Sociologist Ching Kwan Lee, a sociologist at the University of California-Los Angeles, writes in the summer issue of the American Sociological Association's Contexts magazine that there is a 'quiet…

Carl Zimmer has posted a spiffy summary of the word usage in his book Microcosm using the super cool Wordle site. For fun, I put in the text of two recent papers (one in press, one in review).…

A new pathway for methane formation in the oceans has been discovered, with significant potential for advancing our understanding of greenhouse gas production on Earth, scientists believe. A paper on…

Nothing knows how to survive changes on Earth like bacteria. Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth and they thrived by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years…

A team of London scientists have found clues for the potentially therapeutic benefits of nicotine on learning, memory and attention while minimising the risk of addiction. The research announced in…

Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance. Electricity comes from electrons traveling through wire conductors. Those electrons bumping into each other generate an…

Meteorites are a major tool for knowing the history of the solar system because their composition is a record of past geologic processes that occurred while they were still incorporated in the parent…

A report in this week's issue of Science describes a set of genes that enable members of the bacterial species Proteus mirabilis to tell the difference between kin and strangers. The bacteria engage…

You may have heard the news that Louisiana's governor recently signed an "Academic Freedom" bill, the first such bill to pass in a recent string of efforts to allow public school teachers to push non…

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that the activity of a specific family of nanometer-sized molecular motors called myosin-I is regulated by force. The motor…

Imagine having three clocks in your house, each chiming at a different time. Astronomers have found the equivalent of three out-of-sync "clocks" in the ancient open star cluster NGC 6791. The dilemma…

A very brief comment on a complicated topic... New Scientist has a story in the current issue about epigenetics -- differences in gene expression that are not due to changes in the gene sequences…

Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to…

Common genetic variations affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system can significantly increase the chance that European Americans who begin smoking by age 17 will struggle with lifelong…

Indiana Jones isn't the only one who has great adventures, apparently proteins do also. Researchers have uncovered a a slippery tube that funnels proteins into a 'chamber of doom' where they are…

Bats, outnumbered only by rodents in number of species and thus the second largest group of mammals, are a remarkable evolutionary success story. Now they have gotten even more interesting.…

Some enthusiasts compare the peloton to a formation of birds. To get a better understanding of how this integrated unit works it is necessary to look at a description of a group of birds as stated…

It looks almost scary with its one armed, three fingered, 1.45-meter-high, flexible physique. However the extent that it will rid its master’s house of any mess is anything but daunting. Research…

In today's issue of Science there is a piece by Elizabeth Pennisi on the "Altenberg 16" who will be attending what overhyping journalist Suzan Mazur calls the "Woodstock of Evolutionary Biology",…

In case anyone is new to the blog, here are some ways that you can explore content. Browse the content on the new blog The best of Genomicron (links to posts on the old page) Search Genomicron…