Observations
How a Flawed Experiment “Proved” That Free Will Doesn’t Exist
It did no such thing—but the result has become conventional wisdom nevertheless
Blogs
Observations
Could Fruit Flies Reveal the Hidden Mechanisms of the Mind?
New understandings in neurobiology are emerging from experiments on Drosophila, raising hopes the tiny insect will aid insights into human cognition and dementia
Observations
Long Live the Multiverse!
The idea that our universe is just part of a much vaster cosmos has a long history—and it’s still very much with us
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Bluefin tuna: Headed for extinction in the Atlantic and Mediterranean
The international commission charged with saving the once abundant bluefin tuna of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea is meeting this week in Morocco to discuss ways to reverse the decline of the dwindling fish...
Daschle to be health secretary under Obama
President-elect Barack Obama has tapped former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health, the Associated Press is reporting.
The soft-spoken Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat who served in the Senate from 1986 until his surprising defeat in 2004, urged Obama to make a run for the White House and was a close adviser during his campaign...
Obama won't Bush-whack climate change
You may recall that President George W. Bush pledged to do something about climate change when campaigning for the presidency back in 2000—but reneged on that promise once in office...
New space litter: Astronaut loses tool bag
Bye-bye, grease gun.
An astronaut cleaning a solar rotary joint on the International Space Station lost her 30-pound tool bag yesterday, sending two grease guns, a scraper, a garbage bag and wipes into the cosmos, NASA reports...
Antarctic balloon on the trail of dark matter?
New results from an instrument that detects energetic particles in the upper altitudes above Antarctica show an excess of cosmic-ray electrons that may be a signal of dark matter, researchers say...
A transplant first: Stem-cell-grown trachea gives woman new vigor
A 30-year-old Colombian woman with damaged airways is healthy months after receiving what European doctors are reporting is a first-ever, stem-cell-based windpipe transplant.
Is global warming forcing Bigfoot to move north?
If you were a nine-foot tall animal covered in dense fur – say, Bigfoot – you would probably seek cooler climes if temps began inching up.
Tobacco settlement money squandered by states, advocates charge
Alaska is making the best use of cigarette taxes and Big Tobacco settlement money distributed to states in the decade after authorities negotiated a deal with the companies over smoking-related health costs incurred by the states, according to a new report released today by a coalition of advocacy groups...
A video game that's so real, it may make you vomit
It's been in stores for only one week, but Mirror's Edge (a first-person video game developed by Electronic Arts, Inc.) is apparently causing quite a stir.
Antimatter machine: Are you ready, 007?
It sounds like something a villain might construct in a James Bond film: a laser, trained on a thin gold target, that churns out antimatter to annihilate ordinary matter.
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A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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