RETRACTION: I have decided to retract three blogs (Deriving … 4/5, 5/5, 6/5+1). I was unable to figure out a reasonable statement concerning gauge symmetry. When the blogs were initially written, I…

A particular kind of sugar molecule had a big impact on human evolution and may have directed the evolutionary emergence of our ancestors, according to a new study in  Proceedings of the…

Arctic Ice October 2011 Ice extent, as measured down to 15% concentration, was only slightly above 2007 levels at the end of this year's melt season.  The ice is now about as thin as in 2007, or…

Just supposing, what if you landed on a planet a lot like Earth and, bereft of modern technology, had to try and rebuild something that looks like home?   You could survive, sure, a little trial…

Cooperation has been/still is a major factor in the success of the human species, and in many others as well. Altruism and fairness are thought to play an important role in the development of…

Fabrizio Tamburini (left) is an old friend - I have known him since 1976, when we both used to attend the gatherings of the newborn Associazione Astrofili Veneziani, at the Lido of Venice. The love…

If you're in the life sciences, you have like heard of The Scientist.  After 25 years of making a go of it, they announced they are closing the doors. It's a tough market out there, as we can…

If you're in the life sciences, you have like heard of The Scientist.  After 25 years of making a go of it, they announced they are closing the doors. It's a tough market out there, as we can…

Today's post in honor of the 2011 Cephalopod Awareness Days. October 9th is Nautilus Night.500 million years ago, at the time of the Cambrian Explosion, there was no life on land. The ocean…

After writing, then discarding, a particularly snarky bit because it was too snarky for even me, I realized I am still due this week's entry.  Fortunately, to my rescue comes Blackboards in Porn…

I'm back, after an extended hiatus due to my big move to Chicago to begin grad school.  I’ve been pummeled by work for the past month, so I’ll keep this one short and sweet. The future is here!…

In academia, the many, many advancements of women are not enough and so they are increasingly forced to massage statistics to make it look like they are oppressed, underpaid, blocked out of the hard…

The observations of faster than light neutrinos have stirred up much debate, but the most important is not pointed out. Seen in a wider context, the affair sheds yet again light on the rapid decay of…

A meta-analysis has provided support to the previously suggested idea that a certain gene's variation is linked to suicidal behavior. The gene in question is the one that codes for BDNF (or brain…

8,000 years ago, which is basically yesterday in geological time, a now-vanished glacial lake covered a huge expanse of today's Canadian prairie and the rich farmland in the Red River Valley. As big…

You can thank the stretching of continents and the oceans that filled those newly created basins for the Earth we know today.  Rifting is one of the fundamental geological forces that have…

Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, the Borexino instrument, an international team are measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching Earth more precisely than ever…

Canola, a specific edible type of rapeseed developed in the 1970s, contains about 40 percent oil and became popular as a substitute for traditional cooking oils. The name is derived as “Can” (for…

The Draconids (also called Giacobinids) are a meteor shower associated to comet Giacobini-Zinner (see below for a 100-year-old picture of the comet). While most years this shower passes unnoticed to…

The news cycle spins quickly, and spinning it does, the news that is. Neutrinos forgotten faster than light speed. What neutrinos? Foxy Knoxy got away without spilling the beans – well done. Stupid…