At parties, some people are intimidated when I say I'm an astronomer (or, worse, astrophysicist).  They assume I'm a haughty ivory tower genius who laughs at little people like them.  It's…

Struggling to find a publisher for your brilliant and genre-shifting novel? You could go the way of Andrew Bodnar, former Bristol-Myers Squibb senior exec VP. In 2006 BMS tried to delay generic…

 “May you live in interesting times!” So goes the ancient Chinese curse, and times certainly must have been interesting for Alexander Ivanovich Oparin, who was 23 years old when he graduated…

Paleontologists and some in biology have long believed that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs. Researchers at Oregon State University contend they have…

Jellyfish blooms are up almost everywhere and it's going to become a menace.  The reason?   Over-fishing and excess nutrients from fertilizers and sewage, say researchers from The…

According to a research abstract presented  at SLEEP 2009, adolescent obesity is associated with having less sleep and eduction in sleep could be related to a higher caffeine intake, more hours…

There was a time when offshore platforms were secure communities in which production was controlled by closed processes that were isolated from the external world.   Not so today.…

A study involving giggling babies proves a closer connection between the primates. The study published in the journal, Current Biology, measured the giggling sounds of human infants and…

I keep seeing these ads for Acai pills that help you lose belly fat, supposedly used by Oprah.  Sometimes I’m slapped with these commercials saying that you have belly fat because you're very…

Vegetarians must have felt a little left out when hearing stories of startling weight loss by people consuming nothing except bacon and cheddar cheese. It was only a matter of time before a study…

If you've ever been an engineering student, taught engineering or hired a young engineer, this will sound familiar: tales of students splitting up group projects so they don't have to work together…

Do you think high fructose corn syrup makes you fatter than sugar?   You're not alone.   In the culture wars, they like lines blurry and corporations who got rid of corn syrup have been…

More than 100 feet deep in Lake Huron, on a wide stoney ridge that 9,000 years ago was a land bridge, University of Michigan researchers have found the first archeological evidence of human activity…

Word Salad And Rules Of Conformity The conversation-capable computer has often been said to be just around the corner.  All too often, what is found around the corner is  an impenetrable…

Looking for a great summer destination? Why not make a trip to the Saanich Peninsula, the cycling capital of Canada. Sooke, a small fishing town on Vancouver Islands' southwestern edge, was…

In 2007, I had a series in my personal blog about technology in Star Trek. I remembered that series the other day, when I read an article in New Scientist about the science in Battlestar Galactica.[1…

The Brightest Candles #1The brightest candles are the people whose light remains long after they are gone. For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as…

The Buzzword Blog #5 : Subversion Subversion: The word 'subverted' has itself been subverted by agendists and has become just another buzzword. It now tends to mean:1 -  'them' telling people…

Do you have what it takes to be Scientific Blogging's alpha geek? Well it’s time put your geek where your mouth is…IF YOU CAN! But first a warning: yes, you could Google for these answers, but then,…

 There are certainly more mysteries than knowledge and, perhaps, more ways of finding out than science. I like science because when you think of something you can check it by experiment; "yes"…