I came across this interesting forum on Spore. I hope SpongB6F1 won't mind if I quote this posting at length, as I think it is very insightful. "Science Spore" would be ideal. ... I think…

One of the reasons I was interested in giving some comments on the science in Spore is that I am a big fan of video games but rarely have a chance to play anymore. The discussion about Spore (which I…

Spore was released the day before my birthday so you can bet it was on my wish list.  Wil Wright has made some great games (Sim City) and then some clunkers.  He made The Sims, which I…

Since Palin's comments on fruit fly research are getting some commentary, it's a good time to review the value of model organisms in basic research. One of the things budding geneticists, biochemists…

The purpose of this post is to evaluate, what kind of interaction and knowledge work there exist at Scientific Blogging and how existing groupware features support these interaction and knowledge…

I have complained recently about the state of basic research support in Canada, as the current government is pushing for more short-sighted, applied, industry-oriented work. This is as nothing…

Is Spore meant to be just a game, with no suggestion that it has scientific content?

In support of my hypothesis that PZ Myers had several clones of himself produced so that he could travel all around while still teaching courses, I noted a poster on my way to the lab yesterday that…

Sarah Palin is opposed to the basic model organism research that forms the bedrock of biomedical research. Over at Pharyngula, go listen to her mock the fact that we spend money on projects that have…

Twenty-four years, a political party and a gulf of ideology separates the first two women to share the nation’s major party tickets. But has the way the media talks about Sarah Palin and Geraldine…

Clubfoot, one of the most common birth defects, has long been thought to have a genetic component. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have found the…

The birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) does not end completely during development but continues throughout all life in two areas of the adult nervous system, i.e. subventricular zone and hippocampus…

Physicists of the University of Granada and the University of Valencia (Spain) have developed a proceeding to analyse specific data sent by the Huygens probe from Titan, the largest moon of Saturn,…

Water is the most common and important material in nature but exactly what is water on earth and what properties does it have? It's a more challenging problem than people think.   The changes in…

A world-first: birth of a white rhino after artificial insemination with frozen sperm. The rhino baby, a male, was born at 4:57am in the Budapest Zoo on the 22nd of October 2008. In June 2007,…

Based on past elections and economic factors, two professors at the University of Oregon predict that Senator Barack Obama will win the presidential election by a 52 to 48 margin. In the paper "A…

If Barack Obama is elected president on Nov. 4, and current polling suggests that is the case, he will come into office with something few presidents get and all envy: both houses of Congress…

What it's like to live and breathe Scientificblogging.The Interview - Sometime in September Graduate students are always looking for part time jobs to subsidize their livelihood. So, when I scaled…

When I was an undergraduate, I had to read Bram Stoker's Dracula for a class called, "Myths of the World." The novel is composed of first hand accounts, diary entries, letters and newspaper clippings…

I have been reading a blog entitled (wouldya believe it?) Catholic bishops back sex education for primary school children. Now it's not the blog itself, but a couple of the comments have set me a…