Blogging my way to the Antarctica…and beyond

There is an online contest sponsored by Quark Expeditions to become the Official Quark Expeditions Blogger. The winner gets an all-expense paid excursion to Antarctica February 20 – March 3, 2010. And you could help send me to the South Pole - a dream...

Viroids

Perhaps you've thought that viruses are the simplest sort of "living" thing – if a virus can even be called "alive".Well, maybe not. Viroids are even simpler. You're on your own as to whether you want to describe them as "alive".Viroids are not a new...

Hubble Photographs a Planetary Nebula

Hubble Photographs a Planetary Nebula to Commemorate Decommissioning of Super CameraThis planetary nebula is known as Kohoutek 4-55 (or K 4-55). It is one of a series of planetary nebulae that were named after their discoverer, Czech astronomer Lubos...

Why Do We Rape, Kill and Sleep Around?

The "new" Newsweek is running an article on the evolutionary psychology debate that seems heavily slanted to one side. There seem to be some confusions in the article. They leave a bad impression of its objectivity.Why Do We Rape, Kill and Sleep Around?Over...

Reaching the under-served

Notes from the Blogging While Brown ConferenceChicago, IllinoisWorkshop: “What’s next for traditional media?”Participants: Monroe Anderson, Eric Easter, and Bruce MontgomeryThe conversation, initiated by Eric Easter of EbonyJet.com went like this:“Some...

Live from Chicago...It's Blogging While Brown Conference

I am attending the Blogging While Brown Conference. I wrote about my feelings about this conference previously, here and here. Thankfully a scholarship became available and I was able to attend.I’m meeting new people and hearing some interesting ideas....

The impending demise of the university

Don Tapscott, who is a business executive, author of more than a dozen books on technology, president of a think tank, and a part-time professor in a university school of management, implies a fairly provocative claim in this article: The impending demise...

Why Are Galaxies So Smooth?

Why Are Galaxies So Smooth? (5/1/09)Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered streams of young stars flowing from their natal cocoons in distant galaxies. These distant rivers of stars provide an answer...

NASA's Galaxy Mission Celebrates Sixth Anniversary

NASA's Galaxy Mission Celebrates Sixth Anniversary (4/28/09)This image is a blend of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's M33 image and another taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. M33, one of our closest galactic neighbors, is about 2.9 million light-years...

Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!

Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative! (6/5/09)Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch?If so, chances are you're...

What I'm (going to be) reading

Just ordered a few books from Amazon. Light summer reading. Occurred to me that others might be interested, so here's the list. Since I haven't even received them yet, I can't promise they'll be good, but they all seem intriguing...• Marcus Du Sautoy...

Chromosomal instability and centrosome defects in cancer cells

Link unraveled between chromosomal instability and centrosome defects in cancer cells (6/7/09)In a new study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists disprove a century-old theory about why cancer cells often have too many or too few chromosomes, and...

Communicating science to the public

Some people would say this is great, wonderful communication of science. Others would say it's... something else. I think that, at least, the report speaks for itself.Sex talk wins 'science idol' competitionA Serbian molecular biologist has beaten off...

Babies understand numbers as abstract concepts

Babies understand numbers as abstract concepts (6/8/09)Our ability to think of numbers as abstract concepts is probably innate and even babies barely a few hours old seem to have the ability, researchers say. ...Each baby was first played a 2-minute...

Galactic black holes may be more massive than thought

Who would have imagined that a black hole could be more massive than a thought? (Of course, the headline merely exemplifies the clichéd thinking habits of the unfortunate people who have to write headlines.)But anyhow, it's an interesting story:Galactic...

Wordless Wednesday: She Daisy

A She honey bee collecting pollen and drinking nectar from a Daisy.Photo taken at Crown Valley Winery in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri.No doubt these bees will be pollinated the grape vineyards, t...

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