As the regulars here already know, I am an employee of the INFN. This is the "Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare", which translates as "National institute for nuclear physics", a slight misnomer…

Ribbon worm? Arrow worm? Since the discovery of its fossil over a century ago, paleontologists have speculated about what branch of evolution Amiskwia sagittiformis was on. Charles Doolittle Walcott,…

Limenitus archippus, the viceroy butterfly is a mimic, modeling its orange-and-black colors after the queen butterfly, a bug that tastes so disgusting predators have learned not to eat it or anything…

I don't drink much milk now, though I did when I was a kid. I think I eat more cheese than I did then, and that makes sense. We were a poor family on a subsistence farm and cheese is expensive. Milk…

     Neuronal loss/destruction is the leading cause of symptoms in patients suffering from neural injury or neurodegenerative disorders. Following neural insult astrocytes proliferate…

It is believed by some that zebras have black and white stripes as a defense mechanism against flies. To others, that seems too complex. In an Occam's Razor evolutionary universe it only leads to…

An interesting study examining the relationship between push-up capacity and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) was recently published in JAMA Network Open . The study followed 1104…

The preliminary findings from Finland’s basic income experiment are out and they show mixed results. Both advocates and critics of the idea of a universal basic income will find cause for…

The natural opioid kratom, the leaves of a tropical tree in Southeast Asia (Mitragyna speciosa) is a great analgesic because it's an opioid.  It has become popular because supplements are exempt…

Food is plentiful and affordable, and that has brought an increase in consumption of foods that matched an ancient evolutionary mandate; sweetness. In ancient times, humans knew that sweetness meant…

The race is on to be the food craze of 2019 and the leading contenders so far are biltong - beef jerky from South Africa - and angelica keiskei koidzumi (ashitaba) from Japan. If a plant can have a…

Grasses have been able to short cut evolution by taking genes from their neighbors, finds a new study. Since Darwin, much of the theory of evolution has been based on common descent, where natural…

Fossilized eggshells unearthed in western Romania represent the earliest known nest site shared by multiple animals. The shells – some complete and others broken into thousands of pieces – are…

In the comics and films, Clark Kent wore reading glasses while Superman had no glasses but sported a lock of hair on his forehead - and no one figured it out. Ridiculous, it was later said. Perhaps…

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations released yesterday a joint document where they discuss the combination of their measurements of the rate of production of single top quarks in proton-proton…

Cockroaches have a reputation for resilience, likely contributing to the belief that they could even survive a nuclear bomb and subsequent radiation exposure. And though Fukushima was not a nuclear…

One new craze in the alternatives to medicine community is infusions of plasma from young donors, sold with the claim that it can prevent aging, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and…

In vitro, in utero, these are science terms that have become commonly known. In vitro means studies in cells, like using test tubes, or a test for a fetus in the womb in the case of in utero. Studies…

By Charles Choi, Inside Science – New research suggests that megaliths -- monuments such as Stonehenge created from large rocks during the Stone and Copper Ages in Europe -- owe their origins to a…

An immune checkpoint molecule, SA-4-1BB developed for cancer immunotherapy also protects against future development of multiple types of cancer when administered by itself, shows a new study. The…