Science

Many scientists, including Allen and Sherwood, have long argued that temperature data were flawed for many reasons such as the change of instrument design over the years. “These systems were never designed for measuring climate change,” said Sherwood. However, some global warming skeptics had argued that weather balloon temperatures were accurate—and models that predicted global […]

She’s perfectly quiet, but once you sit or lie down, she responds to
your every move. Lie on your back, she snuggles up right next to you in
a log position. Curl up in the fetal position, she spoons. The only
hitch: She’s 2-D. “Yeah, you can’t feel the girl. That’s the thing,”
Burrows explained.
When asked how long he’d […]

Genital application of talcum powder and use of talc on products such as condoms can lead to a 30-60% increase in the risk of ovarian cancer. Use cornstarch.
Talcum Powder Can Provoke Deadly Ovarian Cancer

“Rock star physicist” Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive project.
TED | Talks | Brian Cox: What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider (video)

One hundred and sixty-five eminent thinkers, researchers, and communicators, at the annual request of the edge.org website, answered the following question: “What Have You Changed Your Mind About? Why?”
When the world’s great scientific thinkers change their minds — Edge

A thousand souls populate McMurdo during the Austral summer fromNovember to February – not just scientists, but also pilots, plumbers,burger flippers, and everyone else needed to keep a small city ticking.Down here, even a job like plumbing can transform into a survival epicin the blink of an eye. Just a few days before our mid-November […]

Alex Madrigal at Wired Science reports that
Sources at Google have disclosed that the humble domain, http://research.google.com, will soon provide a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets. The storage will be free to scientists and access to the data will be free for all.  Wired Science from Wired.com

Wired News has an excellent article on “open source learning”…
There has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious.
The world’s top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they’re arriving at last, creating an all-you-can eat online buffet of information.
And mostly, they are giving it away.  Wired News - […]

Physicians understand that practicing good medicine requires the constant acquisition of new knowledge, though they often assume their existing medical beliefs do not need re-examination. These medical myths are a light hearted reminder that we can be wrong and need to question what other falsehoods we unwittingly propagate as we practice medicine. We generated a […]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke listed three wishes on his 90th birthday: for the world to embrace cleaner energy resources, for a lasting peace in his adopted home, Sri Lanka, and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings.SPACE.com — Sci-Fi Author Sir Arthur C. Clarke Lists 90th Birthday Wishes

 OTTAWA, Dec. 13 — The Chalk River reactor, which has been off line for more than three weeks and left much of diagnostic nuclear medicine in the U.S. and Canada at a standstill, may be producing isotopes again before Christmas.
Canada’s government last night overruled its nuclear regulators and allowed the reactor to reopen for 120 […]

Weston, Conn. - Darkness clung to the
early morning sky on Dec. 14, 1807, as Judge Nathan Wheeler started out
on his morning constitutional along a country road near here. Suddenly
the heavens exploded as a fireball raced across the horizon – whizzing
sounds and three sonic booms cracked the quiet as rock rained down.
Judge Wheeler ran back […]

With the end of the Cold War, and with telecommunications technology advancing rapidly, surplus stores and eBay have filled up with discarded precision time equipment once beyond the reach of all but governments. Cesium clocks, rubidium clocks and even the occasional hydrogen maser can be had for less than a decent laptop. A recent search […]

Clean and affordable energy is a growing need for our company, and we’re excited about the opportunity to help create competitive green alternatives. Our new initiative isn’t just about Google’s energy needs; we’re seeking to accelerate the pace at which clean energy technologies are developing, so they can rival the economics of coal quickly. We’ve […]

The moon will arrive at last quarter phase on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:44 a.m. EST, when its disk will be exactly 50 percent illuminated. How does it brightness compare at that moment with when it’s full?
Most would believe it’s half as bright, but in reality astronomers tell us that the last quarter moon is […]

Expanded use of biofuels could cut global warming pollution, enhance our energy security, and strengthen local economies, but a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that not all biofuels are created equal. Any expansion of alternative fuel production must be accompanied by standards that account for each fuel’s full global warming impact—in […]

The language of science, like that of the United Nations, is by nature cautious and measured. That makes the dire tone of the just-released final report from the fourth assessment of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a network of thousands of international scientists, all the more striking. Global warming is “unequivocal.” Climate […]

Apple’s iPod Nano may be small, but now researchers have made a radio that really deserves the title “nano.”
A carbon nanotube—a hollow, tube-shaped molecule 10,000 times smaller than a human hair—can perform all the basic functions of a radio when it’s wired up to a few other simple parts, a new study shows.
Nanotube Made into […]

I find myself becoming more and more annoyed with the shortsightedness of the so-called “green” special interest groups. So many of their causes are beside the point, compared with the issue of climate change, and yet they continue to beat their individual tin drums over issues like whether people should wear furs, whether the Pecos […]

There is a simple fact about energy that most people who are uneducated in science simply don’t grasp: fuel is just a way of getting energy from the point where it is collected to the place where it’s going to be used. That is just as true of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen of […]