We're always trying to keep the 'footprint' of the site pretty small while maintaining as much functionality as possible.    You've all seen 'new' versions of lots of sites that seem to add…

 Today's underwater acoustic communication relies on scalar sensors to measure the pressure of the acoustic field. However, "a vector sensor is capable of measuring important non-scalar…

I got this notification from the NSF so I thought I would pass it along - obviously I didn't write it but it's not something we would put in an article and it's too long for a corkboard message.…

Once upon a time, I worked in an office that had a beat-up, steel bookcase in the break room.  This was our unofficial lending library, where anyone could drop off a book they had read and were…

Here at the University of Reading, the good folks of the Association for Science Education have been holding their annual conference, and RU staff members like myself are invited to participate. The…

Adam Drewnowski, director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle,  says that an ongoing recession will lead to even more obesity.    Drewnowski…

Picture: Sundog on the right, the Sun on the left. Picture was taken in Finland, Lahti  3.1.2008. Sundogs exist, when there is ice in atmosphere which reflects the Sun light. The…

"Raw materials were not an issue" for the evolution of the first life on earth, argues Henderson Cleaves, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution, quoted in Carl Zimmer's Science essay on origins of…

In my last article, I ended with the observation that: While we cannot reject Cook's scientific contribution simply on thebasis of his embrace of racist pseudoscience, we also can't simplyignore it…

John Hawks reviews an article by Roni Caryn Rabin on the connection with glucose metabolism and age related cognitive decline. The original authors made clear that we remember: Previous…

That's because there is going to be so much great, non-technical writing in honor of Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. We're going to…

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project might restart in 2009 Summer. I wrote twice about the incident that caused its shutdown on 19 September 2008. First, …

Or just try to change the law: There's the famous false story of the state that tried to redefine the fundamental mathematical constant pi to 3, but of course no one would ever be that stupid. Though…

Whenever one discusses the underlying genetic influences on human behavior, one is opening themselves up to being labelled a determinist.  Part of the reason for that is a total misunderstanding…

Galaxy M87 is unique for three reasons.  First, it   is easily observable,    It has twin jets, each some 5,000 light years long, and most importantly  its core has little or…

Meet the smallest fully integrated fuel cell in the world: only 9 mm3 in volume but 254 W per Liter in energy density. This millitechnology power source is the…

I just ran across a great population genetics blog, Selective Sweep, written by derele, a PhD student in Edinburgh. He writes in both German and English about genomics, population genetics, and…

I have a list of jerks already lined up for powering a space elevator, putting them in mortal danger of dying a painful death by plummeting elevator. Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator…

Evolgen clears up a misconception that drives me nuts: But this really points out flaw in how the general public, including journalists, understand academia. If I were to describe Eric Lander's…

Was anyone else as dismayed about the supposed choice for surgeon general as I was? President-elect Obama approached CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to be the country's next surgeon…