In a previous article, I demonstrate how to build an alcohol burner for a home chemistry set. In my article, I mention that "second-hand stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army, and local mom&pop…

While school-age models of atomic nuclei show them as being spherical, like a basketball, they are more like the shape of a football.  Yet for some particular combinations of protons and…

Men who experience sexual harassment are far more likely than women to induce vomiting and take laxatives and diuretics - purging - in an attempt to control their weight, according to a new…

A Federal judge in Rhode Island didn't like that the Supreme Court struck down an $18 million penalty for a Texas natural gas firm so he is trying to get creative in his new penalty. The company,…

A Federal judge in Rhode Island didn't like that the Supreme Court struck down an $18 million penalty for a Texas natural gas firm so he is trying to get creative in his new penalty. The company,…

Two days ago I wrote a quick post to stimulate non-flat-EEG readers to consider an apparently trivial question, which in fact hid many subtleties. The general question I wanted to address was whether…

Vaccines are good. Infectious diseases are no longer the leading cause of death like they were a century ago. Sure, they are also big business now, as marketing for HPV and Shingles can attest, but…

Vaccines are good. Infectious diseases are no longer the leading cause of death like they were a century ago. Sure, they are also big business now, as marketing for HPV and Shingles can attest, but…

With the recent rescue of three young women in Cleveland, held for over a decade by a kidnapper, we are now subject to the useless speculations of the media. Why the news media feels compelled to ask…

The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) and Budgett's frog (Lepidobatrachus laevis) differ in diet and last shared a common ancestor about 110 million years ago but what they were found to have in…

During the late Pleistocene, which ended about 12,000 years ago, a remarkably diverse assemblage of large-bodied mammals inhabited the "mammoth steppe," a cold and dry environment that extended from…

In December, when a Republican berated the CDC for not finding links between vaccines and autism, science media was outraged.  Yet for years prior to that, Democrats had made the same claim with…

When comparing men and women who have dyslexia to non-dyslexic control groups, researchers found significant differences in brain anatomy, suggesting that the disorder may have a different brain-…

The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella of the family Pyralidae) is capable of sensing sound frequencies of up to 300 kHz, making it possessor of the highest recorded frequency sensitivity of any…

If you are not an experienced baseball player, a ball coming at you 40 or 50 miles per hour is fast. You are almost certain to swing too late and then, when you realize that is fast, you will swing…

Everyone should have a home where they feel comfortable. If you want to carry a six-shooter on the street, move to Kennesaw, Georgia, outside Atlanta - Gun Town, USA (bonus: only 4 gun murders in 30…

It isn’t Monday, but I’m puzzled every day of the week. Alice is puzzled too; she’s playing with a new tetrahedral die. Each face has a different positive integer on it, but the numbers are peculiar…

Richard Holmes - Falling Upwards Falling Upwards.  What a wonderful title for a history of ballooning. As someone with more than a slight interest in the history of science and technology*, I…

If you are toughing out harsh winter weather, snow can be a relief. It's a respite from biting winds and subzero temperatures. But winter and spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has declined…

An estimated 5 percent of the U.S. population has restless legs syndrome, a disruptive, overwhelming nocturnal urge to move the legs even while sleeping, which can lead to many sleepless nights. Why…