Ferrari-Like Gears Move Your Muscles
January 20, 2013
A creative science reporter compares the "gears" of molecular motors in your muscle cells to those of high-performance cars.
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The Rapture and Bosh of Glittering Generalities
January 16, 2013
Grand scenarios of cosmic evolution sound angelic, but the devil is in the details. Neil Shubin needs to get real.
Monkey Pucker Logic
January 14, 2013
Scientists measured lip-smacking by macaques and concluded that's where human language came from. Is that logical? Only if an arbitrary requirement is imposed on scientific explanations.
Prune Fingers and Evolutionary Explanations
January 10, 2013
The ways various news organizations cover the same news story – why swimmers' fingers get wrinkled – provides a test case on whether evolutionary theory adds any value.
Wilt Thou? Not with Guards in the Chem Lab
January 7, 2013
Plants avoid wilting with pairs of guard cells performing chemical wizardry.
Faint Young Sun Paradox Solution Criticized
January 5, 2013
A proposed solution for keeping the Earth warm when the sun was 25% cooler leaves other evolutionists doubtful.
Happy New Biomimetics Year
January 4, 2013
The variety of design applications coming from the imitation of natural solutions continues to be astonishing.
What's Up with Alley Oop?
January 3, 2013
Here are some recent stories about human evolution. Some might deserve to be in the comics.
An Unexpected Forest Helper: Mistletoe
December 31, 2012
Long thought a tree-killing bane, parasitic mistletoe appears to do much more good than harm to a forest ecology.
Red Blood Cells Are Frisbees, Tanks and Wheels
December 30, 2012
Cells as commonplace as red blood cells still keep researchers wondering how they perform their job so well.
Nose Has Gain Control
December 28, 2012
Sound engineers know how to use gain control to avoid “redlining” or saturating the signal while amplifying weak but important signals. Your nose knows that trick, too. The sense of smell is complex because of the tremendous variety of odorant molecules that must be interpreted. Molecules that trigger signals in the initial neurons trigger a […]
Eugenics in Space
December 27, 2012
To "keep evolution on a favorable track," spacefaring humans may want to cull bad genes, a futurist says.
Carol of the Birds
December 24, 2012
Can birds make you happy? Some scientists think so, but why? There seems to be a connection between seeing birds in their natural habitat and a person’s sense of well-being, reported Science Daily. Whether that is true may be a function of the setting and species of bird (buzzards, ostriches probably not rating as high […]
Titan Is as Titan Does
December 23, 2012
Saturn's giant moon Titan keeps revealing mysterious dynamics in the here and now, leaving interpretation to fallible scientists who sometimes predicted otherwise.
The Holly and the I.D. – News from Epigenetics
December 21, 2012
Holly leaf shape may be due to epigenetic control – one of several recent developments in the field of epigenetics.