The setup to the classic Melting Ice Cube problem goes something like this: “Fifty grams of ice are melting in a 100-mililiter cup of 35-degree water.” Using simple principles of energy transfer, we…

Bora has posted an interesting draft policy on social media from an unidentified "Big Research Institution" (BRI). It's already stimulating some good discussion (follow the link for more links)…

This short post is my first contribution to ScientificBlogging: with it I am relocating my blog here from wordpress. I am thrilled by the opportunity to join a larger group of excellent science…

Tormented cries from mother as her cub is butchered and eaten... Does it pull at your heart strings? Mine, too. A rally of cries about a shark attack generally bring something less warm and fuzzy,…

Sleep is such an essential part of human existence that we spend about a third of our lives doing it -- some more successfully than others. Sleep disorders afflict some 50-70 million people in the…

New research provides insight into how the brain can execute different actions in response to the same stimulus. The study, published by Cell Press in the April 16 issue of the journal Neuron,…

If we're going to get a $300 genome sequence any time in the near future, around the cost it will take to have it as part of routine medical care, the process has to get faster. The obstacles to…

Genetic differences can influence one's risk of developing proteinuria, a condition that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study appearing…

India is a huge country. It has the richest cultural diversity, at the same time its economic diversity is also staggering. There are extremely rich people and also appalling poorer people. This…

The club moss Lycopodium serratum is a creeping, flowerless plant purportedly used to treat a wide variety of ailments. It contains a brew of alkaloids that have attracted scientific and medical…

Today, five years after the inception of the DECIPHER database, researchers have published a report that reveals the developing role of the database in revolutionizing both clinical practice and…

A study of gene expression in chickens, frogs, pufferfish, mice and people has revealed surprising similarities in several key tissues. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access Journal of…

Once thought to be only the realm of the blue-ringed octopus, researchers have now shown that all octopuses and cuttlefish, and some squid are venomous. The work indicates that they all share a…

After participating in The Depravity Scale survey (see part 1 of this post for more on the scale and The Rock of Love Bus), I brainstormed with my fellow survey taker for more uses for the depravity…

The Shortest Path Problem in a Dynamic Network. A method is needed by which efficient new network routes can rapidly becalculated to route traffic away from problem paths and nodes. Apossible method…

This is post zero, to be deleted after I check that things are in good order.

I know the science may be good, but it's too hard not to make fun of these research conclusions - at least the out-of-context, oversimplified versions of these conclusions. Look at what we've learned…

St. Louis — With eight basic medical facts in hand, doctors can now estimate the risk of bleeding for a patient having a heart attack. Using clinical variables, researchers at Washington University…

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University researcher has developed a working vaccine for a strain of E. coli that kills 2 million to 3 million children each year in the developing world.…