Researchers have created a device which potentially can see one molecule though a simple optical system and can analyze its components within minutes. It uses plasmonics, the study of vibrations of electrons in different materials, and could allow for rapid and more accurate drug testing for professional athletes because it could detect the presence of even trace amounts of a substance.

It could also be used at airports or other high-security locations to prevent would-be terrorists from concealing explosives or traffickers from smuggling drugs. 

What was the backbone of early tetrapods, the earliest four-legged animals, like?

High-energy X-rays and a new data extraction protocol have allowed researchers to reconstruct the backbones of the 360 million year old fossils in exceptional detail. The results shed new light on how the first vertebrates moved from water onto land. 

Tetrapods are four-limbed vertebrates,today represented by amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Around 400 million years ago, early tetrapods were the first vertebrates to make short excursions into shallower waters where they used their four limbs for moving around. How this happened and how they then transferred to land is the science debate.

Any time the subject of taxes comes up with respect to economics we are invariably treated to examples such as the following, to illustrate how government revenue has an effect on the economy.  Of course, this is all smoke and mirrors nonsense, but nevertheless it seems plausible enough so that many people don't consider the absurdity of these examples.

In the first instance, we are treated to the supposition of what society would be like without taxation.

Regulars to this blog know I am partial to game theory. The very idea that mathematical reasoning can teach us a thing or two about the strategies we deploy in social interactions, is most intriguing. Game theory recognizes that humans do possess rational and selfish characteristics, and builds models describing human decisions based on no more than these two characteristics. This minimalistic approach teaches us a lot about the character of economic behavior and the emergence of strategies build on cooperation, retaliation, etc.

 A new treatment, BETMIGA (mirabegron) has received approval from the European Commission (EC) for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms in adults.

The only thing that might have saved a sequel like "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, Jr."(1) was putting it in space. If you put ":In Space" at the end of anything, it gains instant credibility it might otherwise not have. (see The Muppets)(2)

But some people, like Abraham Lincoln, don't need more credibility, they are already heroic.  So making Lincoln a Vampire Hunter is just showing off. And Albert Einstein doesn't need to go into space - but maybe his iconic formula, E=mc^2, does.

In the post-genomic era, 'omic' technology, and marketing claims to match, promise to understand the biology of various diseases. Metabolomics seeks to look at the chemical fingerprints that cellular processes leave behind and does so through characterization of the small molecule metabolites.

Astronomers using  using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico, and data from NASA's Spitzer and WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) satellites have discovered hundreds of previously-unknown sites of massive star formation in the Milky Way, including the most distant such objects yet found in our home Galaxy.

The scientists found regions where massive young stars or clusters of such stars are forming. These regions, which astronomers call HII (H-two) regions, serve as markers of the Galaxy's structure, including its spiral arms and central bar.

Why has less than half of the USA gotten a flu shot, when 41 states have reported widespread, severe outbreaks of the flu?

Some of the reason is availability. They aren't going to make any more, either. Another culprit is a growing anti-vaccine movement, typified in coastal California's whooping cough outbreaks.

It's not an awareness issue. Despite widespread knowledge that a vaccine is the best way to reduce the chances of catching and spreading the flu, three of the four main NBC TODAY morning show anchors recently admitted they had not gotten a flu shot - then they did so live on the air.

Astronomers have used the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes to simultaneously to peer into the stormy atmosphere of the brown dwarf called  2MASSJ22282889-431026, creating the most detailed "weather map" yet for this class of strange, not-quite-star-and-not-quite-planet objects. The forecast shows wind-driven, planet-sized clouds enshrouding these strange worlds - forever.