Do you like nuclear weapons? If you respond yes to that, I think you have lost your mind. While I understand the value of an overwhelming force to end a bloody world war, it's also something that can…

The U.S. Supreme Court just released a groundbreaking decision about the ability to patent genes – the assembly instruction for life.   Amid much discussion about potential implications for the…

Around The Arctic June 2013 The Arctic is currently primed for rapid and extensive ice loss, unless we see some very unusual weather conditions this Summer. The state of the ice can be seen in the…

Researchers affiliated with the Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Germany published a meta-study in which they conclude that…

In several posts the question of biological costs is invariably mentioned in discussing evolution.  These costs are normally of the metabolic or fitness type.  Metabolic costs are…

In the last two generations, the designation 'spiritual but not religious' has become popular. It's hard to know what it means - atheists and religious people are at least taking some sort of stand -…

Parasites comprise a large proportion of the diversity of species in every ecosystem but they are rarely included in analyses or models of food webs.  Would it make a difference? A new paper…

If you want to make sure your extra-terrestrial efforts can survive a nuclear attack, working inside the Jamesburg Earth Station on, fittingly, ComSat Road, just outside Carmel, California, is a fine…

David Brin first wrote this in 2006, summarizing a controversy that was then emerging among members of the community engaged in SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent civilizations. Since…

If you watch musicals from the 1950s or teen comedies from the 1990s, you find a lot of movies with different titles but the themes and plotlines barely change; two friends competing for a girl in…

A new statistical estimate projects that the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report issued June 13 - about 8 percent more than…

In the past 11,00 years, there have been 22 large and megathrust earthquake shaking events along the Pacific coast of North America, an average recurrence interval of about 500 years, though the time…

X-ray experiments have found chemical traces of the original 'dinobird' Archaeopteryx and dilute traces of plumage pigments in a 150 million-year-old fossil. Only 11 specimens of Archaeopteryx have…

Should food with ingredients from genetically engineered crops - "GMOs" - be labeled?  Many argue that consumers have a "right to know" about this.  Ok, if the real reason for…

The all electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals method was utilized to study the structural properties of ZnO (0001) ultra-thin films (nanosheets). From the…

"And why do we measure areas with square centimeters ?" "Because it would be much harder to fit in there round centimeters, silly!" (From a conversation with my daughter)

Paleontologists have presented the most extensive review yet available of toothed pterosaurs from the Cretaceous in England, featuring detailed taxonomic information, diagnoses and photographs of 30…

A trending "miracle" weight-loss product is green coffee bean dietary supplements. Some people swear by them and marketing claims are not modest about the effectiveness. But do they actually work or…

Age of Herbals somewhere  during  1565 in this part of globe saw many medical man searching for medicines for relieving patients of pain.  The surgery  was done without anesthesia…

Glacier Changes in NE Greenland Substantial cracks in the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier ice tongue appear to be growing in extent and number.  While not as spectacular as the 2010 calving of the…