Almost 2 million Americans have an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and about 100,000 are blind from the disease. In AMD, cells in the retina, that layer of tissue in the back…

An example of unidirectional cause and effect: bad weather means umbrella sales rise, but buying umbrellas won't make it rain. Credit: Mariusz Olszewski/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND By Jonathan Borwein (Jon…

Surveys are interesting and surveys can sometimes indicate what a certain number of people in a group might be thinking - but so can betting services. In the 2012 election, the Intrade betting…

In our hyperactive media climate, where every incident is proof or not proof of something, it has become common to see claims that wildfires have become worse due to global warming even as American…

Nothing says romantic nostalgia like the idea of riding a train - it's slow, it is serene. I'd do it more often but it takes 21 hours to go from my home in California to Seattle - and the last time I…

Nothing says romantic nostalgia like the idea of riding a train - it's slow, it is serene. I'd do it more often but it takes 21 hours to go from my home in California to Seattle - and the last time I…

Australian Football League. Credit: Deirdre/Flickr By Steve Ellen, Monash University It’s Grand Final season – it might seem that nothing else matters about now. Writing about the psychology of…

Neonicotinoid pesticides were invented because there was concern that they could have an effect on bees. Colony collapses have happened all throughout recorded history, of course, but in an immediate…

Neonicotinoid pesticides were invented because there was concern that they could have an effect on bees. Colony collapses have happened all throughout recorded history, of course, but in an immediate…

The first animal model for ALS dementia, a form of ALS that also damages the brain, has been developed. This advance will allow researchers to directly see the brains of living mice, under anesthesia…

Within the first 5 years after the birth of a child, women are considered at an increased risk of developing metastatic breast cancer. Why that happens has been considered a puzzle but the fact…

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and while there are obvious environmental factors such as diet, exercise and behavior, many lines of evidence suggest that the risk of stroke is…

In the developed world, people are having fewer children and living longer and that has led to a population that is older than in the past. On average, life expectancy in developed countries has…

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecological kind, it claims the lives of more than 50% of women who are diagnosed Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late and develops a resistance to chemotherapy…

Retinoblastoma is a childhood retinal tumor usually affecting children ages one to two and the most common malignant tumor of the eye in children. Left untreated, retinoblastoma can be fatal or…

'To be, or not to be' male or female? Maxine Peake plays Hamlet. Credit: Jonathan Keenan/Royal Exchange Theatre By Mareile Pfannebecker, University of Manchester The ghost, in this autumn’s Royal…

The public supports most traffic safety laws. They routinely defy cell phone laws, believing that they should be pulled over for driving recklessly, not for having a cell phone, and they defy speed…

Astronomers have discovered clear skies and steamy water vapor on a planet known as HAT-P-11b - outside our solar system. HAT-P-11b is about the size of Neptune, making it the smallest exoplanet ever…

A 1997 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule allowed food manufacturers to use ingredients "generally regarded as safe," or GRAS, like vinegar and lots of other things, without needing approval all…

When Curiosity's successor and ExoMars land on Mars around 2021, we will see two different approaches to the search for life on Mars side by side. NASA's mission is the first stage of a two decade…