The problem with the cap-and-trade schemes advocated by economists who know how to do a Monte Carlo analysis just well enough to be wrong is that the real world never matches up. Europeans, who…

The problem with the cap-and-trade schemes advocated by economists who know how to do a Monte Carlo analysis just well enough to be wrong is that the real world never matches up. Europeans, who…

As readers of this blog know, I am not sympathetic to extreme reductionism, and reject both it and determinism in favor of a robust concept of emergence. Of course, I think a moderate epistemic…

I would like to start a new column of mathematical puzzles. Scientific American has one; New Scientist has one; so I hope Science 2.0 will be happy to host one! Preamble over, here's your "started…

Though staunchly opposed to nuclear power in some respects, like the controversial decision to scuttle the Yucca Mountain project, the Obama administration said in 2012 that it was "jumpstarting" the…

While America moves toward an egalitarian approach to medical care, another study has found that the quality of cares matters in things like advanced head and neck cancers. The paper in Cancer says…

There is evidence of an ancient micro-continent buried beneath the Indian Ocean. The ancient continent is a thousand miles in length and extends from the Seychelles to the island of Mauritius. It…

Why didn't the Earth warm as much as estimates and numerical models projected would happen between 2000 and 2010? A new paper says now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight; they are dozens…

Pregnant women have long said that being pregnant changes their foot size - a new confirms that but also found that the size and shape change is permanent. Flat feet are a common problem for pregnant…

Earth's radiation belts, called Van Allen belts, were discovered after the very first launches of satellites in 1958 by James Van Allen. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts but what…

And the obesity wars drone on: it’s the sugar, it’s the fat, it’s the paucity of playgrounds, it’s the prevalence of too-thin models and TV and gaming and chips and texting. It’s the lack of parental…

Environmental activists make money telling us all how terrible things are; climate scientists appreciate the help promoting their data, we do have a bit of a train wreck coming at us emissions-wise,…

My physics department in Padova is not a huge place, and yet I usually fail to be aware of what goes on around, since I spend all of my time buried inside my office. This morning, though, I had to…

Researchers usingt the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia say they have discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space. The discoveries indicate that some…

Researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats, enabling them to communicate directly to solve simple behavioral puzzles - even thousands of miles apart, one in Durham, N.C., and…

Martin A. Schwartz is Professor of Microbiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. The professor draws attention to the importance of stupidity in scientific research in his…

Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova. A supernova discovered Feb. 6th exploded about 450…

For a government that likes military action but not losing American lives, drones are the next big thing.   Drones have been, and will continue to be, used in more and more applications outside…

Chronic or acute liver failure can be deadly. Toxins take over, the skin turns yellow and higher brain function slows. A line of special liver cells could change that, says Neil Talbot, a…

"To date, there is no evidence for SUSY particles and lower limits on the masses are more than 4 GeV for gluinos and more than 20 GeV for squarks and sleptons." D.H. Perkins, "Introduction to High…