, ... More >>

Al Jazeera presents: A Theme Song for the Icelandic Volcano (WTF)

File under: the world is a deeply weird place. Here's a little theme song for the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull ("pronounced ay-uh-fyat-luh-yoe-kuutl-ul") sung by Eliza Geirsdottir Newman and her magical ukelele (or toy guitar--we can't really tell). Adding to the weirdness, it comes to us co ... More >>

It Pays to Be Green: On Beth Barrett's Measure B Story

Talking with the Institute for Figuring’s Margaret and Christine Wertheim

Masters of the Woolen Reef

Best L.A. Record Store: Amoeba Records

Fighting About How to Fight Global Warming

Also, readers keep a weather eye out

Does Jerry Brown Want to Cut Emissions Or Just Run for Governor?

The war on greenhouse gases and suburbs

How Not to Fight Global Warming

Will Sacramento’s “ready, fire, aim” approach backfire?

The Eel World

For the past decade, E has created parallel universes. Turns out there's a reason why

David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk

A mathematician's apology

Game Over

Quakes, asteroids, mass extinction — when the end comes, will it come from below, above or within?

Man-Made Reefs or Oily Eyesores?

In a raging debate, some say Mother Nature has warmed to California’s offshore oil rigs

Looking for Mr. Begley

Earth Day in L.A.

Swoosh!

Comets (and reactions to them) through the ages

Everything's Gone Green

Filmmakers unleash a new kind of scary movie

He's Not Your Father's Jerry Brown

Zen Buddhism aside, the new attorney general is pro-developer and tough on crime

Horror Show

Mr. Magneto

The Electric Life of Michael Faraday

The Tip of the Melting Iceberg

25 minutes with Al Gore

Running Hot and Cold: A Dozen Weird Weather Moments

Gut Reactions

How the contents of a termite’s stomach may revolutionize your car

Running Hot and Cold: A Dozen Weird Weather Moments

Think Globally, Act Santa Monically

One city’s attempt to cool down global warming

The Imageers

Science shows its (new) visual side

The Greatest Story Never Read

An Oxford don’s rather thorough guide to the universe

Leaving Bush Behind

Companies make peace with Kyoto Protocol

Global Warming

Five Studies and Five Actions

Science or Superstition?

The mystery of earthquake prediction

Quantum Mysticism

The fuzzy embrace of science and religion

The Visa Vise

Homeland Security's hold on American science

Dangerous Liaison

From mathematics to war

Beyond the Fold

Computers and the origami renaissance

The Ice Man Formeth

The world’s leading authority on snowflakes is based in — where else? — L.A.

Brain Worlds

Hawking, Derrida and living with the other

Prime Obsession

Will the greatest problem in mathematics ever be resolved?