ELAD, the Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device,  is a bedside system that treats blood plasma, metabolizing toxins and synthesizing proteins just like a real liver does. Artificial livers have…

Scientists here have determined that combining bed bugs' own chemical signals with a common insect control agent makes that treatment more effective at killing the bugs.  The researchers found…

In these days of jaw-dropping trillion-dollar budgets and deficits along with current retirement obligations 7X the size of our economy, $6.3 billion may not sound like much.  But, hey, a…

Mercury, closest planet to the sun, is as hot as you would expect, with daytime temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit/450 degrees Celsius and because of its small size, its gravity is weak, only…

When women  apply for faculty positions in math, science, and engineering at major research universities, they are interviewed and hired at rates equal to or higher than those for men, says a…

When Things Smell A Funny Color I have often heard people in Britain say in jest something like: "I don't like that, it smells a funny color." From time to time our senses play tricks with our brains…

There is beauty in strange places. An ordinary life can leave traces of us that gather into something oddly appealing. Something more than the sum of its parts. Those of you who live near the sea…

Swine flu is a hot topic for many health care related professionals. However, the receptors specific for human, swine or avian influenza viruses are still unclear, because that conflicting…

Random Noise #14 : Colorless Green Syntax Formal grammar is heavily based in syntax.  It is possible to generate sentences by using word lists and rules in a computer program, but the output…

At the opening of last week’s Nobel Laureate symposium, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu endorsed a low-tech tool to keep climate change at bay: white paint.  According to Chu’s colleague Art…

An indignant letter in this month's Chemistry World has drawn my attention to a forthcoming ban on the use of dichloromethane, except by the most professional of professionals. EU sidesteps Reach to…

The Real Ira Hayes The world's largest statue is a bronze sculpture 110 feet high.It depicts six Marines.  Each figure is about 32 feet tall.They are hoisting an American flag on the island of…

The following position arose from a blitz chess game played on the Internet Chess Club this afternoon. I am white, and black is to move. As you can see, material is even; white has all his pieces but…

As elections to renew the european parliaments get closer, the political arena in Italy fails to deal with the matters that should interest voters, and instead concentrates on the behavior of Italy's…

Do you have what it takes to be Scientific Blogging's alpha geek?  Well it’s time put your geek where your mouth is…IF YOU CAN! But first a warning: yes, you could Google for these answers, but…

Sequence gaps in human chromosome 15 have been closed by the application of 454 technology. Researchers writing in Genome Biology have described a simple and scalable method for finishing non…

We're somewhat lost in how to meet future carbon footprint goals.  Heck, Germany should have been able to just close a few Soviet-era East German factories and hit their Kyoto protocol targets…

Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their…

"We were on a break," is just an excuse likely to get you yelled at today but a new study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama says there may be some long-term value in it…

African-Americans are significantly more likely to be sanctioned by the United States welfare system than Caucasians, according to research published in the June issue of the American Sociological…