Prenatal biochemical screening tests are widely used to look for chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus which can lead to serious handicap, or even death during gestation or in the first few days…

It’s stronger than steel and nylon, and more extensible than Kevlar. What is this super-tough material? Spider silk; and learning how to spin it is one of the materials industries’ Holy Grails.…

Some science sites are boring, some sites are difficult to navigate. Some don't write much about science at all. We cross all political boundaries and most cultural ones. We have Republicans,…

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated a window into how abnormalities in microRNAs, a family of molecules that regulate expression of numerous genes, may contribute to…

Ecosystems are constantly exchanging materials through the movement of air in the atmosphere, the flow of water in rivers and the migration of animals across the landscape. People, however, have also…

A whole generation of World War II soldiers endured the same trauma as soldiers in any war but for the most part kept quiet about it with little ill effect. Somewhere after that it became normal and…

MIT scientists say they have created a membrane, a mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper, that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil, and can be recycled many times for future use.…

Nautiloids are the sole surviving family of externally-shelled cephalopods that thrived in the tropical oceans 450–150 million years ago. However, in the intervening years their modern soft bodied…

Can one ever hear too many stories about Richard Feynman? Cosmic Variance brought my attention to a great piece from Physics Today by Daniel Hillis (who worked with Feynman in the 80's to build a…

It's no surprise that a woman in a bikini can increase a man's sexual appetite but research in the Journal of Consumer Research says that men who watched sexy videos or even handled lingerie had…

From Slashdot, a physics professor gets upset that undergrad physics majors at his school aren't required to learn any programming. (Check out the comments for an interesting discussion.) To make…

Researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden say golf is good for your health. People of the same sex, age and socioeconomic status who golf can expect a 5 year increase in life expectancy…

Researchers at the University of Leeds say they have solved a medical condition that puzzled Hippocrates more than 2,000 years ago. The phenomenon of "finger clubbing", a deformity of the fingers and…

Nitrogen is the primary nutrient that dictates productivity (and thus carbon consumption) in boreal forests. In pristine boreal ecosystems, most new nitrogen enters the forest through cyanobacteria…

Pavan Sukhdev of Deutsche Bank has laid out a case for what he called a "comprehensive and compelling economic case for the conservation of biodiversity" today. Nature obviously provides human…

Larry over at Sandwalk recently addressed complaints that Richard Dawkins' new anthology of great science writing only includes writing by scientists. Larry has some good comments, and suggests it's…

Don't put a down payment on that invisible plane just yet but a team of scientists from Boston College and Duke University developed a highly-engineered metamaterial capable of absorbing all of the…

Hello, Noodling Nufers! There's an interesting news item today about rocks on the bottom of the ocean, bacteria that feed on those rocks, and how that might adjust our thinking about the evolution of…

Millions of patients suffer from poorly healing large-area wounds caused by complaints such as diabetes, burns or bedsores. The wounds can be treated with conventional collagen dressings or…

Peptide arrays are powerful tools for developing new medical substances as well as for diagnosis and therapy techniques. A new production method based on laser printing will enable the potential of…