Science

As the Summer Olympic Games get underway today in London, researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder have been looking back to the last games. The effort to clear the skies in Beijing was also a perfect experiment for climate scientists.

This is one of those fun-to-think-about questions. A brain isn't much to look at, after all. It's about the size of your two fists put together, three pounds to hold, but oh my, what it can do.

With our brains, we can think backwards, imagine forwards, conjure, create things that don't exist, leap vast distances. For example, suppose I say to you, close your eyes and imagine this:

You don’t have to look too hard to find beer on the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins. But not all of it is at keggers. In the microbiology building, it’s a legitimate study subject.