We got a tenth of an inch of rain yesterday -- such a microscopic amount.  The pond levels are down five feet from normal.  It's much less than the water level drop in areas like Lake…

Sciencecheerleader.com, an organization started by the dynamic and committed citizen scientist, Darlene Cavalier, has a noble goal. It wants to demonstrate to young girls that it’s OK to be pretty,…

A couple of dead giant squid have turned up--almost exactly on opposite sides of the globe! Surely this is some kind of portent? Architeuthis #1 was spotted off the coast of Tenerife, in the Canary…

FutureTense is a radio program in Australia that I had absolutely never heard of until they decided to interview me.  It's time to remedy this for that handful of you out there that, similarly,…

"In a world of string theory, I can be the Pope [...]. I just need to modify dilatonic Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory with low-energy heterotic string theory and it's all quite easy." H. Campbell

I don't like Steven Weinberg.Good, I have said it. I will provide a brief biographical sketch and a short list of his lengthy accomplishments. I read one of his science outreach books, "Dreams of a…

Miriam over at Deep-Sea News recently posted a lovely write-up on the argonaut, or paper nautilus. This reminded me that I, too, once felt the delight of finding a live argonaut in a manta tow cod…

Science 2.0 fave Dan Vergano at USA Today wrote an article based on the arXiv preprint written by Panagiota Kanti, Burkhard Kleihaus and Jutta Kunz called "Wormholes in Dilatonic Einstein-Gauss-…

The drought continues and our ponds shrink at Trinity River Audubon Center.  I'm torn between fascination about the process and worried for the life and diversity that we've worked so hard to…

The paper announces, in charmingly thick academese: The titanic baleen whales (Cetacea, Mysticeti) have a bizarre skull morphology, including an elastic mandibular symphysis, which permits dynamic…

Facebook made an interesting move this week when it reversed its policy to allow drug companies to maintain pages closed to comments, and I am really curious how this will play out in the near and…

This is one time you don't want to be in the fast lane... xkcd

If one amasses wealth at the expense of innocent people circumventing the law to their advantage because masses do not have resources or knowhow or infrastructure or man power to make money through…

National Geographic, which nows runs Scienceblogs.com, has put the hammer down on anonymous blogs. Really, that whole thing was always a little sketchy.  Supposedly the rationale was that these…

I have said many times I think people are terrifically smart; they know a lot of science, though they tend to frame it through their politics.     The numbers bear me out - science literacy…

Theoretical Physics - it is cool. Especially elementary particle physics. Especially Quantum Field Theory. It uses renormalizations of constants, which is out of comprehension to most layman people.…

For serious, you guys, look at this! Just in from The Epoch Times, Science in Pics: Bobtail squid burying itself in sand at Seraya in Bali, Indonesia. (Matthew Oldfield)The little fins seem to be…

In a sign that media people don't always understand media - especially social media - The Cool Blue Company LLC is proud to announce the world's first print magazine dedicated to social media called…

What is the shape of a Website?  How does one determine "shape" from a collection of links and electronic files?  Web designers, search engineers, and marketing consultants use geometric…

Quantum interference is really, really, really well-supported by data, data, data. Visualizing quantum interference is a blank slate. This may be a root source of frustration with any world view…