Advocates of Intelligent Design (ID) creationism like to play Stump the Scientist by asking evolutionary biologists, "what would disprove evolution?" Several answers have been given1, but I want to…

The highest jump ever made was by Joseph Kittinger in 1960--31 km. This year, astronaut Felix Baumgartner will attempt a 36 km jump, and there is talk about Michael Fournier attempting a 40 km jump.…

Oh yeah, and my adivsor was totally on NPR yesterday, check it out. In terms of press coverage, we are so lucky that we work with charismatic, edible megafauna.

The opening sentence of Wikipedia's article on the man seems fairly encompassing: Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was a writer, public speaker, philosopher, psychonaut,…

Rhubarb May, Or May Not, Fight Cancer Current news reports about cancer-fighting chemicals in rhubarb may lead some people to think that eating a lot of rhubarb is a good idea.  Bad move! …

It's now almost Midnight in Moscow, so it's already tomorrow in China.  Therefore may I take this opportunity to wish all readers of Scientific Blogging . . .

Blackboard qualitative proofs of the "existence" of, say, an equilibrium between demand and supply - beloved of economists trained in the maths of the department of mathematics rather than the maths…

Scientific Blogging fave Greg Critser has a new book out, Eternity Soup: Inside The Quest To End Aging(available at fine retailers everywhere, or at that link if you want us to make a nickel) and in…

The Pragma Hypothesis A speculation on the possibility of the accurate prediction of future, hind-sight based, historical worldviews, and the application of such prediction to the current climate…

Energy Policy Should Maximize Benefits of All Renewable Biomass February 12th, 2010 The new rule announced by EPA last week implementing the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) takes a major step…

When I was undergraduate student in 1963 the Bharatpur Kevladev Bird Sanctuary, Bhartpur was a reed swap stage ecological formation where some level of water stayed all around the year. Then came one…

Science spectrum hard->soft: Math->Physics(->Chemistry->Biology->Medicine->Psychology->Sociology) ->Modeling->Philosophy->Opinions @skyday **************AlexEvery Friday…

When asked to justify the research I do, I always struggle a little to explain my dissatisfaction with the traditional descriptive, non-quantitative explanations of molecular biological systems. As a…

Last fall, ScientificBlogging introduced our first ever University Writing Competition. We were blown away by the quality of science articles we received, and are excited to announce that we’re doing…

This morning, upon leaving Brussels to go back home after my seminar in Louvain-la-Neuve, my attention was caught by a big green banner hanging from a tall building at Place Schuman. It said "Safe…

Renowned Indian Agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Wednesday commended the Indian government's decision to defer the cultivation of the genetically modified (GM) egg plant, Bt brinjal in the…

Scientific Evidence Of Your Own Awesomeness Do you like to share awe-inspiring articles with your friends, like the many [New York] Times readers whose habits are analyzed in a new study? Or do you…

I was off to a very important discussion on the next day. As usual, there were butterflies in my stomach wondering on how my story would be accepted by my critics, my dearest students. Ever since I…

It appears that the act of voluntarily sharing something with another is not entirely exclusive to the human experience. Researchers writing in Current Biology observe that bonobos—a sister species…

Should there be restrictions on the amount of sodium in processed and restaurant foods? Many public health advocates think so. They argue that people consume excessive amounts of sodium without even…