I am not particularly friendly to the so-called New Atheism. While I respect (and often respectfully disagree with) Dan Dennett, I have been a fairly strong critic of Dawkins, Harris, and the…

A new paper finds that concussions are common among middle-school girls who play soccer, and most continue to play with symptoms. Using a small sample of email survey and interviews, the authors…

Someone who wants to commit suicide, or a homicide, is not prevented by a lack of guns, but access makes it easier.  A meta-analysis, a statistical look at various studies that shows patterns,…

When tragedies happen, politicians aim to yell on the floors of Congress about how tragedies must be stopped.  And gun tragedies should be entirely preventable, claim gun ban proponents. Just…

Plants, like almost all living organisms, have an internal communication system to respond to external stimuli. Whether they are exposed to sunlight, pollutants, nutrients or pests, plants react…

Rosetta is currently chasing down Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will become the first space mission to rendezvous with a comet, the first to attempt a landing on a comet’s surface and the…

When it was fashionable to do so, Germany claimed they were scuttling their nuclear power plants. Their energy companies, bolstered by billions of Euros in government subsidies, rushed to replace…

Going barefoot in parts of Africa, Asia and South America is dangerous. Hookworms live in the soil and enter the body through the feet. By feeding on victims' blood, the worms cause anemia and, in…

Researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns the common gut bacterium Bacteroides ovatus  into the Swiss Army knife of the digestive tract, helping us metabolize a main component…

A new paper claims that exposure to secondhand smoke at home or in the car increases the odds of children being readmitted to the hospital within a year of being admitted for asthma. It seems like…

A new estimate has said that tidal power generated by turbines placed in the Pentland Firth, between mainland Scotland and Orkney, could power about half of Scotland - they estimate 1.9…

Results using data from the Gaia-ESO project has provided some evidence backing up theoretical divisions in the chemical composition of the stars that make up the Milky Way's disc – the vast…

Measuring a 27-dimensional quantum state is a time-consuming, multistage process using a technique called quantum tomography, which is similar to creating a 3D image from many 2D ones. Researchers…

Want a more accurate estimate of waiting time to get through security at airports?  Obviously monitoring Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is one way to go, but often people shut those off in the airport…

"Statistical power does not corrupt" Leland Wilkinson, "Statistical Methods in Psychology Journals", in American Psychologist, August 1999. [Note: "power" in the context of statistical tests measures…

Researchers recently got 54 volunteers to try on free shoes. But this wasn't for fun, it was for a biomechanical study of the shoes manufactured by the Majorcan Camper brand. The six designs of men's…

It is estimated that one in 50 people in England have some form of learning disability such as Down’s syndrome, but when they become hospitalized they basically become 'invisible', according to a new…

I was checking out my trusty Cotton Physiology Handbook and have to admit that I got a bit blown away.. What is a xylem? Plants have vascular systems just like people, but for plants,…

I was checking out my trusty Cotton Physiology Handbook and have to admit that I got a bit blown away.. What is a xylem? Plants have vascular systems just like people, but for plants,…

A young star named HD 142527 in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) has revealed that cosmic dust, which is component material of planets, is circling around the star in a form of asymmetric ring.…