Happy Valentine’s Day! From: Heinz Kutzner (2001). For Valentine’s Day: Epithelial Sheath Neuroma Cancer, 91 (4)

153 years ago on November 24th a naturalist named Charles Darwin published a book with a rather long and cumbersome title. It was called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (for its sixth edition in 1872, the title was cut [...]

I have talked a lot about the need for scientists to reach out. In fact, next week, I’ll be giving a talk at the University of Washington about why scientists need social media. There are lots of reasons for this, but one of the big ones is that people don’t know who scientists are. Only [...]

In the wake of Science Online 2012, a new hashtag has emerged on twitter: #Iamscience. [View the story "A quick storify: #IAmScience" on Storify] I, too, am science. A few years ago, when I was about to begin my PhD, I wrote my I Am Science story. I am reposting it now, in honor of [...]

Whew. What a crazy week! Just 7 days ago, I hopped on a plane and began my long journey eastward to North Carolina to attend Science Online 2012. In case you aren’t familiar with the conference, Science Online is, as Christopher Mims said, like “a Burning Man for Science Journalists.” For me, this meant three [...]

Let’s rewind time back about 3.5 billion years. Our beloved planet looks nothing like the lush home we know today – it is a turbulent place, still undergoing the process of formation. Land is a fluid concept, consisting of molten lava flows being created and destroyed by massive volcanoes. The air is thick with toxic [...]

Recently, food columnist Ari Levaux wrote what can only be described as a completely unscientific article in The Atlantic claiming that microRNAs (miRNAs) are a “very real danger of GMOs.” I won’t go point by point through the horrendous inaccuracies in his piece, as Emily Willingham has more than hacked them to bits. But I [...]

One of the toughest concepts to grasp about evolution is its lack of direction. Take the classic image of the evolution of man, from knuckle-walking ape to strong, smart hunter: We view this as the natural progression of life. Truth is, there was no guarantee that some big brained primates in Africa would end up [...]

It’s 8:09 PM here in Hawaii – hours until we say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012. We’re one of the last to experience the ushering in of the new year, and thus I have had a lot of time to think about my new year’s post. I wanted to sum up 2011 in [...]

It’s almost 2012, and as we all know the world will be ending. I figure it’s as good a time as any to look back. So far this year… …I have posted 33 posts …which have gotten 269 comments …with visitors from more than 15 countries across the globe …and have been syndicated at BlogHer, [...]