For the first time in Australia, scientists at Sydney's Centenary Institute have filmed an immune cell becoming infected by a parasite and followed the infection as it begins to spread throughout the…

Via Larry at Sandwalk, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is excited about Facebook, YouTube, and Blogs. What does this have to do with science? Like Larry, I'm still skeptical of what impact this…

Speaking of science and religion, I got significantly annoyed by a short piece in Nature magazine by Michael Bond (13 November 2008). Bond reviews two recent books on Buddhism and science: “Mind…

The most recent issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available free online. This is a special issue devoted to the evolution of eyes. You may recognize some of the names in the table of…

Middle-aged men want younger women and don't mind talking about their own positive qualities to get them, according to research at Gothenburg University and Oxford University that studied 400…

New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide a unique insight into the windy atmosphere of our neighbouring planet and reveal that global patterns at the Venus cloud tops are…

Four living presidential science advisors, Democrats Drs. John H. Gibbons and Neal F. Lane and Republicans Drs. Edward E. David and John. P. McTague, have written an article called "Making a Critical…

In times of economic distress and plenty, ninety percent of Americans pray, more than half of us once a day or more. We pray for big things—to stay healthy, to keep our jobs, and to strengthen our…

For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the…

Can radiation from cell phones affect memory? The debate continues but in rat experiments done at the Division of Neurosurgery, Lund University, in Sweden, Henrietta Nittby studied rats that were…

No one really feels left out if they don't have an iPod.  An MP3 player is nice to have but not essential to the human condition.   But Spanish researchers who have carried out a study…

...the result is never pretty. I made this point in a comment, but I've hoisted it up here because this issue deserves more visibility. Physics professor Steve Hsu makes this argument: ...you may…

...the result is never pretty. I made this point in a comment, but I've hoisted it up here because this issue deserves more visibility. Physics professor Steve Hsu makes this argument: ...you may…

If there is a bailout of the Big Three, it should include alternative energy metrics against which the three companies compete for better loan repayment terms. The company that most rapidly converts…

All of us have experienced being in a new place and feeling certain that we have been there before. This mysterious feeling, commonly known as déjà vu, occurs when we feel that a new situation is…

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) today released a comprehensive analysis clarifying major challenges and offering an assortment of options that could help negotiators reach a…

If you're happy and you know it, thank your friends—and their friends. And while you're at it, their friends' friends. But if you're sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and…

The decline of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 1,400 years ago may have been driven by unfavorable climate changes. Based on chemical signatures in a piece of…

If you need more proof of how easy the human brain is to fool, hop over to Scientific American's 60 second science and read about how a group of mad scientists used virtual reality goggle to get…

As our knowledge of biology has increased exponentially, so has our potential to find new treatments and technologies to battle ailments previously incurable. However, many of these expansions of…