With apologies to Jonathan Eisen for encroaching on his annoyance specialty, here is yet another case of science via press release. Big hop forward: Scientists map kangaroo's DNA Taking a big…

BEATNIKS   &   DREAMACHINES Almost fifty years ago, the beat poet Brion Gysin (1916 - 1986), described a visual hallucination that he experienced while riding a bus: ...Had a…

This is the topic of a recent Telegraph Blog (here) by Daniel Hannan, a Member of the European Parliament. The Hedgehog would like to know, WHAT SORT OF SCIENCE should the "some" be?  Any…

Move over, Malibu - ancient Mars may take the solar system's top beachfront destination prize. It possibly had not just one ocean, but two! An older, wiser ocean, surrounding a younger version that…

For those of you who are interested in Brion Gysin's Dreamachine, the following was borrowed from our friends at Wikipedia: In its original form, a dreamachine is made from a cylinder with slits cut…

Ivan Oransky, managing editor of Scientific American online, was one of the judges for Nikon's Small World contest: "Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of serving as one of several judges for the…

In a study I dub “Are you powerful or not?” I’d be in a third category. Why? Because I felt insulted when instructed to do what researchers asked of students. At Northwestern and Stanford, no less.…

Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have discovered an Iron Age chiseled stone slab that provides the first written evidence in the region that people believed the soul was separate from the body.…

A review of previously published studies suggests that rates of adverse outcomes for mothers or pregnant women and newborn babies, such as gestational diabetes and low birth weight, may be lower…

New research has traced elevated levels of a specific compound in the brain called kynurenic acid to problem-solving deficits in patients with schizophrenia. The finding suggests that drugs used to…

The powerful black holes at the center of massive galaxies and galaxy clusters act as hearts to the systems, pumping energy out at regular intervals to regulate the growth of the black holes…

A little bit of stress apparently lasts a long time, say neuroscientists from the University of Washington.  They have found that a single exposure to uncontrollable stress impairs decision…

Great athletes know that it takes more than physical ability to do well - it takes brain power in the form of speed and efficiency in decision-making as well.   Two researchers from the School…

The team of European and US astronomers used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, both in Chile, to study light from Sagittarius A* at near…

Engineers and entrepreneurs are rushing to explore alternative sources of efficient and renewable energy in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country. A Rutgers School of Business—Camden professor has…

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama suggested his economic plan would create 5 million jobs in environmental industries - easy enough to do when taxpayers are subsidizing even more federal…

All of us have experienced being in a new place and feeling certain that we have been there before. This mysterious feeling, commonly known as déjà vu, occurs when we feel that a new situation is…

"Practice makes perfect" and "timing is everything" are cliches are for a reason; they are mostly correct.   According to the findings published in this month's issue of Psychological Science,…

Need excellent boots?  W. L. Gore&Associates is the way to go.   Guitar strings?   Yep, they make those too.   Medical devices, electronics and now researchers at Rush…

The American bison(buffalo) is in trouble, says a survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society, though there are many more of them now than there were a hundred years ago, and we love them - as a…