Quick, can you answer the question about the dog with the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis?   If not, you'd be lost at Neurobowl, the highlight of the annual meeting of the American…

In 1930, in the Highlands of New Guinea, a group of Australian brothers looking for gold stumbled across thousands of Stone Age people who had no concept of the outside world. They happened to bring…

How meta!   A poll to ask if we need polling.    We could always do polls, of course, but they were stand-along things that would be in a block somewhere and I haven't seen much value…

If you have suffered the flu recently, then you know that it’s quite miserable. All of the sneezing, sore throat, fever and aching can really put a damper on your day (or week for some of us). Even…

This next in my series on Brain donation is of necessity going to seem partisan as the principal objection to this particular programme cannot help but be critical of the organization that is…

Reporting on scientific results to a broad audience is difficult, in my opinion, not so much because of the need to explain things in a simple way -which is easy and fun, once you master the matter-…

    Last week I described how Fred Hoyle, in 1946,  came up with the idea that carbon is synthesized in hot stars toward the end of their lifetime, and we now know that carbon and…

The most crowded collision of galaxy clusters has been identified by combining information from three different telescopes. This result gives scientists a chance to learn what happens when some of…

What's different about nocturnal mammals that have 'night vision'?  According to a Cell report, the DNA within the photoreceptor rod cells responsible for low light vision is packaged in a very…

There's a perception among some that it's a man's world and they get all the attention.   If you've ever been in a bar or a library or a baseball game, you know this is not true - have a woman…

What?  NASA wants to make Earth Day about space? Not at all, NASA is instead asking the public to vote for the most important contribution the space agency has made to exploring and…

Combating several human pathogens, including some biological warfare agents, may one day become a bit easier thanks to research reported by a University of Iowa chemist and his colleagues in the…

An unmapped reservoir of briny liquid chemically similar to sea water, but buried under an inland Antarctic glacier, appears to support unusual microbial life in a place where cold, darkness and lack…

Scientists have found an ancient ecosystem below an Antarctic glacier and learned that it survived millions of years by transforming sulfur and iron compounds for growth. Described in the April 17…

Is it a weapon? Is it a tool? Is it a form of protest? Can it make your city pretty? Then it must be a seed ball! Screening criteria for use: are you able to throw, drop, give to someone else to…

Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR. 1977. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U S A 74: 5463-7. This paper describes the most important…

If you happened to visit this site earlier today, you may have found it devoid of a suitable banner. That is because I took some time pondering on that design detail for this new site. I wanted…

Science is great at finding new rules for expectant mothers.  They already can’t have alcohol, caffeine, or cigarettes. They also need to stay away from their cat’s litterbox, stay off of planes…

Part 1, which begins our examination of the question 'what is time?' can be viewed here.Part 2 Some travels through time can be viewed  here.Part 3 discussing language, sequence and order, can…