Fears of cholera coming shared a lot in common with fear of Ebola. Graetz 1883 © Historical Society of Pennsylvania By Sally Sheard, University of Liverpool On October 19 an inspector sent north from…

When most people think of first responders, they think of paramedics or combat medics or other medically-trained personnel doing CPR and other life-saving procedures in stressful situations. They do…

An interesting experiment published in Science placed baker's yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in separate identical bioworlds. Then, at the same time, historical contingency events would happen,…

We assume that we can see the world around us in sharp detail but our eyes only process a fraction of our surroundings precisely. In a series of experiments, psychologists at Bielefeld University…

Better get our heads out of the sand and run. Credit: Peter Byrne/PA By Erik Bichard, University of Salford The consistent message from those who would seek to exploit shale gas is that it has three…

Computer chips with superconducting circuits would be 50 to 100 times as energy-efficient as today's chips due to a lack of electrical resistance. That means less heat, less deformation and less…

Modern day kangaroos exhibit a hopping form of locomotion. Credit: Leo/Flickr, CC BY-SA By Christine Janis, Brown University Extinct giant kangaroos may have been built more for walking, rather than…

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…