Although the theoretical applications for stem cell research are seemingly endless, the far-off possibilities are not as awe-inspiring as some scientists would like. Setbacks, ethical concerns and…

    Last week I described how John Oro discovered that five hydrogen cyanide molecules (HCN) could react to produce adenine (H5C5N5) one of the primary components of nucleic acids…

They did a great job describing the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, but an awful job showing a picture of it.  "They" will remain nameless, as they otherwise put together a really great exhibit of…

In spite of not having any where near as much physics education some people feel a need to prove they know more than I do.  These people are never physicist themselves, they have nothing to…

A first observation of the Omega_b baryon -a quite exotic particle composed of a bottom quark and two strange quarks- has been recently published by the DZERO collaboration. Their paper claims to…

Today I’ll continue my series commenting on the New Scientist magazine series “Eight things you didn’t know about the internet”. Part 2 is “Could the net become self-aware?”, by Michael Brooks. Mr…

I decided to go ahead and start with this one, as the rest of my research material is all on my laptop and said laptop is not hooked up to the internet while my home computer is. Plus, this article…

The American Civil Liberties Union action in filing a lawsuit yesterday against Myriad Genetics is going to lead to one of the most important legal battles in the history of biotechnology, asserts…

Should You Share  A Higher Genetic Risk? If you learned that you were at high risk of cancer because you carry the hereditary BRCA1/2 gene mutation, would you tell your children? A recent study…

The potential contribution to sea level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) have been greatly overestimated, according to a new study in Science.   These scientists…

Monkeys playing a game similar to "Let's Make A Deal" have revealed that their brains register missed opportunities and learn from their mistakes.  The researchers watched individual neurons in…

After the victory of IBM's Deep Blue against Garry Kasparov, the game of Go has replaced chess as a test bed for research in artificial intelligence (AI). Go is one of the last board games where…

Smoking is bad for you, but it can also help with allergies, according to a new study which says that cigarette smoke can prevent allergies by decreasing the reaction of immune cells to allergens.…

Avian influenza viruses do not thrive in humans because the temperature inside a person's nose is too low, according to research published today in PLoS Pathogens. The authors of the study, from…

As if you need another reason for parental guilt, a new article in Bioscience Hypotheses speculates that our feelings could impact our reproduction and affect our children. Dr Alberto Halabe Bucay…

The dual launch of the far-infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana is the beginning of two of the most…

The Borg Builders Human language evolved to serve human purposes.  For most people, that purpose is to just get on with life, to be happy, to work, to play, to provide for tomorrow and to leave…

Francis Collins' new Templeton-sponsored website, BioLogos, has been getting a bit of news coverage recently. For those not familiar with the story: Collins is the Director of the Human Genome…

Richard Lewontin has a piece well worth reading in the New York Review of Books: There are, however, occasions on which there are orgies of idolatrous celebrations of the lives of famous men, when…

The Origins of the Reductionist Program "How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatialboundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" Erwin…