DNA analysis has become increasingly cost-effective since the human genome was first fully sequenced in the year 2001. Sequencing a complete genome, however, still costs around $1,000 each so…

In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the 1871 sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the title character finds a mirror that behaves in a surprising and…

If you've ever felt as though professors treat you with less than respect, you're probably not alone. Credit: Flickr, CC BY-SA By Brian Martin, University of Wollongong and Majken Jul Sørensen,…

Parasitic bacteria were the first cousins of mitochondria, the energy factories in our cells – and first acted as energy parasites in those cells before becoming beneficial, according to a University…

Credit: Diana Ranslam, CC BY-NC By Alexandra Kamins, Colorado Hospital Association; Marcus Rowcliffe, Zoological Society of London, and Olivier Restif, University of Cambridge In an era flush with…

Soda consumption has been linked to obesity but a new study in the American Journal of Public Health links it to disease independent from its role in fat. The paper finds that telomeres, the…

Millions of Americans are continually losing hope on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ability to identify and stop the spread of infectious disease.  The gold standard agency…

Conventional medical centers may be unable to prevent spread of Ebola, writing a group of infectious disease experts in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors suggest that conventional U.S.…

An artist's impression of a galactic protocluster forming in the early universe. Credit: European Southern Observatory, CC BY By Nick Seymour, Curtin University Clusters of galaxies have back-stories…

Do you like to keep your fingernails and toenails aesthetically pleasing? You could be putting yourself at risk of serious nail conditions, say researchers at the University of Nottingham who have…

Won't get fooled again. Credit: Tinfoil hat by Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock By Rebecca Slack, University of Sheffield How do you decide if you can trust someone? Is it based on their handshake, the…

A study of Samoan volcano hotspots has found evidence of the planet's early formation still trapped inside the Earth. Volcanic island chains such as Samoa can contain ancient primordial…

On April 23rd, 2014, NASA's Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a red dwarf star - 10,000 times more powerful than the…

It sounds a little trampy to humans but in nature, it's not unusual for a female to copulate with several males in quick succession. Chimpanzees are a well-known example.   When that happens,…

Children are particularly susceptible to the toxic effects of lead because their brains and bodies are still developing. credit: Viacheslav Nikolaenko/Shutterstock By Mark Patrick Taylor; Louise…

A paper in the International Journal of Web-Based Communities suggests that the familiar interfaces of online social networking sites might be adapted to allow us to interact more efficiently with…

80 years ago, America was going through The Dust Bowl and farmers got a lot of the blame. They didn't let land lay fallow, or used monocultures. Now we know it was the worst drought of the last 1,000…

Myths about the brain are common among teachers worldwide and are hampering teaching, according to new research which presented teachers in the UK, Holland, Turkey, Greece and China with seven '…

There's just no substitute for a dead body. Computer teaching is all the rage and simulation can do many things, but when it comes to anatomy, students learn much better through the traditional…

Science Left Behind, a book I co-authored in 2012 with Dr. Alex Berezow, covered the ways that anti-science beliefs had become mainstream among political progressives in the United States.  It…