Researchers have used fishing line fiber and sewing thread to create inexpensive artificial muscles.  The inexpensive, artificial muscles generate far more force and power than human or animal…

A common space weather phenomenon on the outskirts of Earth's magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere, has a much different effect on Venus.  The giant explosions, called hot flow anomalies, can be…

You probably recognize that there are no objective measures to creating those "Top 10" and "Top 100" lists. There is a generous sprinkling of personal bias and subjective decisions. Yet the…

DNA sequencing technologies continue to make bold strides, and that means a lot for the plant sciences. Genome-scale data sets obtained from these new technologies will allow researchers to greatly…

Deep waters formed in the northern North Atlantic fill approximately half of the deep ocean globally. As you might gather, that impacts the circum-Atlantic climate and regional sea levels and soaks…

The thyroid gland has an important role in regulating the body's metabolism, but researchers say it can also influence mental health. Past research found links between an increased risk of depression…

 Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death, but recent advances in science and medicine have improved the chances of surviving a heart attack. In the United States alone, nearly one…

Because I blog, speak, and comment in support of various agricultural technologies, I am routinely accused of being a "shill for Big Ag" or for some company which you can probably guess.  They…

If you want to turn down the emotional intensity before making an important decision, turn down the lights, say Alison Jing Xu, assistant professor of management at the University of Toronto…

Researchers have created an adult stem cell based method for restoring strength to damaged skeletal muscles in the elderly.  Skeletal muscles are some of the most important muscles in the body,…

In the 'sometimes what you don't find can be important too' department, a new high-accuracy calibration of the LUX (Large Underground Xenon) dark matter detector's sensitivity to ultra-low…

For THE WIRED WORLD IN 2013 annual prognostication issue, predictions for the year by some of the luminaries in science media, I predicted that one of the Big 5 organs would be created. The benefit…

Survey results related to how men approach old age found that happiness remains relatively stable for some 80 percent of the population, but perceptions of unhappiness – or dealing with "hassles" –…

Twice in recent history, the periodic El Niño event has caused sea level drops abruptly in the tropical western Pacific. The tides remain below normal for up to a year in the South Pacific,…

In 1964, the physicist John Bell tackled locality and the disparity between classical physics and quantum mechanics, stating that if the universe is based on classical physics, the measurement of one…

Politics always make strange bedfellows. When George W. Bush was president, the claim of his political opposition was that Iraq was 'no harm to anyone outside its own borders' and so we should not be…

Calling Bill Haley and the Comets, because PSR J0738-4042, which lies 37,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Puppis, is being rocked around the clock. As in being constantly hit…

Jazz musicians do a lot of spontaneous, improvisational music and brains scans show robust activation of brain areas traditionally associated with spoken language and syntax, which are used to…

Call it the buoyancy of the brood. When facing a flood, ants build rafts and find other ways to minimize injury or death - they can basically use the brood to act as a life preserver - according to a…

Recently, it was claimed that all of the big questions in science had been answered and it was now just about filling in the details. It isn't the first time the concept has taken hold; Lord Kelvin…