Nature enjoys variety, that is why it seems like evolution must have been drinking during the creation of some of the crazier things in biology.  There is no intelligent reason why snakes and…

Old fashioned scandals meet new-fangled complexity. Andy Dean Photography By Mark Israel, University of Western Australia Social scientists have to get better at recognizing and responding to ethical…

Fashion and beauty magazines are tremendously successful, as are television ad campaigns where women who are 5'10" and weigh 120 lbs. model jeans. Clearly, most women do not look like that and never…

Researchers have witnessed how football-shaped carbon molecules known as buckyballs arrange themselves into ultra-smooth layers, all in real time, and by piecing that together with theoretical…

Brand Beckham. Dave Thompson/PA Wire By Tamara Friedrich, University of Warwick Victoria Beckham has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Management Today. She topped their list of 100 successful…

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Gavin Andrew Stewart, CC BY By Arnaud Chevalier, Royal Holloway and Olivier Marie, Maastricht University Germany and the rest of Europe are celebrating the 25th…

No need to say goodbye to the print book. Amy Johansson/Shutterstock By Andrew Prescott, King's College London “Analog” and “digital” are the two polar opposites of our modern world. The word “analog…

If graduates are helped along through school, how will they cope in the workforce? Shutterstock By Rachael Sharman, University of the Sunshine Coast A research center in the UK recently found that…

The structure of an asymmetrical ABC transporter complex has been determined with the aid of a high-resolution cryo-electron microscope. ABC transporters cause bacteria and other pathogens to…

Credit: Filip Bunkens/Flickr By Meredith Knight, Genetic Literacy Project Who wants a healthy gut? Apparently a lot of people. The probiotics industry is expected to reach $45 billion annually in the…

As both a word and an idea, 'medieval' carries centuries of connotation of a murky and brutal pre-scientific age. Swanson Scott/US Fish&Wildlife Service  By Louise D'Arcens, University of…

A serious epidemic of poliomyelitis that struck the Republic of the Congo in 2010 has been identified as a vaccine-resistant strain of polio. The epidemic affected 445 people in the city of Pointe-…

Like coffee but your liberal guilt won't let you enjoy it if the energy to heat the water might have come from natural gas or nuclear energy? There may be hope for the future. Researchers at…

A team of scholars say genetic markers that may help in identifying individuals who could benefit from the alcoholism treatment drug acamprosate - patients carrying these genetic variants have longer…

The explosion of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is stirring up mixed emotions as scientists, astronauts, space agency officials and others involved in the industry worldwide, express their sadness…

Dalibor Levíček, CC BY-NC-SA By Mick Reed, University of New England The Jack the Ripper murders are the most potent cold case ever. More than a century on from the first killing in 1888 they are…

via: The Telegraph By Jane Palmer, Genetic Literacy Project Sometimes I think I’ve outsourced my consciousness to Google. Can’t remember something? Google it. Want to remember something? Google Doc…

Air pollution is harming India's wheat farmers. EPA By Zongbo Shi, University of Birmingham Researchers have long known that man-made climate change will harm yields of important crops, possibly…

It's common sense that if you have ne mess and add another mess, you have created an even bigger mess. But in arcane statistics, economics and social science, a bigger mess can lead to more order - a…

Tectonic plates, which make up the outer layer of the earth, are rigid. It is giant layers of rock, after all. But that is a bit of a simplification. They are not rigid and don't fit together as…