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…

If you're comfortably entrenched at the University of Maryland and not worried about a mortgage like Michigan autoworkers, you can understand why it's important that there will be debate about the…

Quantum Space-Time Dynamics Print: $33.60 Download: $10.00 General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory. The glaring theoretical problem for 21st century physics is how tounite the two great…

400 million years ago when early arthropods would have established the three pairs of legs while evolving from having had more. Recently,80 million years ago diverse insects evolved and began to take…

L. Frank Baum wrote "The Wizard of Oz" in 1900. As a centennial-celebration of this hugely popular American story, I went back to a reread. There are many themes to be explored in the land of Oz…

Anyone surprised? The inspector general of the Interior Department has found that agency officials often interfered with scientific work in order to limit protections for species at risk of becoming…

I just saw on Discover.com a blog post that almost made me wish I was teaching Chemistry again.....almost.  It's about some scientists who have been making a Periodic Table of Videos- a very…

An editor at Nature discusses the internet and the ethics of science communication (PDF). The paper doesn't turn out to be much of a discussion of science communication on the web - the piece ends up…

A little of this and a little of that today... I had just clicked "save" to publish my blog and the internet closed without warning, so this is an abbreviated version of my abbreviated blog. Two…

As a former dog owner and dog lover, I was not really surprised by last week's report that dogs have been found to "sense inequity", a.k.a. be jealous of the dog that's being treated better than they…

Chemistry is wonderful. Chemistry now has to play more than ever an interdisciplinary role for new visions. Here are two wonderful studies that I caught singing to me in 2008. Both contain elegant…

Dinosound revival is no kidding to me. I was at the foothills of tall snow-capped mountains by the sea when this happened. A very loud sound filled the meadows and startled my senses like a…

Vitamin C has been hailed as a magical vitamin for decades. Feeling sick, sleepy, or a little under the weather? Quick! Jam your mouth full of vitamin C, drink some orange juice and eat some…

"Ted" calls his nameService is his fameTurner turned World NewsInto a 24-7 game! As the world turnsSo Ted's passion burnsHumanity loves him suchHis charity widely churns. Ted must love hilarityColor…

Well, two reasons; reason one is that if we write about bdelloid rotifers we just make reference to bdelloid rotifers but if they write about bdelloid rotifers, they find a way to incorporate lesbian…

Most scientists wanted someone - anyone - other than George Bush in the White House.  Not because of budgets, clearly they went up a lot for NASA, NSF and the NIH during the Bush years, but…

The people of Aroostook County, Maine, win my award for most awesome community today. When you construct what is billed as the largest complete three-dimensional scale model of the solar system…

Obama is going to appoint a Nobel-prize winning physicist to be his Energy Secretary. I don't know anything about the physicist, Steven Chu (except that he's director of the Lawrence Berkely National…

Sometimes while doing science, one is struck by something in the same way that one is affected by beautiful art. Not that these are the most amazing images ever (they weren't meant to be artistic,…

Many of the biggest breakthroughs in science come from unexpected directions. Many revolutions come from unknown almost unfunded scientist working in obscurity. How can politicians in Washington know…