[Eleni Petrakou, Ph.D., is a physicist and an independent researcher, besides being a longtime follower of this blog. She now has a newsletter of her own; it is high S/N stuff - check it out here.…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) branch of the United Nations has added 24 new sites to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, bring the total number to…

Sex Reassignment Surgery in Transgender women is a misunderstood, maligned, and mysterious procedure.  Thursday I  will have this procedure sometimes called  Gender Confirmation…

While cats are generally regarded as being aloof and uncaring, dogs are called "man's best friend." They are in tune with our emotions, it is said. "Lassie" had a level of connection with her…

Millions of Americans head outdoors in the summer, whether for a day at a nearby lake or a monthlong road trip. For environmental economists like me, decisions by vacationers and outdoor recreators…

The moon is just a big rock in Earth's orbit now but things could have gone a lot differently in the distant past. In fact, there may have been two early windows of habitability for Luna. In a new…

If you are up for a job, and four other candidates are weak, your chances are obviously better than if four other candidates are strong. In the World Cup just completed, statistically there will…

Wrinkles and hair loss are perfectly natural aspects of aging - but science is all about defeating the nature that wants to kill us off. One aspect of aging is a decline in mitochondrial function. A…

I had what seemed like rather a good idea a few weeks back. Building on some prominent findings in social psychology, I hypothesized that politicians on the right would wipe their bum with their left…

Paracelsus famously noted Sola dosis facit venenum - "Only the dose makes the poison." His wisdom was accepted for centuries, from the least educated to the most. Until conspiracy theory progressives…

Everyone knows that water is a molecule in which a single oxygen atom is linked to two hydrogen atoms - H20. But the story of water gets a lot more scientifically interesting the deeper you go.…

Across Europe, 95 percent of people claim to have seen seen litter when they visited the coast - yet they say they don't litter. And they don't trust scientists, corporations or government to solve…

Sub-Saharan Africa has around 80 million people infected with hepatitis B, a liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus, but it infects around 250 million people worldwide. It can be a mild…

A review of data on nearly 20 million people has concluded that having diabetes significantly raises the risk of developing cancer. For women the risk is even higher, not just of cancer but also…

States that have expanded Medicaid coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act have higher numbers of individuals with disabilities employed that states that did not. Medicaid is a taxpayer-funded…

It isn't just human adults who regard youth as disease factories, in many species the young are often more susceptible to infection than adults, even after accounting for prior exposure to infection.…

A new study shows that smokers who switch to nicotine vapor alternatives (e.g. e-cigarettes or iQOS) may be better able to stay smoke-free in the long term - even if they didn't set out to quit…

Crunchyroll, Funimation and others have perpetuated the miseducation, and knowingly or unknowingly promoted anti LGBT bigotry in a generation of geeks in the western world.  Once people are…

If you want to map opioid prescription use, you can do it, right down to Congressional district. The highest rates are in the southeastern U.S., Appalachia and the rural west, all areas where there…

Neuroscientists believe that people's earliest memories date from around three to three-and-a-half years of age but many people report memories much earlier than that. It's likely just as fake…