One of the earliest scientific speculations about the origin of life was Alexander Oparin’s proposal in 1924 that life began as jelly-like blobs he called coacervates. Oparin knew that…

30 Days of Evolution Blogging - The Finish Line Show Me The Science Month Day 30 Installment 30 To show that evolution is alive and well, back in January I decided to engage in a little stunt…

First published in Dutch in 1976, Gnomes by Wil Huygens and Rien Poortlivet remains the definitive tome on these reticent woodland denizens.  A classic of fiction science, this lavishly detailed…

Grand Rapids, Mich. (March 25, 2009) – Researchers at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) have determined that the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) does not require transcriptional coactivators…

A new study appearing in Clinical Cardiology examines the average fitness level of the morbidly obese (body mass indexes between 40.0 and 49.9). The findings show that the tested population was…

Norma Wooley checked into Loyola University Hospital on a recent Monday morning for brain surgery to repair a life-threatening aneurism (also: aneurysm).  She went home on Tuesday, cured of the…

You may soon be able to say goodbye to batteries for your Blackberry or cell phone.  Instead, they will get power from just a wave of your hand. In research presented at the ACS meeting in Salt…

Chemists reported development of what they termed the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel — a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S.…

Re-engineering a protein that helps prevent tumours spreading and growing has created a potentially powerful therapy for people with many different types of cancer. In a study published in the first…

New data from Ugandan scientists and investigators at Johns Hopkins University find that adult male circumcision decreased rates of the two most common sexually transmitted infections – herpes and…

Reports by scientists of meteorites striking Earth in the past have resembled police reports of so many muggings — the offenders came out of nowhere and then disappeared into the crowd, making it…

PHILADELPHIA – Even when their products are implicated in harm to patients, manufacturers of healthcare information technology (HIT) currently enjoy wide contractual and legal protection that renders…

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues have answered a question that has puzzled biologists for more than a century: What is the main factor that determines a…

(Boston MA) – Contrary to conventional wisdom, only a tiny fraction of U.S. hospitals have full health information technology (HIT) systems in place to improve how they deliver care, says a new study…

Note:The ideas developed here were prompted by my reading a recent blog.Thank you Becky Jungbauer. What you are reading is a mix of whimsy, ethics and philosophy applied to a problem in politics.…

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." Thus spoke Sir Winston Churchill, in the company of President Harry S. Truman, on March 5,…

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Norma Wooley checked into Loyola University Hospital on a recent Monday morning for brain surgery to repair a life-threatening aneurysm. She went home on Tuesday, cured of the…

Sepsis, an infection of the blood, can quickly overwhelm the body's defenses and is responsible for more than 200,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone. Premature newborns and people with weakened…

Royal Oak, Mich. – March 25, 2009 – A new study appearing in Clinical Cardiology examines the average fitness level of the morbidly obese (body mass indexes between 40.0 and 49.9). The findings show…

Forget LED thumb-pad identification devices, complex retinal laser scanning, or even computerized iris recognition, the way forward for biometric validation is a quick X-ray snapshot of a person's…