Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that common but hard-to-see sugar switches play an important role in cell division. Because these previously unrecognized sugar switches are so abundant and…

Conventional wisdom says that children who are especially sensitive to stress are more vulnerable to adversity and have more behavior and health problems than their peers. But a new study in the…

Using transcriptional profiling, researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have uncovered previously unknown gene expression patterns in malaria. The discovery could lead to the…

Former failed CEO and current political candidate Carly Fiorina has campaign staff who don't mind thinking outside the box a little. How far outside?   Portraying your opponent as a demonic…

As I search the Net on freelance writing assignments, I bookmark science and technology news, tools and toys that extend my attention-span into wondering. Paying scientific attention is a distinct…

Other people have an accent, but not me. And this is not just because I have no accent. I wouldn’t have an accent even if I had one! Accent is a strange thing (as is my reasoning style). No matter…

I saw that mathematics was split up into numerous specialties, each of which could easily absorb the short lifetime granted to us. Consequently, I saw myself in the position of Buridan's ass which…

The trial over gene patents, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, et al., is beginning. Discover summarizes the case: When Lisbeth Ceriani, a 43-year-old…

Random Noise #20 : Aude Alteram Partem Aude Alteram Partem - hear the other side - is a principle of administrative and natural law which states that a fair hearing requires that both sides of a…

According to the lede in a recent New Scientist article: Spammers’ own trickery has been used to develop an “effectively perfect” method for blocking the most common kind of spam, a team of computer…

What is spacetime geometry?     Think of a very large ball. Even though you look at the ball in three space dimensions, the outer surface of the ball has thegeometry of a…

Media Wakes Up From Coma The media is currently reporting on 'mind-reading' experiments using brain scanners.  Whilst the 'yes-no' response is news, the use of brain scanners to detect awareness…

Bacteria that infect chronic wounds can be deadly to maggot 'biosurgeons' used to treat the lesions, say researchers writing in the journal Microbiology. During the study, maggots applied to…

For the first time, a team of astronomers has completed a demographic census of galaxy types at two different points in the Universe's history — in effect, creating two Hubble sequences — that help…

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have designed an ultra-lightweight sponge made of clay and a bit of high-grade plastic they say will effectively clean up spills of all kinds of oils…

Researchers from Yale and George Mason Universities say that, despite a lack of concern over climate change, the American public is in favor of policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and…

Scientists have long known that sperm's activity level depends on their internal pH. And now researchers writing in Cell say they have found the channel that allows the tiny cells to rid themselves…

Writing in the latest issue of Science, researchers say they have identified the vibrant colors that adorned Anchiornis huxleyi, a feathered dinosaur extinct for 150 million years. The discovery may…

From an evolutionary perspective, same sex attraction doesn't make much sense. But a pair of psychologists writing in Psychological Science say the "kin selection hypothesis" may explain why the…

 Data collected since the pre-industrial age indicates that the mean surface pH of the world's oceans has declined from 8.2 to 8.1 units with another 0.4 unit decline possible by century's end,…