EMBARGOED until: 24 November 2009 00:01 GMT ‘COSMIC SLOT MACHINE’ MATCHES GALAXY COLLISIONS A new website will give everyone the chance to contribute to science by playing a ‘cosmic slot machine’ and…

An article entitled "Children unaffected by smoking ban consequences" points to a new study indicating that children's exposure to second hand smoke is unaffected by the smoking ban in Wales. We…

My blog is not a place for hot-off-the-press news - in it you are more likely to find discussions on material well digested and thought over. Nevertheless, I do not have the guts to sit on today's…

Speaking of cirrate octopods (as I have been recently), BBC News In Pictures: Monsters of the deep is strongly dominated by a cirrate octopus! Yay! Three of the eight photos feature Grimpoteuthis:…

“Come on into the hot tub,” I told my three year old boy. But he wouldn’t budge. No way was he joining his older sister in there. “It’s warm, and it feels nice!” I urged, “There’s nothing to be…

Being a graduate student in particle physics is a tough, stressful job. I know it because I once was one, and I still remember the burden of giving exams, carrying on single-handedly a difficult…

Obituary Prof. Dr. Karl-Herrmann Neumann passed away on October 13th 2009. He was born on a farm in Morgendorf near Leitmeritz, now part of Chech Republic. In 1945 his family was transferred to…

   

 After years of stagnation in climate policy for transport, there have been a number of important developments over the last twelve months. Notably, policymakers have begun to get to grips with…

While your co-geeks may out this as a simple math trick, most people unable to recite pi past the decimal point will be amazed. It also has the advantage of requiring almost no physical, sleight-of…

The fossil exposures of the Lincoln Creek Formation, southern Olympic Peninsula, near the town of Porter, Washington consist of tuffaceous siltstone and sandstone with concretionary beds…

A new study published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology suggests that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central…

Ignoring all of the likely reasons why Africa may see more civil wars in the future, a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that global warming…

While most of the proposals put forth to address climate change so far have called on governments to play a more active role in society, perhaps one of the best things they could do is promote free…

While surveying monkeys in the Magombera Forest in Tanzania, environmental scientists this week unexpectedly discovered a new species of chameleon called Kinyongia magomberae, or the Magombera…

The capacity of oceans and terrestrial ecosystems such as forests and grasslands to store carbon emissions is considered one of the primary ways the effects of climate change can be mitigated.…

Short of a global economic collapse or the construction of a new nuclear power plant everyday, stabilizing or reducing greenhouse gas emissions is impossible, says University of Utah atmospheric…

I wrote the following about the toothed sucker rings of the Humboldt squid in Squid Says: What's For Dinner? Probably Not You: Each ring would barely fit on the finger of an infant, and the "teeth"…

I recently re-read a classic piece by J.L. Mackie (April 1955), entitled “Evil and Omnipotence,” a stupendous philosophical essay about why theologians like Richard Swinburne are forced by their…

In today's political hotbed of ideological divisions there seems to be no end to the catch phrases that are used to convey some sentiment regarding the evils of government.  A popular bumper…