There must have been an abundant source of free energy on the early Earth that could produce the polymers required for natural experiments leading to the origin of life. What was it? Last week I…

Given the thousands of years of modern human history, all the brilliant minds that have popped up in science during that time, and especially advances in the last half century or so in computers, how…

The Brain's Linguistic Auto-Pilot We tend to be not very good at proof-reading and 'proof-hearing' our own words.  It takes mental training and a great deal of concentration even to proof-read…

Science grows through accretion, but becomes potent through distillation. - James P. Sethna, Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity

When a steep decline in the wool trade prompted an 18th century credit crunch, folks in Yorkshire took up a new (and dangerous) business venture - counterfeiting. In the 18th century, coining was a…

Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study published by BMC Public Health. Correlation…

One odd characteristic of H1N1 influenza A (swine flu) in 2009 is that it seems to hit children much harder than the elderly, an about-face from ordinary flu.   So targeting children may be an…

Fluctuating temperatures in Africa have always made reliable agriculture production difficult and global warming could make it even worse.   If local varieties of maize and other food staples…

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) assay using a “glow or no glow” technique may soon help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defend the nation against a spectrum…

People make value judgements about others based on their facial expressions, according to a new study carried out by Spanish and Brazilian researchers. After looking at a face for only 100…

The clothing industry discovered decades ago that a mix of natural and synthetic fibers, like taking cotton and adding polyester, can make clothing that's soft, breathable and wrinkle free. Now…

If we're lucky, fossils can at least tell us whether an extinct species was carnivore or vegetarian but the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard…

Stress and strain research got a boost thanks to research from NIST, where scientists have recently found evidence of an important similarity between the behavior of polycrystalline materials, like…

Open Source For New Hydrogen Powered Car A new hydrogen powered car unveiled in the UK is to be developed using open source methods.The Riversimple Urban car was unveiled in public for the first time…

Darwin didn't miss much, I think we all agree, and came up with a lot given the limited science of his day.   One thing he missed, that by this time tomorrow will be the source of outrageous…

Now that I am officially a philosopher (i.e., my salary is going to be paid by a philosophy, instead of a biology, department), I can indulge full time in reading philosophy without feeling guilty. I…

Now online, PNAS has a special evolution issue, based on a talks given at a conference, with pieces by Daniel Dennett, Francisco J. Ayala, Michael Ruse, Elliot Sober, and more. Some of the titles:…

Below I offer a preview of the slides I will show tomorrow at an invited seminar on the rather technical topic of  "The b-jet energy calibration with Z-->bb decays", which I have come to CERN…

Humans aren't all that close to each other in a modern sense but in one way we may be a little closer than previously realized: the way fish learn could be closer to humans, suggests a new research…

From the Rugbyologist's blog:  St. Louis Hero Needed There is a 14 month old child in St. Louis in desperate need of an AB negative blood donor. Hospitals in St. Louis are in desperate need of…