Mmm. Protein. To a certain someone: I got there first this time! Thanks to Indexed.

Just came across a really cool article, about a recent discovery where scientists have found a way to make a metal absorb water, transport it over distances just like a tree absorbs water from roots!…

When looking for an effect, be it cancer drugs, cognitive therapy, etc, how much is enough? Cancer drugs usually enter the market on basis of incremental benefit - extending someone's life by a few…

Random Noise #15 : Noises In Noyes's Poetry. What is a noise, that it annoys us so?Noise is, in a given situation,  any sound or sounds which one or more listeners consider to be any of:…

Speculation continues about the crash of Air France jetliner flight 447 on its transatlantic journey.  A University of Indianapolis international relations expert says recent events point to the…

Sleeping pills have been associated with a four-fold increase in suicide risk in the elderly but is it just bad correlation, in that sleeping pills are just a convenient way to commit suicide?  …

A national Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) study led by a Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center physician at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee has found that a course of radiation therapy…

Like human infants, young apes are make noises when you tickle them.  Is that really laughter? The answer to the question is yes, say researchers in Current Biology. The researchers analyzed the…

Seeing the world through 'rose-colored glasses'  may be more biological reality than metaphor, according to a University of Toronto study that provides the first direct evidence that our mood…

An ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip, modeled on the human inner ear could enable wireless devices capable of receiving cell phone, Internet, radio and television signals.   Rahul Sarpeshkar…

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated entanglement—a phenomenon peculiar to the atomic-scale quantum world—in a mechanical system similar to those…

Nothing makes modern progressives happy like hoping mankind regresses and nothing makes modern conservatives happy like hoping progress in the future will clean up the environment. Both sides may win…

It's summertime, so Scientific Blogging is hosting a worldwide "Blog About Science" event for the science writing community.   Making money writing about science beats getting a job.  In…

Quick, who was the feared hitter that legendary baseball numbers guru Bill James says lost more career home runs due to playing in his home park than any player in history?    If you…

In two hours, under my guidance, a small group of 5th and 6th graders built a drawbridge. We were operating using a plan essentially sketched on the napkin, with the napkin left at home. We had a…

Little Pigeon-Boxes It seems to be a universal characteristic of humans that we like to label each other, often in simplistic binary fashion.  Friend or foe, left-wing or right-wing, smart or…

As I’ve often mentioned in this blog, philosopher David Hume famously said that “No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood…

I’ve written about network neutrality before. It’s a difficult topic because of its different aspects, and because there are vehement opinions on all sides of it. Before I left the Internet…

Electronic memory chips may soon gain the ability to bend and twist, thanks to  engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)(1).   Not too exciting, right?  …

Harmless gossip with a girlfriend can do wonders for a woman's mood and a University of Michigan study says they have an answer why: feeling emotionally close to a friend increases levels of the…