H/T to Toothpaste for Dinner.

Just why do we have a space station, anyway? That's a question of relevance, because it turns out we might not have one after 2015. The International Space Science Station (ISS) is a football-field…

Men suffer noise-induced hearing loss more than women, it seems.   Guys just rock out more, you might think.  Better to burn out than fade away, and all that.   But it's primarily…

Three deserving, outstanding scientists have won the Nobel of medicine. As a footnote, Blackburn's outstanding career has included dismissal from Bush II's bioethics committee over her dissent on the…

In the last article we considered the formation of choices as providing a set of predetermined responses to various situations.  It is this phase of data gathering and assessment that sets the…

Everyone's heard of open heart surgery but closed heart surgery could one day be just as ubiquitous, according to research from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota in the FASEB Journal.…

You've heard of the Mercury 7 astronauts; they became the backbone of the NASA program and inspiration to an entire generation of young people.   But you may not have known there were also a…

My personal favorite sepiolid is the striped pyjama squid. It burrow in the sand! It secretes mucus! And it is spelled in the British way! Seriously, nothing should be allowed to be that cute: As a…

'Blue haze' is a natural occurrence over heavily forested areas around the world but natural does not always mean good.  Still, while blue haze may be formed by natural emissions of chemicals,…

It seems like common sense that too much of even good things can be bad.  Everyone has heard about the damage that reactive oxygen species (ROS) – aka free radicals – can do to our bodies by now…

This study was released today, regarding the incidence of Autism in the population. According to the study, which is based on data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, there is a…

Recent correspondence directed me to the fact that there is a Philosophy section in Scientific Blogging. This is something I have kept away from, since my view of the subject follows the Pooh-Goethe…

To test whether my belief that homeopathy is not an evidence-based rational system of medicine is reasonable or just prejudice on my part, I did a quick experiment using Google Scholar. (This was…

A friend on a newsgroup went recently to see the "Creation" fim / movie.  He'd like to know what the folks on Scientific Blogging think of it (I presume it's being shown across the pond, also.)…

"An illustration of the confusion about the tau is provided by two editions of a popular book on particle physics by Nigel calder entitled The Key to the Universe. In the first edition Calder wrote:…

Most people have at one time or another hitched their internet connection on to someone else's wi-fi signal, or have had others use theirs. Annoying? Yes. But it could also get you in trouble if the…

Can Walmart sell nutrition better than the U.S. government? Honestly, it might be able to, says agricultural trade policy analyst Sallie James in this NPR report. James says it's not economically…

When I worked for IBM, I didn’t use Skype. As with many large companies, they don’t allow the use of software on company computers unless the lawyers have approved the terms and conditions — the end…

Tyrannosaurus rex has had an interesting few weeks - Raptorex kriegsteini, a man-sized ancestor, was unveiled a few weeks ago and now we find out that Alioramus altai—a horned, long-snouted, gracile…

Outreach campaigns like 'Rock the Vote' don't generally do a lot for the image of young voters - if you're in the tank for one party the other party gives up on you and your own party takes you for…