No, not a modification of the now classic "Say of the week" series. Rather, a quote from a very famous Physical Review article which is of relevance to a couple of questions I offered here and here…

Clean, free-flowing Ganga by 2020: Govt PTI 31 December 2009, 03:29pm ISTText Size:|Topics:Govt clean Ganga 2020 VARANASI: The Centre has expressed confidence that by 2020 the polluted river Ganga…

We already know that "suffering builds character", but a new study suggests that it may do a lot more than that. Successfully coping with stress at an early age may significantly increase your…

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, or SPIRE instrument, riding aboard Herschel Space Observatory, launched in May by the European Space Agency, has provided one of the most detailed views…

The authors of a new study published in Current Biology say they've gained new insight into the sex lives of malaria spreading mosquitoes. In finding a partner of the right species type, male and…

A team of anthropologists has for the first time directly analyzed DNA from a member of our own species who lived around 30,000 years ago, allowing scientists a unique glimpse into the history of…

“Room for one please!” Josef was impatient. He was tired. It had been a long hot day and he needed a bath. “Of course sir. How many nights?” “Twenty-one nights, I will be leaving the same day in…

Apparently, a committee in Japan is lobbying for a return to the traditional sake bottle. The squid skins dry in the sun, stuffed with rice or grains to create the bottle shape. Once fully dried,…

Okay, the year is not over just yet, but it is already time for a little accounting of the traffic on this site in the course of the last eight-and-a-half months -that is, since I moved my blog to…

Biofuels were all the rage in the 1990s.   Sustainable, activists said, because they refused to do math.   It was only when Republicans mandated and subsidized biofuels in 2005 that…

A few recently published studies offered some insight into the issue of closing schools to reduce the effects of a flu epidemic. The first problem, which hasn't been resolved, is determining the…

Caffeine is the world's most popular stimulant drug and enjoys the cultural shield of being both legal and acceptable.    A caffeine addiction is considered perfectly normal. But with soft…

During my one and only severe manic episode, during the summer of 2006, I had the scariest half hour of my life where I thought I was literally in danger of losing my sanity. I found myself…

How often have you taken a picture with a digital camera, only for it to come out looking like this? The sky’s too bright, the shaded parts are too dark, and however much one juggles with it with…

The autotrophic cell is the one who is able to produce, by it self, its own energy and structural components. It corresponds, in the natural world to the vegetable cell. We call to this process…

To wrap up the year, I'm listing my 4 worst columns.  Or, at least, the four columns that got outstandingly terrible readership.  I searched for a pattern or justification for why people…

  WOMAN BUTCHERED     Ayad Gharbawi   Child that gathered knowledge Knowledge frightening to human nature Girl-child was awakened Herself she awakened Saw the glow of eyes…