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Opioid Addicts Are Less Likely To Use Legal Opioids At The End Of Their Lives

With a porous southern border, street fentanyl continues to enter the United States and be purchased...

More Like Lizards: Claim That T. Rex Was As Smart As Monkeys Refuted

A year ago, corporate media promoted the provocative claim that dinosaurs like Tyrannorsaurus rex...

Study: Caloric Restriction In Humans And Aging

In mice, caloric restriction has been found to increase aging but obviously mice are not little...

Science Podcast Or Perish?

When we created the Science 2.0 movement, it quickly caught cultural fire. Blogging became the...

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The Sappy Mystery Of Mangrove Swamps

The Sappy Mystery Of Mangrove Swamps

Dec 13 2010 | comment(s)

The mechanisms are used by plants when they extract water from very dry or inhospitable land could provide insight into how to do the same thing more efficiently for people.

"In the case of mangrove swamps, for example, the plants are able to extract freshwater from a saltwater environment, despite the fact that the osmotic pressure should make quite the opposite happen," says Professor José Luis Pérez Díaz, who studies this type of relatively unknown phenomenon as part of a new line of research that the Department of Mechanical Engineering at  Carlos III University of Madrid has begun.
Navy Railgun Gets Tested - Get Ready For Science Fiction Warfare In 2025

Navy Railgun Gets Tested - Get Ready For Science Fiction Warfare In 2025

Dec 12 2010 | comment(s)

If you have read any science fiction, you know what a railgun is; instead of using a projectile hurled by an explosion, the idea is to use an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive bullet or artillery moves along electrically charged parallel rails out of the barrel at speeds as high as Mach 7. 

The result: a weapon that can hit a target 100 miles or more away within minutes, seven times as far as current ship-mounted guns.
Cloud Feedback Effect On Climate - A 10-Year Analysis

Cloud Feedback Effect On Climate - A 10-Year Analysis

Dec 11 2010 | comment(s)

The atmosphere is a complex system and therefore the exact amount of warming due to greenhouse gases is the subject of scientific debate but it is proven science that clouds amplify the warming effect and a new model provides more insight into specifics, though some prominent climate skeptics have recently been arguing that clouds would act to stabilize the climate, thereby preventing greenhouse gases from causing significant warming.
Maize Versus Fungi: And The Winner Is...

Maize Versus Fungi: And The Winner Is...

Dec 11 2010 | comment(s)

Most are unaware of it but the evolutionary arms race between plants and plant diseases is always happening around us.  Fungi are a major cause of plant diseases and are responsible for large-scale harvest failure in crops like maize and other cereals all over the world.  

Researchers analyzed the genetic make-up of Sporisorium reilianum, an important maize parasite. Based on a comparison with the genome of a related fungal species, they succeeded in identifying new genes in maize infestation. 
Fahrenheit -459 And The Sixth State Of Matter

Fahrenheit -459 And The Sixth State Of Matter

Dec 09 2010 | comment(s)

Everyone has heard of "Fahrenheit 451", the classic novel where big government gets its agenda by increasingly taking away rights in order to mandate fairness. 

This article has nothing to do with that.   Instead, it is about measurement of the viscosity of a gas at a few billionths of a degree Kelvin, or -459 degrees Fahrenheit.    Researchers have used lasers to contain ultra-chilled atoms and measured the viscosity or stickiness of a gas often considered to be the sixth state of matter. The measurements verify that this gas can be used as a "scale model" of exotic matter, such as super-high temperature superconductors, the nuclear matter of neutron stars, and even the state of matter created microseconds after the Big Bang.
My Two Dads - Literally

My Two Dads - Literally

Dec 09 2010 | comment(s)

"My two dads" is no longer just a lousy TV show.  Using induced pluripotent stem cell technology (controversy-free!) scientists have produced male and female mice from two fathers.

It isn't part of any cultural agenda, the intent was to preserve endangered species, but obviously it opens up the possibility of same-sex couples having their own genetic children.  The authors caution that the "generation of human iPS cells still requires significant refinements prior to their use for therapeutic purposes."