As many readers here know, evolution isn't just some esoteric topic disconnected from the rest of biology. It's a core theory that is underlies all of biology. Today our department heard a talk from…

The United Nations (UN) to show their sisu* marked today, 16 October, as the "World Food Day" while yesterday, 15 October 2008, as the first-ever "International Day of Rural Women." UN Secretary…

You know things are bad when an insurance company tries to fix the health care system. WellPoint Inc. is funding a competition in collaboration with X Prize Foundation to devise solutions that…

The means by which proteins provide a 'border control' service, allowing cells to take up chemicals and substances from their surroundings, whilst keeping others out, is revealed in unprecedented…

Not me! I've only clocked up 36 years, with two to go. But I thought that this article is worth reading: 44 Years of Academic Life: So what changed?. It's not even from a science department, but…

Nothing drives biologists crazier than people who think the colloquial meaning of 'junk' means junk DNA is valueless. For about 15 years, scientists have known that certain junk DNA, repetitive DNA…

It's no news that women were historically excluded from the "boys club" of science but women scientists date as far back as Ancient Greece, and perhaps further. In more recent years, they have become…

The last column here placed the financial crisis within a historical context. The financial meltdown is part of the disruptive transition from the Information Age to the Shift Age. We are moving…

Lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth, according to a new analysis of samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment by NASA and university…

Using brain imaging and chocolate milkshakes, scientists have found that women with weakened "reward circuitry" in their brains are at increased risk of weight gain over time and potential obesity.…

Sunlight contains the entire spectrum of colors that can be seen with the naked eye -- all the colors of the rainbow. What our eyes interpret as color are really different energy levels, or…

For decades, scientists and resource managers have known that wildfires affect forest soils - in a direct sense because it kills vegetation and disrupts soil structure and then in an indirect sense…

Modern nuclear techniques are giving the world's scientists and regulators better tools to fight pollution and other environmental threats – even those that may be lurking naturally at the beach or…

In a series of experiments with sleeping mice, researchers at the Duke University Medical Center say they have shown that the part of the brain that processes scents is a key part of forming long…

Think you knew spent too much time pondering the wonders of beer in college? These Rice University students have you beat. They're using genetic engineering to create beer that contains resveratrol,…

Paleontologists have long debated the function of the strange, bony crests on the heads of the duck-billed dinosaurs known as lambeosaurs. The structures contain incredibly long, convoluted nasal…

Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet, according to a new study with rats.…

A team of researchers in Canada say they have made a bold stride in the struggle to detect dark matter - and it involves listening and WIMPS. The PICASSO collaboration has documented the discovery…

A Gecko's ability to climb sheer walls has long caught the attention of scientists and they've been trying for years to duplicate this strange talent. Major universities such as UC Santa Barbara,…

Physicists working to disprove "Lorentz invariance" -- Einstein's prediction that matter and massless particles will behave the same no matter how they're turned or how fast they go -- won't get that…