ESA's Herschel infrared space telescope has located a hole in the side of a cloud of bright reflective gas known to astronomers as NGC 1999. The hole has provided scientists with a surprising glimpse…

The admittedly small and self-selected group of inmates that I provide psychotherapy for on a weekly basis at our local county jail has inspired my curiosity about the mental and emotional health of…

Neural stem cells have long been defined as origin of nervous system development, spontaneously giving rise to the heterogeneous multitude of cells that make up the brain. Remarkably, neural stem…

"Why didn't these people follow their true vocation ending in a white-collar office, rather than breaking the balls to whom does Physics ?" (Anonymous physics researcher from unnamed experiment, upon…

In War of the Worlds, giant alien robots emerge out of the ground and begin vaporizing large numbers of actors. There’s a lot to like in those scenes, but there are three things I could not stand…

I saw it first on The One Show!   Beetroot juice boosts stamina, new study shows, as the University of Exeter says in a press release, the gist of which is as follows: Professor Andrew…

A 150 million year old Archaeopteryx fossil, long thought to contain nothing but fossilized bone and rock, has been hiding remnants of the animal's original chemistry, say researchers writing in PNAS…

For decades, the consensus among psychologists was that young children adopt an "anthropocentric" stance, favoring humans over non-human animals, when they begin reasoning about the biological world.…

Yes, I am still here! Did you miss me? You totally missed me! Maybe just a little. I emerge from my thesis-writing cave to spread the word that teuthologists Rui Rosa and Brad Seibel--who,…

Officials from the National Science Foundation (NSF) have announced a new policy designed to increase data sharing among researchers whose work is funded by agency. By October, 2010, NSF is planning…

Previous research has found that soda and coffee consumption are associated with risk of colon cancer. But a new review in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that drinking even…

Biologists studying a population of lizards on the Bahamas say that competition among the brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) is more important than predation by birds and snakes when it comes to…

Teenagers are smoking fewer cigarettes today, but that doesn't mean they've given up tobacco altogether. A new study in Pediatrics has found that almost one-quarter of young adults in Montreal have…

Astronomers from the University of Florida will take a second look this summer at a rare cosmic cradle for the universe's largest stars, the constellation Carina. The massive gas cloud is located 8…

Steroid use has been a serious problem in professional sports for many years now. Famous baseball players, Olympic athletes, pro wrestlers and many others have been caught using performance enhancing…

Why Plants Can't Sequester Excess CO2 Plants love CO2, right? More CO2 makes plants grow more, right? It follows that a global rise in atmospheric CO2 will produce healthier plants globally, right?…

Don’t Shoot The Pied Piper Of Longevity Science  by Bill Sardi Greg Critser, a marvelous crafter of words and noted science writer, in his “Resveratrol: The Backlash” article at the…

What Is A Tipping Point ? The term 'tipping point' is in widespread use in English, but what does it mean? Imagine a child's seesaw with an empty bucket on each end.  The seesaw is initially at…

Every two years particle physicists meet at a conference which is just a bit more important, more well-attended, and more prestigious than all the others that pester our agendas every other week.…

Musical ClownsWhy is it that so often a genius of comedy has brilliant musical talent?Or is it the other way round? I've also noticed that geniuses of comedy tend to be geniuses of language. …