Until recently, elasmosaurs had never before been found in British Columbia. Nor had any other aquatic plesiosaurs, though similar creatures had been found on the coast of California and in the…

The mystery of the landlocked salmon in the fossil record from the Interior of British Columbia has been a topic of hot debate for a number of years. Salmon have permeated First Nations mythology…

Many of you may know who lived at 112 Mercer Street, from 1936 until his death in 1955. The man and I were our for a lovely walk and some delicious frozen yogurt in Princeton Sunday afternoon (just a…

Fossil crabs, several dozen species of mulluscs including the elusive tusk shell have been found in the fossil exposures of the Lincoln Creek Formation, southern Olympic Peninsula, near the…

In the past several months I have been intellectually consumed with theidea of academic blogging and its potential to one day change the faceof academic communication.  I say "one day" because…

Do our genomes look designed? Let's address this point, hoisted from the comments of this post: Actually, shared genetics between chimps and humans is agnostic with respect to evolution or…

The whole question of imagination in science is often misunderstood by people in other disciplines. They try to test our imagination in the following way. They say, "Here is a picture of some people…

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, who blog at Discover, have a new book out called Unscientific America.   We got a copy here but I asked them to send it to Dr. Mike White, author of…

...waiting for a piece I will post tomorrow, to stimulate your curiosity -and allow me to travel from Venice to Patras by ship, with no internet connection. The subject is not only the Higgs mass,…

It will enrage our fellow Californians, who regard the wholesomeness and warmth of the in-home hearth as akin to fratricide, but when it comes down to it, people in the Third World, like the US is…

Cars that drive themselves?   Being cut up by some remote hand that never touches you?  It's not a Stephen King novel, it's the latest in robotics and it's coming to a Senate floor near you…

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun, thus paving the way for our modern view of the world.  It took a few hundred years for religion to apologize for the…

Australia's top models are going to be on the main stage in Cairns this week but don't get too excited.   They're only here to show new ways to understand climate change, improve air safety and…

Climate science is tricky business because the atmosphere and Mother Earth are an eloborate, complex system no one understands.   So how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions is…

Ancient nomadic hominids moved from place to place but often how has been subject to speculation.   Now researchers think they have one answer, using the dental fossils of animals eaten by Homo…

Is it a magic trick?   A man takes a paper clip and bends it so that it is just a crooked piece of wire, then he throws it into a bowl of hot water and instantly the metal wire returns to the…

This is my observation. Intelligent people are a minority.    There is an abundance of businesses, causes, and charities that are addressing problems. Addressing and milking them for every…

The Voynich Manuscript : An Enigma, Part #1 There are many unsolved mysteries in this world.  A web search for 'greatest mysteries', 'unsolved mysteries', 'world's greatest mysteries' and…

Does fasting lead to a longer life?   You never see any really old fat people but that has more to do with other issues than starvation.    Some studies indicate that caloric…

A good video laying out how climate scientists think: There are problems that attract a different kind of thinker: really complex problems such as the human body, or an individual cell, or the…