An analysis in Nature of more than 70,000 galaxies by a team of physicists suggests that the universe – at least up to a distance of 3.5 billion light years from Earth – plays by the rules set out 95…

Lapham's Quarterly has published a long essay, Secular Revival by Warren Breckman, editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas. The article starts by looking at the dream of the scientific…

End of the World Sci-Fi Oryx and Crake (2003)The Year of the Flood (2009)by Margaret Atwood In Atwood's world of Oryx and Crake, biotechnology has ruined the world, in more ways than one. As the…

Will You Give Sheepswool Sheep? I'm no Dr. Seuss, or even Zseuss.  But encouraged by Becky's enjoyment of my Grasshopper Green, here's another few words.  I hope that, perhaps, my words may…

A reader was aghast-- outraged, I say-- at my suggestion that this precious music satellite, Project Calliope, might launch a few months late. Now, the rocket people at InterOrbital Systems are rock…

How do we fix science journalism ? Simple: we don't. We let it sink, and be reborn in a different form. It is rather utopic to insist that in a world of changing means of communications, a world…

Forgive me if this has been covered already, but I am curious about the use of computers in Science I have to add a quick sentence here just to prevent the questions overlaying the initial graphic I…

Ars Technica notes that famed anti-PowerPoint communications guru Edward Tufte is getting some sort of job consulting for the Obama Administration. In passing, they point to one of Tufte's online…

Having once been an environmental activist, one thing that bothers me about modern day environmental activists (*) is their insistence, despite any evidence, that jamming people into cities and going…

We have the Rust Belt and Bible Belt and Sun Belt and Dairy Belt and Corn Belt and all sorts of other belts in the US, but this is the first I've heard of the Beer Belt. Or, more appropriately, the…

There are currently two ambitious projects straddling artificial intelligence and neuroscience, each with the aim of building big brains that work. One is The Blue Brain Project, and it describes its…

Grasshopper Green Grasshopper green,Grasshopper green,Hippity hoppity munching machine -Are you enjoying your tasty leaf snack?Thanks for the visit -  Be sure to come back. To display image…

As a new kid on the block, I'd like to introduce myself via this inaugural piece. It follows a few posts I've made in Rycharde Manne's and Eric Diaz's columns recently The title of my piece is The…

A Woeful Lack Of Candour In a recent article I wrote: Godfrey Bloom MEP bemoans the fact that: "There appears to be a woeful lack of candour and commonsense in modern day politicians." Godfrey Bloom…

Avalon, "Isle of the Blessed", is a legendary island famous for its beautiful apples, featured in the Arthurian legend described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of…

The Smithsonian Magazine (one of the highest quality science magazines out there) has some great pictures of various hominins by sculptor John Gurche. Go take a look at the past 4 million years of…

A Classic Waste Of Breath An argument that a thing is natural, therefore not a cause of concern, is used greatly in modern times, most especially in connection with the arguments over whether or not…

This science cryptic crossword has been sitting on my computer for far too long and was yearning to see the light of day. It is in the tradition of cryptic crosswords but with a science edge to it.…

Sonic hedgehog, a gene that plays a crucial rule in the positioning and growth of limbs, fingers and toes, has been found in the ectoderm - the cell layer that gives rise to the skin - in the embryos…

Writing in the latest issue of JAMA, Alec B. O'Connor, associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, says the federal guidelines governing the approval of potential new drugs…