Freedom Of Information And UK Law The UK's Freedom Of Information Act 2000 - FOIA - has been much in the news and public debate of late, mainly in connection with allegations that the University Of…

You probably think that because I started a hybrid social media/science media darling like Scientific Blogging, adored by many, I must know a lot of people.   Just the opposite is true.  I…

When I was the president of an international private coeducational boarding school for teenagers with dyslexia and other kinds of learning disorders, I was frequently asked by parents to curtail…

When men starting eating meat it might have been necessity because human body cant make proteins from amino acids directly. Plants can utilize inorganic nitrogen and organic nitrogen sources to make…

The botanical garden of Justus Liebig Universitat where I visited with my daughter when she was less than two years old in 1976 for the first time has attracted me again and again. Some of the…

During course of evolution (  if you believe in theory of evolution ) cycads were once called as living fossil . Most of the plants of this group became extinct and fossil. However when Cycas…

Birds in general are impressive creatures, but the Supurb lyrebird takes the cake for its ability to mimic sounds. Here's a video demonstrating its ability to mimic construction sounds. You can…

"I love work, it fascinates me; I can sit and watch it for hours". J. K. Jerome

I just read a very nice article by Nature's Zeeya Merali, and I thought I would link it from this blog. It discusses in detail several aspects of the sociology of the very large communities of…

Faint Young Sun - No Paradox The faint young sun paradox is no paradox, according to a recent paper in Nature. The faint young sun paradox is that the earth didn't freeze over when the sun was weaker…

We defied expectations in last week's Pepsi Throwback Challenge. We found the unusual result that our bodies, against our wills, preferred high fructose corn syrup to ordinary sugar.  Our…

For any of those that have not yet had the opportunity to see it (and have HBO), HBO will presenting its made-for-TV biopic on Temple Grandin this evening.  It's a very well-done piece, and…

Fossilized Weather If you want to know what the weather is doing you can do as the candlelight fisherman in the song did, and "open the pane and pop out the flame and see how the winds do blow".…

The behaviour of inhabitants of the earth on the whole has followed a pattern of war and peace. There was an eara of tensions, then came era of freedom of thoughts, and now global warming. To me…

A cutting-edge UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute research project, the Infant Sibling Study, is leading the way in seeking clues to the earliest behavioral manifestations of autism. This project studies…

University of Birmingham scientists have discovered that the gene DAF-16 plays an important part in determining the rate of aging and average lifespan of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C…

The authors of a new paper in Current Biology say they have found the first concrete evidence that shows how gene duplications can lead to functional diversity in organisms. In the study,…

Princeton Electrical Engineers have developed a new technique for revealing images of hidden objects. The method, a new type of stochastic resonance, relies on the ability to clarify an image using…

ASU Biodesign Institute researchers are using the unique conditions of spaceflight to examine how cells remain healthy or succumb to disease, particularly in the face of stress or damage. Their…

Although they only account for a fraction of the synapses in the visual cortex, neurons in the thalamus get their message across loud and clear by coordination -- simultaneously hitting the "send"…