The theme of the latest Accretionary Wedge (a carnival of geoblogs) is “Throw me your ‘favorite geologic picture’ mister”, so here is mine: Despite my relatively short career as a geologist, it was a…

I just became aware of a letter that is being sent to a couple of US Senators by a large and illustrious collection of scientists, and I decided to put my signature below it. The letter is clear and…

Squid sex is both discreet and discrete. Discreet, because usually the sexual organs remain hidden. The only visible activity looks more like a handshake than like intercourse, as the male uses one…

Just a very short post here to mention Marni Dee Sheppeard's guest post in the brand new NEUTEL blog, the blog of the Neutrino Telescopes 2011 conference, which will be held in Venice from March 15th…

Nature provides "Teak " although its "Marwar Teak " for the desert people of Rajasthan . It was a common site to see this tree in the desert regions of Rajasthan and other parts of Rajasthan. In this…

Seismic sections are usually subjected to some processing sequence for noise reduction. If the noise has appreciable energy outside the frequency range of the useful signal, these sequences are…

If we're being honest in retrospect, the first decade of the 2000s was bad for science journalism.    Too many journalists decided they wanted to be cheerleaders for science or, worse, had…

Back in December, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission released a “Report and Order” specifying new rules related to network neutrality. The rules have since been challenged in court in…

If we're being honest in retrospect, the first decade of the 2000s was bad for science journalism.    Too many journalists decided they wanted to be cheerleaders for science or, worse, had…

If we're being honest in retrospect, the first decade of the 2000s was bad for science journalism.    Too many journalists decided they wanted to be cheerleaders for science or, worse, had…

Many of us agree that 'golf is a good walk spoiled' but not for the reasons a group of environmental lobbyists in San Francisco do.  The Wild Equity Institute, the Center for Biological…

Many of us agree that 'golf is a good walk spoiled' but not for the reasons a group of environmental lobbyists in San Francisco do.  The Wild Equity Institute, the Center for Biological…

Henry VIII, King of England and founder of the Anglican Church, was basically the Brad Pitt of his day when he was younger.   Charming, attractive and even kind, for a member of the Royal family…

Thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools, are in some cases so delicate that their only practical use would have been on the…

The smartest, and yet most disingenuous thing, the homeopathy industry did was conscript 'natural medicine' as part of its umbrella.    Homeopathy is clearly snake oil whereas natural…

If you saw the film version of "Mamma Mia!" you may have wondered why some of the actors could act, sing and dance and some, clearly, could not. A new study in Current Biology says that people who…

In a recent post I mentioned here that for the first of two feature articles I wrote for Physics World, and which just appeared in this month's issue (the first piece is actually available online…

Sunspots are dark spots on the sun, at least as we see them, caused by magnetic activity in the plasma on the surface of Sol. For 200 years scientists have known that they occasional disappear but no…

My husband has an enormous head. Sometimes this concerns me, when I consider the degree to which skull size may have a genetic basis and the fact that we'll probably reproduce at some point. That has…

Try going into a hospital room to see a newborn baby without using that annoying hand sanitizer stuff - the Frankenstein monster had an easier time with angry villagers than you will have with…