Being a skeptic is a rather lonely art. People often confuse you for a cynic, and I’m not using either term in the classical philosophical sense, of course. In ancient Greece, the cynics were people…

Was an almighty God required to boot up the universe, or would a blindfolded monkey have sufficed? What a silly question. Isn't it obvious that truly divine powers were needed to create our amazing…

This story caught my eye.  "China currently accounts for 93 percent of production of so-called rare earth elements — and more than 99 percent of the output for two of these elements, dysprosium…

Not really, but Paul Krugman is laying out some criticism of economics that's in the same spirit of my recent criticisms of networks and computational biology. "How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?":…

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was closed Monday as wildfires came within two miles of the facility.  The decision to give most of the 5,000 employees the day off was made Sunday evening.…

In February of 2010, Scientific Blogging, the flagship of Science 2.0, will turn 3 years old.   Yep, you all are getting old.   But by then it will have changed, even from what it looks…

  Zinziber officinale Rose or  Ginger  used in large number of Ayurvedic formulations is good for digestive power. Family     Zinziberaceae Used Part   …

Scientific Name  Polyalthia. longifolia (Soon)Thwaitea. Family     Annonaceae Used Part    Bark Distribution Area Considered to be a native of the drier parts of Ceylon,…

Right now I'm asking myself why I spent 100+ hours carefully writing a grant proposal that was destined to not get a serious reading. Below are dueling comments from the same reviewer (for the sake…

The dinosaurs of Australia disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous, as they did the world over. Their departure marked the end of the supercontinent of Gondwana. By the middle of the Eocene, some…

Everyone says they want to get kids to get a better science - now we can all actually do something about it. We're doing a small beta test of our Science For Kids site.(1)  It isn't perfect yet…

Proving myself wrong in record time (see comments on my first post, where I claimed I wouldn't be discussing squid recipes), today's squid is served with chiles, lime, and herbs. Why? The coincidence…

I've been trying to figure out why "transhumanists" and their predictions irritate me so much.  Perhaps it's seeing humanity reduced to a simplistic engineering problem to be solved.  Or…

Ah, summer. Sunshine, lazy days, kids selling cocaine under the guise of lemonade on the sidewalk. Wait, what? Best excuse ever for ingesting pot: it was the mysterious sidewalk salesman working for…

What was it that my late aikido and Zen sensei asked me to do, on that day twenty-some years ago?  I do remember his request struck me as difficult to carry out, and perhaps not really…

 Piper longum Linn (Piperaceae) used in  Ayurvedic medicines helps cure leprosy.  Proessor Ashwani Kumar Habit and Habitat A climber occurring in the hotter parts of…

Antioxidants cause cancer. Or at least that is the headline you may read in some less reputable sources of science news, reporting this study out this week in Nature. Before you go rushing off to…

What's the quickest way to get scientists and serious science writers to quit coming on your show? Invite the creationists. Discover bloggers Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer explain what happened: Sean…

A couple of years ago, I talked about some of the search terms that people have used when they’ve found my blog pages. In the comments, Donna was amazed at the information that’s available to the web…

 Cinnamomum verum Presl (  syn  C.zeylanicum Bi)     Lauraceae Famiily. Its bark is used as condiment.    A tree native  to Sri Lanka and  …