Cicadas are nature’s candy—fat meaty bugs straight out of a Temple of Doom buffet.  Though most cicadas worldwide live typical insect lives, the Magicicada genus in the eastern US has a special…

I recently saw W D Hamilton’s 1970 paper “Geometry for the Selfish Herd” described as “a classic in its own right.” As a long-time bibliophile this made it irresistible, but I was also intrigued by…

Researchers at the universities of Leicester and Oxford have made a discovery about plant growth which could potentially have an enormous impact on crop production as global warming increases. Dr…

 What looked to be a small stroke of genius in the fight against global warming has resulted in scientific disaster. Planktos, a California-based company that sell “carbon credits” to businesses…

As more research is conducted on the development and spread of pandemic type II diabetes, there is more evidence than ever that diabetes is intricately linked to obesity, which is spreading in the US…

Bacteria are single cell organisms with no nervous system or brain. So how do individual bacterial cells living as part of a complex community called a biofilm "decide" between different…

The benefits to animals of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils have been well documented – helping the heart and circulatory system, improving meat quality and reducing methane emissions. These last two…

Micro-organisms occurring naturally in coastal mudflats have an essential role to play in cleaning up pollution by breaking down petrochemical residues. Research by Dr Efe Aganbi and colleagues from…

Understanding the tens of thousands of proteins that compose the human proteome has emerged as a key challenge of this century, and research efforts to date have already enabled major advances in…

Researchers have identified a new cancer gene - one that is common to many cancers and affects the most basic regulation of our genes. The new example - a gene on the X chromosome called UTX - is…

Dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets is helping scientists unravel details of past climate change. Researchers have found that dust blown south to Antarctica from the windy plains of Patagonia –…

Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player's real-world vision, according to research in today's Nature Neuroscience. The ability to discern…

HOUSTON (March 29, 2009) – The allergen breathed in by a person with asthma triggers a proteinase or enzyme called MMP7 that activates a cascade of events to prompt an allergic reaction, said a…

A 12-year-old Dutch boy – bedridden for three years because of an inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome – can now join his friends on the soccer field thanks to a discovery made by Vanderbilt…

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Based on research that reveals new insight into mechanisms that allow invasive tumor cells to move, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have a new understanding…

Dr. James E. Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is quoted and referred to in the New York Times…

 As I briefly laid out in The Science Of Baseball: Coefficients And Happy Haitians, people like home runs though baseball purists don't necessarily think much of them - unless their team gets…

Intelligence Made Simple: Part 2Please see also Part 1Are there other intelligences in the cosmos?  How would we know?By what universal standard can we know intelligence when we see it? A…

A few photos from around the world of cities that participated in Earth Hour 2009.Nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries took part in an effort to call attention to climate change. The event,…

Video games that involve high levels of action,like first-person-shooter games, can increase real-world vision, according to research in Nature Neuroscience, including discerning slight…