Chose my chemistry picksKnew it was coming.Let's see Science's tricksGot the list humming? 1. Cellular reprogramming2. Exoplanets3. Cancer genes4. High temperature superconducting…

These photos span all the sciences but there are some nice biology-related ones here.  They are from National Geographic and definitely cover many of this year's top science stories. It seems to…

When I learned that Barack Obama had picked John Podesta as his transition chief, I was not impressed, being that he has a crank belief the government is hiding UFOs. The folks at ScienceDebate don't…

If you haven't seen the Dugger Family show, you are missing a great real-time experiment in sustainability. Mom Michelle, 42, had her 18th baby today, according to AP.  She told a local news…

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We all know the term bogeyman — a fictional monster that empowers its inventor. According to Wikipedia, “parents often say that if their child is naughty, the bogeyman will get them, in an effort to…

There is a serious side of Taoism which advocates becoming like a child. "Why do the enlightened seem filled with light and happiness like children? Why do they sometimes even look and talk like…

Continuing today's theme of science and the Obama administration... Physicist John Holdren will be Obama's science advisor. I was hoping we'd finally get a biologist in that position, but his…

Larry Summers says that R&D spending should not be part of an economic stimulus package, contrary to what many scientists were probably hoping for. Summers actually has a good point. The…

You can't make this stuff up. Or maybe you can, but still, I think it's mind-boggling. A doctor in Colorado found a surprise when removing what he thought was a benign growth from a newborn's brain.…

I didn't know that Christmas was associated with hangovers, but apparently in Britain it is. Whatever gets you through family time, I guess. Anyway, the venerable BMJ dedicated some quality space to…

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The British Medical Journal has been busy overturning medical myths, according to BBC News.   "Both physicians and non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true…

All the cells in our body have the same set of genes.  The reason that we have arms, legs, heads, etc. is because transcription factors turn genes on and off in the right places at the right…

Two articles addressing blogging and science have appeared recently in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and in PLoS Biology. Bloggers John Wilkins, Shelly Batts, Nick Anthis and Tara Smith write…

The astronomy/physics sector of the internets is all abuzz about Dark Energy. It was originally thought that gravity would slow the expansion of the universe as huge astronomical bodies become…

Can science journalism get any more embarrassingly bad? "Real-time gene monitoring developed" says a headline over at physorg.com. The piece starts off with an insane hook that makes no sense…

I can relate to Olivia Judson's experience with the digitization of science journals: On the good side, instead of hauling dusty volumes off shelves and standing over the photocopier, I sit…

Ben Casnocha asks what I mean by appreciative thinking. A good question, since I invented the phrase. To learn appreciative thinking is to learn to appreciate, to learn to see the value of things.…

Ivory towers are replacing smoke stacks in Alabama and all over the US. This can be a good thing, but there is a core problem: Until relatively recently, most universities and the cities surrounding…