Phosphorus is a critical ingredient in fertilizers, pesticides, detergents and various industrial and household chemicals but once phosphorus is mined from rocks, getting it into products is…

When the Batphone rang in my office late Wednesday, I knew it had to be important, like someone being wrong on the Internet, because, really, no one calls me.  It helps that I never call anyone…

While the public has a great respect for scientists, they don't trust scientists, at least when it comes to issues that also overlap with politics, like the environment. When it comes to policy…

Unlike physics or biology, the social sciences have not demonstrated the capacity to produce a substantial body of useful, nonobvious, and reliable predictive rules about what they study—that is,…

Unlike physics or biology, the social sciences have not demonstrated the capacity to produce a substantial body of useful, nonobvious, and reliable predictive rules about what they study—that is,…

Since today, and for a full week, I will be serving as Scientific Coordinator (SciCo) of the crew operating the CDF experiment at Fermilab. This honorable task (or in alternative, the serving as…

Using corn or soybean for getting ethanol or bio-diesel additive could be good option for some nations, developing cellulose resources could be another with genetic engineering, while Jatropha is in…

Behold true tales of procrastination!  Learn whether to get a PhD!  Or just kick back and enjoy fall.  Enjoy another science webcomics interlude!  The first two are 'long form',…

What Morrow plots showed to the world in 1876 and still being maintained as the historical site the world has forgotten. During my visit to UIUC to Professor Jack Widholm the pioneer scientist in…

I love technology. Some people like it because it allows us to do incredibly complicated things that otherwise would not have been possible. I like it because it allows us to do incredibly normal…

OAuth — a proposed Open Authentication standard — fills a significant gap in cross-application authentication. It’s common in a world of myriad web-based services for one service you use to want to…

Recent studies have shown that si RNA (short interfering RNA exogenous or endogenous 19 to 25 nt (Nucleotides) has a role in regulating the gene expression. How the 21 nucleotide sequences of RNA…

Ashwgandha (Withania somnifera) is commonly known as old mens lathi ( support for ageing people) as it helps to restore memory loss or at least delays the degenration of neurons during ageing process…

Prairie plants which were original vegetation of certain regions of the world in prehistoric times are the hope for the future. Global warming has local solutions only.  A screening of plants…

Presenting measurement values together with some educated guess on accuracy or precision is scientific standard. It is very important to any good scientist, so much so that it is basically my…

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by…

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by…

For years, the Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics has been floating around the Web intriguing, amusing, educating, troubling, or infuriating different people. Doing one better, pop star…

For years, the Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics has been floating around the Web intriguing, amusing, educating, troubling, or infuriating different people. Doing one better, pop star…

A video posted on A Blog Around the Clock a few days ago discusses the mechanisms behind hydrogen bonding. The first half of the video is visually basic -- simple diagrams to illustrate the points in…