Kalen Craig was a physical science technician, employed for 30 years at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. He worked mostly on wave propagation, and radio and radar astronomy projects.…

A study just published in JAMA Jan 5, reported that SSRI antidepressants are no better than placebo for most cases of depression. The authors reviewed 30 years of data and concluded that "the benefit…

Random Noise #19 : How Many Things Have Scales? Justice has scales. Wikimedia The famous scales of justice used to be about a fair and balanced trial.Today, scales of justice are rates of pay …

In the end, we should all like [mathematical] models that wear their faults on their sleeves. - Paul Wilmott, quoted in "Revenge of the Nerd", Newsweek June 8, 2009 Read the feed:

Recently, the New York Times came out with yet another article about how people consistently pick bad passwords. It’s a hackneyed subject by now, but I shouldn’t complain: I cover this sort of old…

Extended use of nicotine patches – 24 weeks versus the standard eight weeks recommended by manufacturers – boosts the number of smokers who maintain their cigarette abstinence and helps more of those…

A palm-sized device invented at Cornell that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond just might make walking on walls possible for humans. The rapid adhesion mechanism could lead to such…

According to a new report in the Archives of General Psychiatry, individuals at extremely high risk of developing psychosis appear less likely to develop psychotic disorders following a 12-week…

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco say a majority of published studies analyzing the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and smoking indicates that the habit is a…

Assuming good health, older adults can expect to have a reduced "sleep need" and to be less tired during the day compared to healthy young adults, according to a new study published in Sleep. Results…

Proapoptotic Peptides that target blood vessels in White adipose (fat) tissue and cause them to go undergo programmed cell death could become a model for future weight-loss therapies, says a study…

Scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden say they have discovered how aged yeast cells manage to form new and undamaged daughter cells. In a study published in Cell, two collaborating…

The authors of a new study reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology say they know how much smoking affects cardiac health before and after a heart attack and have determined…

A new study analyzing mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland indicates that forests in the Eastern United States may be growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. On average, the forest is…

 Individuals who suffer memory loss may face a higher risk of stroke, regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with dementia, according to a new study published in Neurology. For the study…

The traditional view in biology is that ecology shapes evolution. The environment defines a template and the process of evolution by natural selection shapes organisms to fit that template. Some…

 No vaccine currently exists for West Nile Virus, but a new therapeutic made from tobacco plants has been shown to arrest the infection, according to research conducted by Arizona State…

Last Friday I was in Pisa, at the Scuola Normale Superiore (see picture), where italian members of the CMS Collaboration gathered for two days to discuss the status of their studies, exchange ideas,…

The return of biting arctic air to southeastern Wisconsin froze my enthusiasm for strolling the block, but activated my wondering about kinds of organisms that thrive in icy ecosystems, or arctic…

My latest online project: Hackademe! Hack: A clever use of technology, software, or modified items to solve a problem or increase efficiency. Academe: The community of scholars and students engaged…