A prehistoric tale of an Italian whale

A prehistoric tale of an Italian whale

Fossils turn up in the most unusual places. Simone Casati, an amateur paleontologist, was exploring the famed vineyards of Italian winemaker, Castello Banfi, when he came across a small piece…
Durian and the Shangri-La Diet

Durian and the Shangri-La Diet

The obvious connection between durian, the big smelly spiky Asian fruit, and the Shangri-La Diet is that both rely on flavor-calorie learning. We come to like the initially unpleasant smell and…
Revisiting Peak Oil - Part Two

Revisiting Peak Oil - Part Two

  In the prior post I gave a general definition and overview of peak oil for those that have yet to track this development.  Until recently, the brightest minds unencumbered by vested oil…
Milk beats soy for post-weighlifting muscle gain

Milk beats soy for post-weighlifting muscle gain

Got milk? Weightlifters will want to raise a glass after a new study found that milk protein is significantly better than soy at building muscle mass. The study, conducted by a team of researchers…
Mysterious galactic spiral arms explained?

Mysterious galactic spiral arms explained?

Using a trio of space observatories, astronomers may have cracked a 45-year old mystery surrounding two ghostly spiral arms in the galaxy M106 (NGC 4258). The results, obtained by a team from the…
Why people eat less at cluttered tables

Why people eat less at cluttered tables

People watching the Super Bowl who saw how much they had already eaten -- in this case, leftover chicken-wing bones -- ate 27 percent less than people who had no such environmental cues, finds a new…
Escape!

Escape!

Escape! Last night, while Tony and Bobby were beating the bejesus out of each other over a game of Monopoly gone very bad, we faced a situation also fraught with violence, or at least potential…
Tropical forests -- Earth's air conditioner

Tropical forests -- Earth's air conditioner

Planting and protecting trees—which trap and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow—can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study suggests that, as a way to fight global warming…
Evolution of symbiosis

Evolution of symbiosis

The aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum depends on a bacterial symbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, for amino acids it can't get from plants. The aphid, in turn, provides the bacterium with energy and carbon as…