Science & Society

Murder in the Courtroom

I was reading about recent excavations at Amheida, a buried city in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis, where it is beginning to appear that agricultural development was taking place before the settlement of the Nile valley and rise of the Pharaohs. I thereupon turned ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Jul 18 2009 - 2:15pm

Driving, Traffic, And The Two Second Rule

This is an oft mentioned safety rule that one should employ when driving to ensure an adequate distance is maintained with the vehicle in front of you. When conditions are wet or icy, the rule has been extended to recommend four seconds and up to 10 second ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Jul 21 2009 - 11:34pm

H. heidelbergensis like you've never seen it before

This is way better than the Geico Cavemen ads- Elisabeth Daynes' reconstructions of ancient hominins. Science Magazine featured her work in their July 10th issue. Her website has some great images. If you want an idea of what the human lineage might ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 22 2009 - 5:13pm

Did Jared Diamond Lie?

Two New Guinea men, Henep Isum Mandingo and Hup Daniel Wemp, have filed a $10 million defamation  suit against the New Yorker and Jared Diamond for a story the New Yorker printed called “ Annals of Anthropology: Vengeance Is Ours: What can tribal societie ...

Article - Nicholas Horton - Jul 24 2009 - 6:33pm

The Daytime Astronomer on Work/Life Balance

A colleague raised the issue of work-life balance.  He wrote: "I want to spend more time with my kids. My kids need to eat, so I work. Something needs to change so these things aren't mutually exclusive." Thinking on work/life balance is als ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Jul 25 2009 - 8:06am

Exploratorium: Origins (and Awesomeness)

As a science nerd, and as a science nerd with friends who are science teachers, I am always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to expose others to the beauty and wonder that is science and broaden their horizons in a concise, meaningful way. I was ...

Article - Becky Jungbauer - Jul 24 2009 - 7:17pm

A Nuke under the Mattress: Why Verification is Essential

If we are ever going to be sure that we won’t face Armageddon we need to get rid of all Weapons of Mass Destruction. That is a simple fact with one hugely difficult, time consuming and potentially impossible solution. However, in this article I wish to ta ...

Blog Post - Connor Davidson - Jul 25 2009 - 9:23am

Chemiosmosis: An Example Of Gary Herstein's Real Scientific Controversies

In his July 23 column, Gary Herstein presented a thoughtful discussion and analysis of scientific controversies (What Does A Real Scientific Controversy Look Like?), with an example from physics. Perhaps readers of Scientific Blogging will be interested i ...

Article - Dave Deamer - Jul 28 2009 - 12:32pm

Gullibility Is Bad For You (.org)

Those of you who know or follow me surely realize that I'm not exactly a guy with a lot of spare time on his hands. Yet, I just launched a  second blog  devoted to short entries (mostly a paragraph with an accompanying link) to document the fact that ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Jul 27 2009 - 4:01pm

First They Want To Kill Me, Now Discovery Channel Wants To Be Friends...

A few weeks ago, I got an eerie package from the folks who work for Discovery Channel; an obituary and clues to a mystery.  Turns out this was part of a big viral marketing campaign for their upcoming Shark Week. ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 27 2009 - 5:11pm