This really takes the cake - or, the rice krispies, as it were. As Josh so cleverly described, General Mills took one for the team when FDA sent a warning letter about the claim on GM's Cheerios box…

Vindication! For all of you fake-bake tanners in high school who spent countless hours and money in tanning beds thinking you looked so much better with tan skin, there is an additional layer of…

Computer trends are interesting to follow[1]; they keep changing, and, as with clothing, the chic trends this year soon become passé, replaced by newer ones. It often seems that it’s really the words…

A new study in Nature offers an explanation for the origin of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, one of the current puzzles in our understanding of galaxy formation. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are small and…

Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were immortalized in the short story "Runaround" in 1942.   In it he formalized the rules that all positronic robots must obey. Two engineers think Asimov's…

Scientists have been thinking increasingly about whether or not animals in the ocean might play a role in larger-scale ocean mixing, says John Dabiri, a Caltech bioengineer. Ocean mixing is the…

The number of large-diameter trees that Yosemite National Park is famous far are on the decline, and warmer temperatures appear to be the culprit. Their number have declined 24 percent in the park…

The number of large-diameter trees that Yosemite National Park is famous far are on the decline, and warmer temperatures appear to be the culprit. Their number have declined 24 percent in the park…

Professor Wei Sha from Queen’s University Belfast’s School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering is concerned with the combat safety of vehicles that use titanium alloys. Obviously the best…

A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage. The findings published…

Scientists in New York and North Carolina say they have assembled the first functioning prototype of an artificial Golgi organelle, a key structure inside cells which helps process and package…

An exercise performed in class one fall afternoon to demonstrate the helplessness of the terminally ill has left me with much to ponder.  If I knew in advance that death was near, what five…

Thanks to Seth MacFarlane, we can all shake hands and be friends again, as he's solved the evolution versus creationism debate - it's both!

Medieval Alphabet Book Stays In Britain A unique alphabet book, offering a selection of spectacular and bizarre fonts to the luxury medieval manuscript illuminator stuck for inspiration, has been…

There are no words to explain this. Perhaps British folk like Patrick can explain. Cheese rolling is a sport, according to ESPN's E:60. It's just like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, except it…

On the Big Ideas Blog there is a post about the different types of reasoning, Analytic vs. Synthetic, and their relevance to the existence or non-existence of God.  But, my favorite passage was…

I'll set the scene... You return to the office after a satisfying lunch, sluggishly move the mouse to break the hypnotic effect of the screen saver, and come face-to-face with a far too full email…

Time for a quick compare-and-contrast. Here is what "Physics Today" lists as their top stories and most popular articles for July 2009: Farewell to the bevatron Earliest astrophysical object yet…

You may have heard the fairy tale of The Three Little Pigs.  In the original story (1), they leave home to find their fortune but the first one builds his new place out of straw and the Big Bad…

"Non ho mai chiesto di occuparmi di mafia. Ci sono entrato per caso. E poi ci sono rimasto per un problema morale. La gente mi moriva attorno" (I never asked to work on mafia. I got to do it by…