What separates us from the animals?   Some of us contend it's technology while others say it's Pynchon novels but really how we learn has to be in the top five. Researchers in neuroscience,…

Even in the scramble to get clean energy funding, it's not a bad idea to devote money to research technology that isn't "shovel ready" science and technology, or even available everywhere, but can…

Nintendo is trying to sell you something so they will claim in marketing that Wii 'active' video games are good exercise for kids, but are they really? Yes, says a new study in the journal Pediatrics…

Why are terrorists like the Taliban and al Qaeda or even insurgents on their home soil harder to defeat?  There are many considerations.   Politically, policy-makers want approval over any…

The Eagle Nebula is a dazzling stellar nursery located 7000 light-years away near the constellation of Serpens - the Snake.  In the Eagle Nebula, a region of gas and dust where young stars are…

As part of  their series about the cultural response toward an H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program is releasing a national poll that focuses on Americans' views and concerns…

In the early days of global warming concern, prior to 1994, there was doubt because some researchers used data that skewed results during predictable events,  like El Niño, from locations in the…

The worst thing that can happen to the American economy is a tax on current carbon-using businesses that then subsidizes flaky alternatives that already don't work, like current ethanol and solar…

We can learn a lot about extinct giant South American mammals from 30-40 million years ago thanks the random process of fossilization.    Even their ancient 'mega-dung' has a tale to tell…

In the 1980s, Michael Milken went to jail for selling "junk bonds", which were risky debt.  His crime?  Offering to absorb all of the losses if he could have half the profits.   Some…

I'm assuming most of you here have not followed the ongoing board war between ex-Scienceblogs and current Discover bloggers Chris Mooney/Sheril Kirshenbaum and current Sciencblogs tour de force PZ…

Is Big Box becoming Big Environment? Wall Street Journal reported today that Wal-Mart "is requiring manufacturers to figure out the full environmental costs of making their products, and plans to…

This almost makes up for cursing the world with Windows Vista: "Gates Puts Feynman Lectures Online Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates believes that if he had been able to watch physicist Richard Feynman…

Speciation, where different populations of the same species split into separate species, is central to understanding evolution. As would be expected in a complex process like evolution, it's…

It is known that memory begins during the prenatal period but little has been discovered about the exact timing or for how long memory lasts. A new study done in Holland has found fetal short-term…

A new study says both the tiger stripes and a subsurface ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus are the result of the moon's unusual chemical composition and not a hot core, as previously believed.…

Dogs aren't the only animals that bark, they are just the most famous. Deer, monkeys and even birds also bark but what makes dogs different is a subject of interest in a new evolutionary biology…

As teenagers' drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations, things change in their brains - literally.    Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion…

A page of interesting thoughts and great quotes on visual thinking in science: [Feynman]: The next great era of awakening of human intellect may well produce a method of understanding the…

It is pretty safe to say that if the world of the dinosaurs were played out in the school yard, Pachycephalkosaurus, would definitely have been at the lowest end of the pecking order.