Last week, an article appeared in The Lancet Neurology (doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(13)70278-3) which reviewed studies and asserted that there is a "pandemic" of developmental toxicity. This led to a…

Does cortisol, the stress hormone, cause risk aversion and 'irrational pessimism' in bankers and fund managers during financial crises? The authors of a paper in Proceedings of the National…

I believe I am not alone in being fascinated by the ongoing debates about this or that physics experiment being on the verge of destroying the Earth. Microscopic black holes produced by mistake in…

Older football veterans contend that modern equipment, and its ability to protect players from injury, ironically lead to more of it. Rugby players agree.  They may be right. A new study…

Policy makers are in constant discussion about a range of climate change mitigation possibilities and among the least understood are geoengineering methods. The injection of sulfate particles into…

A Washington state referendum to put warning labels on genetically modified foods, I-522, failed in the last election, but a new effort is more clever - they want to warn the public about Frankenfish…

If we want to see worldwide trends in public health, look to the South Pacific archipelago of Samoa and American Samoa. About 75 percent of the U.S. territory's adult population is obese, the highest…

Tularemia, also called "rabbit fever",  is, unlike anthrax or smallpox, the bioweapon you are least likely to know about. But it is common in the northeastern United States and because it has…

Some people don't remember dreams at all while some remember them frequently. What separates them? Images in brain scans, at least, though that may lead to a more meaningful answer also.  A…

Bruce Willis  heroically managed to save the world in the film 1998  Armageddon. He was able to deflect a huge Earth-bound asteroid with the expedient use of a well placed thermonuclear…

The fifth international school of Science Journalism will be held in the small town of Erice, in Sicily (Italy) between June 9th and 14th. The event is organized by the INFN, and I wish to publicize…

Gay marriage is rapidly becoming less and less controversial, at least in the Western world. Yes, the battle hasn’t been won just yet, both in Europe and in the US, but we are getting there at a pace…

Goodbye Ohm - Hello Heisenberg Research reported earlier this month shows that electrical resistance in nanoribbons of epitaxial graphene changes in discrete steps following quantum mechanical…

A small minority of religious and scientific communities insist the two can't get along. If you see 'scientocracy' or 'Galileo' invoked, you can be sure rationality has left the discussion. Almost 50…

Monoclonal antibodies directed against tumor antigens have proven effective for treating some forms of cancer. Despite the increasing use of monoclonal antibody therapy, it is not clear how these…

As scientists try to forecast the effects of climate change, one of the missing pieces of the puzzle is what will happen to the carbon in the soil and the microbes too. Scientists studying grasslands…

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford have found a new way to boost the survival of pediatric patients whose…

The discovery of what is essentially a 3D version of graphene – the 2D sheets of carbon through which electrons race at many times the speed at which they move through silicon - could lead to much…

Schistosoma mansoni and its close relatives are parasitic flatworms that affect millions worldwide and kill an estimated 250,000 people a year. A study published on January 16 in PLOS Pathogens…

SAN ANTONIO (Dec. 19, 2013) — Elevated levels of an amino acid, tyrosine, alter development and longevity in animals and may contribute to the development of diabetes in people, new research from the…