Cooks want to tell you grilling is an art or a craft.   We know better.  Grilling, like anything worth doing, is a science.   Anything that has been around for a million years is a…

The development of genetically modified organisms has been a potentially explosive topic for those who see themselves as scientists, environmentalists, or just plain eaters-of-food.  Although…

"No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer."  Thomas Browne (1605-1682) "There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you…

Love Thine Enemy It is exceedingly rare that the scientist and the believer can stand on the same platform and present the same message to the world in the form of a law of universal application.…

I'm not a Russell fan so his followers will have different opinions. One particular quirk of symbolic logic is the reason for this column. First it should be said that symbolic logic owes a great…

Psychrolinguistics I was going to title this 'cryolinguistics', but someone else already invented the term.   You have to admire the linguistic skills of anyone who can come up with a…

What does the Neanderthal genome have to with post-apocalyptic science fiction? It may seem like odd inspiration, but Neanderthals have aroused my interest in one of the most venerable genres of…

Computing networks of tomorrow will be evolving meshes of different processors, various legacy and newer hardware, and numerous software and operating platforms spanning generations - making it…

"According to the Met office, the heat wave sweeping the state had low-lying Una sizzling at 44.8 degrees on Wednesday, while Mandi recorded 44.8 degrees, Dharamshala 38.2 degrees, Kullu 38.6 degrees…

While going through old boxes of miscellaneous detritus, I came upon several sheets of paper from my health journalism grad school days. The scribes packed a lot of wisdom into those articles and…

Desperately Denying Arctic Warming This is the age of rapid public access to satellite images.  If you want to know what is happening to the Arctic ice you can see for yourself. There are some…

When I'm not delving into the science and pseudoscience surrounding autism, I have other areas of interest that I turn my attention to. The psychology of religion is one of those areas of…

NASA is dead.  Jedi killed it. Used to be, growing geeks wanted to go to Space Camp.  To fly rockets, to mimic operating a shuttle, to #$^ing be an astronaut.  It was engineering and…

Conservatives have long lamented the politicization of science.  And why wouldn't they?  Scientists as a bloc haven't voted Republican in decades and when Republicans limit science, there…

Researchers have unearthed a new species of horned dinosaur in Mexico with larger horns that any other species – up to 4 feet long.  The finding has given scientists fresh insights into the…

A project under development at the University of Nevada, Reno, called VI Fit can help children who are blind become more physically active and healthy through video games. The human-computer…

Instead of blogging, I've been gardening (for a living) and cultivating a scientific interest in weeds. I hadn't given much thought to weed science as a separate field of Crop and Soil…

I complain every time we have a family dinner at my sister’s house. Don’t get me wrong, I like my family and everything, but she moved with her daughter and son way out to the remotest…

In a mail message sent to the INFN president Roberto Petronzio and a few other distinguished particle physicists (not me, I got it third-hand), Carlo Rubbia announced today at 3.53 PM that the ICARUS…

Finally, there is at least some controversy about Ardipithecus ramidus - 'Ardi'.   Ardi was the missing link that was bigger than a meteor hitting the Earth or whatever, right?  Nope, that…