The bystander effect suggests that the more witnesses there are to an emergency, the less likely an individual bystander is to intervene. This phenomenon was identified as a particular consequence of…

Does Coke in a glass bottle taste better? Perhaps. A chemical combination can certainly interact different with glass than it does with plastic. If the can for your cream soda changes its design,…

It may be only St. Patrick's Day but it's never too early to think about July 4th fireworks. Plus, 'green' has two meanings today. Most kids love fireworks. They make pretty colors and loud noises…

Fungi don't have sexes, they have mating types, but a new study in PLoS says there are similarities between the parts of DNA that determine the sex of plants and animals and the parts of DNA that…

If you're a student of culture, a number of things have likely piqued your curiosity; like why so many modern people get drunk about ancient religous stuff. Take Mardi Gras, for example - go to any…

Stegography is an ancient technique of hiding data within data. Unlike encryption, it isn't obviously encrypted. Today it is used to take advantage of unused bits of data in images or audio/video…

We have a much bigger audience than Physical Review Letters anyway. From New Scientist: Scientists who want to describe their work on Wikipedia should not be forced to give up the kudos of a…

Crop scientists have cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables,…

On September 27, 2004, the front part of a baby mammoth’s body was found in Olchan mine in the Oimyakon Region of Yakutia. Specialists of the Museum of Mammoth of the Institute of Applied Ecology of…

Tuberculosis kills two million people per year and so remains a very dangerous disease, though less so in America. Researchers worldwide have been working to produce efficient tuberculosis vaccines…

In the popular science arena, we occasionally (and in the case of evolution vs creationism, frequently) debate just how likely it is that those who aren't trained scientists can competently evaluate…

I don't often see bacteriophage ecology and evolution papers in the open source literature, but there is a nice one in next month's American Naturalist (occasionally Am Nat selects papers for open…

Brasilia is the futuristic capitol of Brazil. It has been so since 1960 when the federal government moved there from Rio de Janeiro. I recently spent two days there and it is truly magnificent. It…

Overexpressing a protein involved in the uptake of fat in muscle of mice can improve their tolerance to cold temperatures, researchers find in a new study that showcases the over-looked role muscle…

A study of male attitudes to health and how they use health services challenges the usual stereotype that men are uninterested in their health. The results will surprise those people who envisage…

Regeneration, the replacement of damaged or lost body parts, is a shared trait among some animal species – as any youngster who has cut an earthworm in half can attest to. But the repair of damaged…

Bile acid derivatives can turn on the vitamin D receptor (VDR) without causing excess calcium buildup, researchers report, a finding that could lead to vitamin D therapies for conditions beyond just…

Recently, mathematician Daniel J. Madden and retired physicist Lee W. Jacobi found solutions to a puzzle that has been around for centuries - an infinite number of solutions for a puzzle known as…

We've never found an organic molecule (methane) in the atmosphere of a planet around a distant star before but NASA folks intend to announce next week it has been done. Should any of you desire to…

There are a number of interconnected factors that lead to the success or failure of any business so it is usually considered an impossible task to predict whether a company will sink or swim…