James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA’s double-helix structure recently called for a back to basics approach in dealing with cancer.  In previous post threads I’ve discussed cancer’s…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Advanced Cell Technology for the second human trial of human embryonic stem cells (hESC), in people with macular degeneration, a progressive…

Many people would admit to not understanding cancer well, but fewer people would admit to not understanding evolution well.  Here are some challenges to our understanding of both. Starvation may…

They start bad but they improve with time. I cannot say I like Pope Benedikt XVI yet, but I have the feeling that he is getting better as he ages, pretty much like Pope Johannes Paul II, Karol…

Godwin's Law says, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."  Since I started with the comparison, we can hopefully move…

Isn't dividing the world into disciplines the antithesis of Science 2.0?  My preference would be no categories, but at the least, couldn't we have a Field called "Multidisciplinary" or "Science…

If you grew up like me you were brought up in a culture based on a dualist metaphysics, one that asserts that there is an objective reality outside of ourselves (whatever “we” are) and that we know…

A study by Wageningen University says radiation from wi-fi networks may be harmful to trees.    The researchers note that trees in urban areas in recent years have shown an increasing…

Will Wright’s demo of Spore illustrates some key concepts of complex systems, including the notion of simple rules generating complex behaviors, and also the power of recursively applied (i…

[note: I struggled with what category to put this in, perhaps there should be a new one called Complexity?] One of the paradigms in complex adaptive systems thinking that has great explanatory power…

Voting blocs are an emergent property of representative democracies wherein each new voting issue carries with it an automatic right for each representative to vote. In other words, when votes are…

Not having had any serious biological training I have to go to Wikipedia and Google to learn the basics. And I’m often surprised to find that concepts everyone uses don’t have good consensus amongst…

One scientist has recommended that decreasing tax on alcohol sold in pubs and increasing tax for the supermarket stuff will help UK spend less on alcohol abuse. Argument also goes to support…

Here I will explain the difference between matter, anti matter, dark matter, and negative matter in a concise and understandable way.   I have seen confusion pop up in various online forums and…

Bridges between dendritic spines in the brain makes neurons talk to each other better and makes you smarter. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia have fewer of these bridges.…

It's common belief that Vikings visited Newfoundland, therefore reaching the New World from Europe before Christopher Columbus, but a new genetic analysis claims not only did Vikings visit North…

I was at a film festival when it just hit me...  When I was a younger version, making movies was one of my fantasies. It seemed like it would be a fascinating lifestyle to tell interesting…

Cancer treatment has reached a stage where we have begun to realize that same hat can not fit everybody's head. Genetic mismatches at the nucleic-acid level, known as point mutations vary from person…

Kate's Month at the Museum ends November 18, 2010. As the winner of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's contest, she has been "eating, sleeping, and sciencing for 30 days" there. This…

I liken cognition to a hill-climbing search on the landscape of theories/models/maps that explain/predict reality.  It’s easy to get stuck on peaks of local maximality.  Injecting…