Being at CERN for a couple of weeks, I could not refrain from following yesterday's talks in the Main Auditorium, which celebrated the 90th birthday of Herwig Schopper, who directed CERN in the…

I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories.  Yes, sometimes there are conspiracies, but the Internet seems to magnify discordant cynicism on an unbelievable scale.  I begin with this…

The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has claimed more than 2000 lives and has spurred calls for a deeper understanding of the molecular biology of the virus that could be critical in the…

Magnetic stimulation of a brain area, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), involved in "executive function" affects cravings for and consumption of calorie-dense snack foods, reports a paper…

The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, recently published a review discussing drug abuse in athletes. Drug abuse…

A new paper indicates that people with psychopathic traits have a preference for non-romantic sexual fantasies with anonymous and uncommitted partners. The authors did two studies to examine…

A recent study of the global carbon cycle offers a new perspective of Earth's climate records through time. One of the current methods for interpreting ancient changes in the concentration of carbon…

Using twisted light to send data at almost unimaginable speeds is not new but researchers have developed a similar technique using radio waves - high speeds without the hassles that go with optical…

We live in a battery world - just visit any airport and see people huddled around a wall outlet to witness our battery culture. Yet batteries haven't made any real improvements in decades and that…

Fires, mudslides and earthquakes are part of California life but residents might be wishing for a few more mudslides right about now. The temperature is nothing special but the worst drought in…

Wearable electronic activity monitors are a popular fad. They constantly monitor activities and bodily responses and the information is organized into computer programs and mobile apps.  Given…

66 million years ago, a 10 km diameter meteorite hit the Yucatan peninsula with the force of 100 teratons of TNT. It left a crater more than 150 km across and the resulting mega tsunami,…

We inherit certain traits that are predetermined but the field of epigenetics postulates that we might be able to change genes play by taking certain drugs or changing diets.   Epigenetics…

Not all objects are equal in our minds. A Picasso sculpture is not the same way as a hammer, no matter how fancy the hammer.  The reason? We see the Picasso more as a person than an object,…

America leads the world in adult science literacy, science output and social media. That means broad social networks. And it means, unless some field of science is your particular hot-button…

Proposition 65, which mandates warning labels on just about every product in every store in the state, insures that Californians have no clue what actually can be harmful or not. What doesn't 'cause…

Proposition 65, which mandates warning labels on just about every product in every store in the state, insures that Californians have no clue what actually can be harmful or not. What doesn't 'cause…

Facial recognition software works pretty well. It measures various parameters, such as the distance between the person's eyes, the height from lip to top of their nose and various other metrics and…

A team of researchers has developed a new model to study the motion patterns of bacteria in real time and to determine how these motions relate to communication within a bacterial colony. The…

For lovers of wild foods, autumn means things like mushrooms and fungi of dizzying variety. Intrepid treasure hunters scour the woods in search of delectable wild mushrooms and their not-quite-meat,…