Giving Compass' Take:

• Maggie Villiger at The Conversation, discusses the most interesting articles about everyday science that were featured in the past year.

• How are these pieces helpful for the public to understand? What are some scientific areas we still have questions about?

• Read about the scientific breakthroughs that will make an impact in 2019.

One of best things about my job as a science editor is that any crazy idea I start wondering about – whether triggered by something I see on my commute, a current event that’s in the news, or best of all a conversation with my young kids – I can call up an expert and ask her or him to break it down for me, and you.

Below, a handful of my favorites from 2018. But curiosity isn’t bound by the calendar, so here’s to a new year of everyday science.

  1. Seven pet years equals one human year? The 7-to-1 age equation is not quite right, he wrote, but “determining a pet’s ‘real’ age is actually important because it helps veterinarians like me recommend life-stage specific healthcare for our animal patients.”
  2. The word you don’t know for a smell you do: “Of course rain itself has no scent,” he wrote. “But moments before a rain event, an ‘earthy’ smell known as petrichor does permeate the air.” He goes on to describe its fragrant chemical compounds and where they come from.
  3. A more personal question of scent: Sarah Coseo Markt from Harvard’s School of Public Health did the honors on this one, explaining that after you eat asparagus, your body breaks down one of its constituents into two compounds that “when voided from the body … become foul-smelling gas, wafting up from your asparagus pee.”
  4. Even blue blood readers have red blood: “The bluish color of veins is only an optical illusion,” wrote University at Albany chemists Marisia Fikiet and Igor Lednev.
  5. Please switch to Airplane Mode: Penn State engineer Sven Bilén explained why talking on your cellphone at 40,000 feet is more of service issue than a safety one these days.

Read the full article about science of everday life by Maggie Villiger at The Conversation