If you are not an experienced baseball player, a ball coming at you 40 or 50 miles per hour is fast. You are almost certain to swing too late and then, when you realize that is fast, you will swing…

Everyone should have a home where they feel comfortable. If you want to carry a six-shooter on the street, move to Kennesaw, Georgia, outside Atlanta - Gun Town, USA (bonus: only 4 gun murders in 30…

It isn’t Monday, but I’m puzzled every day of the week. Alice is puzzled too; she’s playing with a new tetrahedral die. Each face has a different positive integer on it, but the numbers are peculiar.…

Richard Holmes - Falling Upwards Falling Upwards.  What a wonderful title for a history of ballooning. As someone with more than a slight interest in the history of science and technology*, I…

If you are toughing out harsh winter weather, snow can be a relief. It's a respite from biting winds and subzero temperatures. But winter and spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has declined…

An estimated 5 percent of the U.S. population has restless legs syndrome, a disruptive, overwhelming nocturnal urge to move the legs even while sleeping, which can lead to many sleepless nights. Why…

Intelligent Design is often presented as a view that runs counter to evolutionary theory.  Whether it be the concept of natural selection or ideas about speciation, Intelligent Design (ID)…

Bob Geldof, former singer with The Boomtown Rats, is better known today for his work with poor people. Long after it stopped being fashionable, he has continued to help starving people in Ethiopia.…

One Small Step - Two Small Strips   ( Or Maybe Three ) The news that Neil Armstrong's EKG is up for auction has been reported across the world.  Having more than a passing interest in…

Compare the following situations: 1 - You dial the number of a call center, and the automated system informs you that the estimated waiting time is eight minutes. 2 - You dial the number of a call…

Two Armstrong EKG Readings - A Question Of Provenance [edit]This article has been updated - please see:One Small Step - Two Small Strips ( Or Maybe Three ) I recently posted an article: Neil…

Combining Medicare's hospital, physician, and prescription drug coverage with private supplemental coverage into one health plan could save the government and seniors $180 billion over a decade,…

Species of gigantic animals that once roamed Australia were long gone by the time people arrived, a major review of the available evidence has concluded. The research challenges the claim that humans…

The Black Sea sediment record has a terrific variety of past plankton species that left behind their genetic makeup - the plankton paleome. The semi-isolated Black Sea is highly sensitive to climate…

A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound  known as Mount Sharp is not evidence of a massive lake but might be the result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere, a new analysis has found…

You've seen it on television; a rich, older man who supports a younger, attractive spouse. And it happens in real life, but it's rare. Instead, a new analysis by economists has found that people…

British Radar in WW2 -  by Sir Robert Watson-Watt I am pleased to be able to publish here in my blog a historical document of some importance: a short history of radar by Sir Robert Watson-Watt.…

Hawaii does not get a lot of hurricanes, only two have made landfall in the last 30 years. But scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa predict that…

What do science media and politics of 2013 share in common with 2006? Anti-science beliefs among the public? Check.Scientists willing to call them out? Check.Scientists and science media noting the…

With the Higgs boson in the bag, the game called "global fit" that particle physicists have been playing for a couple of decades has changed significantly. The knowledge of the Higgs boson mass…