Blindsnakes are one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from India about 100 million years ago, and continental drift had a profound impact on how the animals…

Despite understanding the long term benefits of eating healthy and exercising,  people often forgo these potential gains for the immediate satisfaction of a big mac and a night of cable TV.…

Adults with a history of cocaine use face an increased risk of HIV as a result of engaging in unprotected sex. And a new study in Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse suggests that the…

Our telescopes show the Milky Way galaxy only as it appears from one vantage point: our solar system. B using a simple but powerful technique, astronomers have seen an exploding star or supernova…

Scientists have fine-tuned computer models that can indicate when forest "carbon sinks" actually become net carbon generators instead. The effort, detailed in Global Change Biology, will help…

Scientists have developed a non-viral, synthetic nanoparticle carrier to improve and save the sight of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease characterized by progressive vision loss…

The symbol of the Godness Venus Did you know that strawberries are not really a fruit? It's in fact a receptacle that is the modified or expanded portion of the stem or axis that bears the organs…

A new high resolution temperature map and images of Saturn's moon Mimas have revealed surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble "Pac-Man"…

If you want to believe news reports Prf. James Lovelock think we are too stupid to stop climate change. What he actually said was"I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever…

What does it mean to be human? In the six million years or so since our ancestors first stood upright, we still don't have the perfect answer. In an effort to help the public appreciate our own…

Unexpected context, So much for inventing motors or figuring out Autism Found on the web, from Stumble-upon So much for solving autism, inventing computors (Alan Turing 1912-1954) , motors or…

  Birefringence and the polarized light 1. Definition Birefringence is a kind of optical phenomenon that when the light go through an anisotropic crystals, there are two emergent refracted…

We are on. This afternoon just after 1PM the LHC beams have started to produce proton-proton collisions in the heart of the experiments, at the never-before achieved energy of 7 TeV. It was a long…

A very interesting question has been posed by colleague Mark Changizi (see his fascinating blogs at www.science20.com) related to brain size as it relates to body size. He presents good…

How much is my labor on the Project Calliope satellite costing me? Accounts range from 'zero' to $14,400, to $65,000. That's the difference between what I'm being paid to do it for, what I'm losing,…

Prosopagnosia or prosopagnosia, is a perceptual deficit acquired or congenital central nervous system that prevents individuals who are affected to properly recognize people's faces, it is determined…

Most obesity research focuses on what kinds of foods people eat and how much. But a news study from the University of Alabama suggests that timing may be equally important when it comes maintaining a…

Researchers studying the health information content of Twitter updates say misunderstandings about antibiotics have the potential to spread widely through social networking sites. Writing in the…

Hemophilia is caused by a genetic defect that inhibits the body's ability to control blood clotting. The two forms of the disease — hemophilia A and B — are associated with the absence of proteins…

Just one small square of chocolate a day can lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease, says a new study published online today in the European Heart Journal. The authors of the…