Want to really store carbon? Get old ... and underwater. Researchers at the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory in the Department of Forestry discovered that trees submerged in freshwater aquatic systems…

Engineers working in optical communications bear more than a passing resemblance to dreamers chasing rainbows. They may not wish literally to capture all the colors of the spectrum, but they do seek…

From "The End of Theory over at Wired This is a world where massive amounts of data and applied mathematics replace every other tool that might be brought to bear. Out with every theory of human…

It is common practice in Medicine to put patients on combinations of drugs. The vast majority of these combinations of drugs (especially where 3 or more drugs are involved) have never been studied at…

A friend wonders what I think about this editorial by Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired. Anderson says “faced with massive data, this approach to science — hypothesize, model, test — is becoming…

California and New York regulators have been in the news lately (such as here and here), with their attempts to crack down on the nascent direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry. These states…

Not many people think about what it's like to be a bat, but for those who do, it's enlightening and potentially groundbreaking for understanding aspects of the human brain and nervous system. Cynthia…

Every year thousands of doctors and scientists fly to meetings all over the world, but with climate change accelerating, can this type of travel be justified, two doctors debate the issue in this…

If you remember the early days of computers, you saw some marketing claims that seemed to make sense but quickly evaporated when reality hit - you could store all your recipes, for example, until you…

AMSTERDAM, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- - 43 Elsevier Journals Receive Top Category Rank; Journal Citations Grow 10 Percent; Lancet and Cell Each Increase and Retain Leadership Positions Elsevier, the…

Liver cancer is the third most common global cause of cancer death and a new study may be good news for drinkers and growers. The large, prospective population-based study confirms an inverse…

We read (and write here) a lot about gender issues in the scientific arena but usually topics are related to science education and promoting greater equality of numbers at the higher levels. There…

Pheromones are molecules that an organism releases to trigger a specific behavior in other members of its species. Insects make wide use of pheromones to attract mates, signal the location of food,…

A new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system. "Although we are not the first…

It has been commonly regarded as a good sign that the nation's homocide rate has remained flat but the big picture obscures a disturbing fact, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of…

Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a process to build complex, three-dimensional nanoscale structures of magnetic materials such as…

Typically the palm of your hand doesn’t excite much interest, unless you’re a chirologist – those who divine the future through palm-reading.    Luckily for palmophiliacs, there’s a new…

Creationists and intelligent design proponents have scored an important victory in Louisiana this week, at least for now. In its appalling lack of wisdom, that State’s legislature overwhelmingly…

The current edition of Tangled Bank, the blog carnival about evolution, is now up at Wheat-dogg's World. It includes a mention of Jill Smith's bat genome talk at Evolution 2008. I bet she didn't…

Energy from the sun and carbon dioxide fuel photosynthesis in plants and algae, making life on earth possible. Carbon that is fixed by plants is converted to starch and sucrose, which are utilized by…