Think University of Nottingham students enjoy a pint on occasion?   It's a safe bet, since the school is putting in a fully-functioning brewery, and brewing must be a key contributor to the East Midlands economy since it boasts some 78 small or medium sized micro-breweries.  

You're all either old enough or young enough to remember "Where's Waldo?"   It involved a lovable scamp with glasses who would get himself trapped in awfully complex situations and only keen eyes could rescue him.

We have our own lovable scamp, sans glasses, and his name is Garth Sundem.   If you haven't seen Garth be lovable, watch this clip from his show on the Science Channel.  I'll wait.  

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 bested today by aforementioned science teacher extraordinaire (and best friend) Maggie Nufer, who sent me a site that fulfills all criteria, and as a bonus is aesthetically pleasing (the site, I mean, but Maggie is too).

A surprising impact on Jupiter is big news this past week.   The eyes of the entire space world have been riveted on the discovery of amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Canberra, Australia.   Now Hubble is in on the act and has provided the clearest picture yet.

One component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AKA: Stimulus Package) still making its way through the pipeline is 250 million for the development of statewide longitudinal data systems managed by the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences.

Less stable materials may not sound like a great thing for your car but they may be the solution to producing a clean-running hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. More on that in just a minute. First, let's talk about where things are in clean energy.

If you've read this site for more than five minutes you know I believe it's better to spend money researching legitimate clean energy rather than porkbarrelling environmental activism darlings like ethanol, wind energy, solar panels and CFL bulbs. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles can not only be an important part of the solution to America's energy crisis, they can eliminate it ... but challenges remain.

In addition to shark attacks and boredom-related deaths due to mid-season baseball, the summer months are the time of food poisoning. If you live in Florida or California, you should be especially vigilant, as you are susceptible to all three (the most baseball teams, the most shark-infested beaches, and—according to the CDC—the most restaurant outbreaks of food poisoning, with a combined 143 in 2007).

In all, the CDC estimates that food-borne diseases every year cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths (salmonella alone costs the United States upwards of $5 billion annually in medical care and lost productivity).

One can only imagine the sheer volume of liquid effluvium generated by these 76 million people.

Everyone is concerned about dwindling fossil fuel resources and current levels of petroleum consumption but pressure to shift to more sustainable energy sources has led to lobbyists and bigger government programs, not a better environment.

The best approach may be suited to regional conditions - some areas may use solar, some wind or geothermal, some nuclear.   There won't be a knockout technology that is a good fit  for everyone.  

What wind, solar, and geothermal power need to be useful to the masses is conversion into appropriate forms for distributing electricity. Electric power can already be distributed efficiently but conversion is necessary for use in automobiles and large-scale storage is problematic.

As antibiotic resistances continue evolve in a smaller world they become a more difficult problem to eradicate.

Acquisition of mutations is one of the ways by which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. But this comes with a cost: although crucial for bacteria survival in a medium with antibiotics, in its absence bacteria growth rate is reduced. Although it is not possible to impaired bacteria to evolve and adapt to the environment, it is possible to choose the type of selective pressure (antibiotics) to administrate and, in this way, alter the course of evolution to our favor.

A new study shows the importance of knowing the costs of multi-resistance to find the best antibiotic combinations - the ones that carry more costs to the bacteria.