The climate change effect of CO2 released from peat may be far greater than assumed. Drought causes peat to release far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than has previously been realized,…

Most people, including physicists, do not like Many World and Multiverse concepts, especially if they come with Extra Dimensions. But these concepts were always self-evident to me, even before…

Oct 25, Gravity is a Mystery (in words, no equations)Snarky puzzle:  Is there a handedness to getting older? Is there a handedness to communication? If there is a handedness to either, how would…

New robot alert! New robot alert! It's an adorable cross between Gumby and a starfish. Go watch the video right now. Now, none of the authors of the paper are marine biologists, so I can't…

Green house gas mitigation has become a business and unfortunately different interests clash in this manner. Asking for funds ? Global fund ? Some more offices ? Some more five star conferences with…

Extreme Geohazards – what are they?In December 2004, we all learned one Japanese word; tsunami  (津波, lit. "harbor wave"). Japan has seen a number of tsunamis through out times, situated right…

Given that there has been some recent interest in Uturuncu in the media, when this paper from the Bulletin of Volcanology came up among my RSS feeds it instantly piqued my interest.  Titled…

Before human embryonic stem cells can be examined for therapeutic potential it must be determined whether or not transplanted cells can functionally integrate into target organs or tissues. Human…

Glow-in-the-dark stickers are nothing new; they emit visible light after being exposed to sunlight.  A paper just published in Nature Materials emits a long-lasting, near-infrared glow after a…

A problem began to come into existence a few decades ago and in the polarized climate enabled by instant access to partisan spin, it's only going to get worse. The problem isn't always that people…

Premature infants suffer a life-threatening destruction of intestinal tissue called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) have gotten a new data point for researchers to examine: Preemies with the AB blood…

Jerry Coyne is a goose.There, I've said it.I mean it in the nicest possible way of course, but it had to be said.And the reason for this unseemly outburst?Well, if you want to see something really…

The navigation system in my car has an anti-theft feature that’s interesting, in that it relies entirely on a sort of herd immunity. The system is installed in the car’s dashboard, so it’s somewhat…

Energy harvested from insects may take the utility of miniature cyborgs to the next level. Researchers say they can now harvest the insect's biological energy from either its body heat or movements,…

If we can produce neutrinos at the same time as photons,then detect which arrives first the question of neutrino speed vs light speed would be settled.    CERN – OPERA measured…

Yesterday I linked to an article in Discover stating the marketing for the HPV vaccine for boys was a lot stronger than the evidence. Here are snippets from the follow-up (obviously go read the whole…

Yesterday I linked to an article in Discover stating the marketing for the HPV vaccine for boys was a lot stronger than the evidence. Here are snippets from the follow-up (obviously go read the whole…

Sadly, this morning Milla Baldo Ceolin passed away. Milla was a volcanic physicist, and a fantastic professor. I had the pleasure of following her course of "Fisica Superiore" in the late eighties,…

As my last few blogs have been a bit heavy on the science, I thought I'd write something a bit lighter.  So here are some pretty pictures of the fieldwork for master's project, when I went to…

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to read like the dead. Not just to read dead authors—something a little bit creepier. Yes, I am aware that recapturing the actual experiences of long-ago…