Perfidious Albion Caution:  unmitigated whimsy alert! ________________________________ Perfidious Albionor what our literary heritage might have been if we had learned earlier in our history to…

With 1949, we arrive at one of the big classics in the post-apocalyptic genre. George Stewart’s Earth Abides is epic in both scope and ambition, a bittersweet story that captures the immense scale on…

First, they painted a dramatic black-drop, then they presented their latest statistics on public opinion on climate change. TNS gallup organized a press conference at the IPY Oslo Science Conference…

GPS will die, sending airplanes crashing and sinking boats.  Cell phones will fail, stranding travelers and resulting in people in remote areas dying due to exposure.  Worse of all, our TV…

Finger Rafting No, it's not a new sport.  It's one of many ways in which ice consolidates. In order to more fully understand what is happening to the Arctic climate we need to understand how sea…

Is David Beckham a keen physicist?   Though he wouldn't know how to do the equations on a chalkboard, he certainly does it in his head and then with his feet - so perhaps he is an experimental…

A new strain of bacteria  can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive rhamnolipids and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs – the environmental pollutants that…

Let's pretend the US is in a bit of an economic crunch and, due to that, universities which up to now have had carte blanche to raise costs any time they like (average - double the rate of inflation…

It's unfortunate but true that we tend to fall for all manner of woo, that we do a poor job of weeding out nonsense from sense. People will believe just about any crazy thing,…

I have come to believe that science has abandoned its viability and veracity.  For example, we can make microcameras and artificial organs but micro technology to fight things like viruses and…

 "In a major eco-friendly step towards renewable energy generation in India, seaweed sourced ethanol (ethyl alcohol), a biofuel additive in transport fuel, has been used to run a car for the…

IntroductionEpilepsy is a serious neurological disorder that affects over 1% of the US population, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality.  Quality of life can be a…

Green Pastures And Still Waters The most fascinating episode in my entire life was the day I witnessed ice growing from needle-like frazil through all phases into white ice.  There had been no…

Unfitted Up ? This article starts off with some serious points about science and law. It will become apparent soon enough why I have posted this under 'humor'. Please bear with me. Unfitted up? Being…

In my friend Peter Woit's blog I read an interesting account of an interview to Greene and Kachru, two leading string theorists. Here is an excerpt, which Peter got from the World's Science Festival:…

The 2010 World Cup will be watched online by nearly a third of British football fans, according to a survey released today by PC World. They questioned over 3,000 Brits in the run up to the World Cup…

Besides petroleum products below the earth , 97 percent of water is saline on the surface of the earth and major portion of water is obtained from water reserves below the ground. Excessive use of…

Daniel Klein,  a professor of economics at George Mason University, says in Econ Journal Watch that progressives do not understand how money works; basically they would flunk Economics 101.…

In the tragic Huntsville shootings reported in Nature News Feature (Life after Death. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100512/full/465150a.html. Nature 465, 150-155; 2010), Amy Bishop, an Assistant…

Is Eyjafjallajökull Playing Possum? Since the April and early May grounding of aircraft in much of Europe, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption has been producing - relatively - much less plume and appears…