The Antarctic landmass is losing its frontier status.  Housing thousands of decreasingly rugged inhabitants in heated, internet-ready comfort, it’s been so well-mapped that we even know where to…

There is an old gag which asks: "Why don't polar bears eat penguins?" The answer is that polar bears inhabit arctic regions, whereas penguins inhabit antarctic regions, as shown here. There is a…

There's a federal law that says Native American bones held by museums or other institutions have to be returned to the tribe they are associated with - if the tribe can prove the bones are in fact…

Alert! Voting starts today with NASA's goofy but fun Launch Madness brackets, mimicking sports' March Madness. A bit ironic given I'd just written on how voting does not make science. That said,…

In the days of Columbus, dead men could tell no tales.  Today, dead men can tell us a lot and science has just taken that forensic interrogation to new heights. A team of researchers from the…

Scientists say they have detected giant twisting waves in the lower atmosphere of the Sun, shedding light on the mystery of the Sun's corona, the region around the Sun, extending more than one…

Hurdia victoria was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal. Now, researchers reveal it to be just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has an important story to tell…

Where do supernovae come from? It depends on who you ask.   Astronomers know they were exploding stars but there was always more to the story.  Researchers from the Dark Cosmology Centre at…

Want to know what will make you happy?   Ask a stranger.    Another person's objective opinion may be more informative than your own best guess.  The study in Science was led by…

A new study says that some aspects of peoples' cognitive skills, like making rapid comparisons, remembering unrelated information and detecting relationships, will peak at about the age of 22 and…

A new study says that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order.   Theoretical speculation?  Well, yeah, but that's the…

New research on the reporting of medical treatments in the Australian media showed slight improvements in accuracy but the overall quality of health reporting remained poor, says a study of more than…

If you're Scottish- or Irish-born, you are twice as likely as natives to die an alcohol-related death if you move to England or Wales; surprising because most people assume if they die in Wales it…

Tobacco isn't exactly famous for its health benefits, though the mental health effect of a Fonseca and a port after a nice steak is well-documented, but now scientists have succeeded in using…

In a study published in the March issue of Cortex, researchers used a brain scanner to record the activity in each stage while people were in the process of drawing faces. The researchers found that…

The bacterium Escherichia coli is part of the healthy human intestinal flora. However, E. coli also has pathogenic relatives that trigger diarrhea illnesses: enterohemorrhagic E.coli bacteria. During…

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston Medical Center, Harvard University and the Cambridge Health Alliance found that more than 75 percent of emergency responder…

There has been a perception that running has the same metabolic cost per unit of time no matter the speed — in other words, that the energy needed to run a given distance is the same whether…

The Multinational Nuclear Power Pulse Survey, conducted online in November 2008, was released on 17 March 2009 by its originator Accenture, a consulting company. 10,508 people in 20…

was a SEA PIG!  (Sorry, giant squid. Maybe next time.)This cool critter is an Echinoderm, which means it's related to sea stars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.  Despite several months…