Exaggerated health claims are not convincing the public, and "medical" marijuana has become something of a running cultural joke, but there is an upside to more pot - less cocaine use. Meth too, according to advocates at the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. 

Or at least a group is correlating the two. Methamphetamine and cocaine consumption increased during the first half of the last decade and then dropped in the latter half. Marijuana use increased significantly during that time, according to a new report.

When advocates want governments to take over some aspect of society, the argument is often an economic one - the money saved will be a suitably cosmic number.

Yet in the trenches of government-run industries the reality is much different. Taxes are finite so committees learn to cut costs where they can. Older people, perhaps because they have already led full lives, are being denied proper access to cancer care, according to an editorial by Queen's University Belfast academic Professor Mark Lawler of the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology.

The most popular test for ovarian cancer reports false-positives in 94 of 100 diagnosed cases but researchers from the University of Copenhagen and University College London have developed a method able to halve that. 

When fully developed, the new test will spare a significant number of women from unnecessary worry and further testing. Furthermore, global health care providers stand to save substantial sums – just by including a test on a certain sugar molecule in tandem with the currently prevailing diagnostic test.

Calling H.P. Lovecraft: Galaxies in the vast empty regions of the Universe are actually aligned into tendrils. 

A team of astronomers based at The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has found short strings of faint galaxies in what were previously thought to be extremely empty parts of space. The Universe is full of vast collections of galaxies that are arranged into an intricate web of clusters and nodes connected by long strings. This remarkably organized structure is often called the 'cosmic web', with busy intersections of galaxies surrounding vast spaces, empty of anything visible to us on Earth.

Dr. Anne Glover, the European Union's first chief scientific adviser, said when she got the job that her first priority was to stop letting environmental pressure groups suppress science. Modern Europe fears what is new, is consumed with a naturalistic fallacy, and in addition engages in persecution of scientists (such as when they don't predict an earthquake) not seen in hundreds of years.

It's going to be a crippling problem. Plant pests and diseases have always evolved and picking an arbitrary point in time and declaring that science development must stop there will bring devastating results.

I keep hearing that Notre Dame philosopher and theologian Alvin Plantinga is a really smart guy, capable of powerfully subtle arguments about theism and Christianity. But every time I look, I am dismayed by what I see. If this is the best that theology can do, theology is in big trouble. (Well, to be fair, it has been at least since David Hume.)

Playing fair is an altruistic behavior - we sacrifice our own potential gain to give others what they deserve.  It's persisted since man has existed, so is it biological or social?

Regardless, it's still nice. No one is against fairness except people who have earned less of something and think others should reward them for it. And it may not even be altruistic. Northeastern University assistant professor of philosophy Rory Smead suggests another, darker origin behind fairness.  Spite.

How can you find a gay person?

It's easy, just look on television. After the successes of "Will  &  Grace" and "Modern Family", networks have been putting gay characters everywhere they can. When the new comedy series "Whitney" flagged in the ratings, they even turned a married straight may gay because executives apparently think people want to watch gay characters on sit-coms rather than funny ones. The cancellation of "Sean Saves the World" shows that isn't true.

Outside network television gimmicks and stereotypes, can you really tell if someone is gay? The phenomenon called "gaydar" is colloquially confirmed, course, but those are in obvious cases. Can someone tell if the other person does not want it to be known they are gay?

Harvard stem cell scientists have successfully converted skins cells from patients with early-onset Alzheimer's into the types of neurons that are affected by the disease, making it possible for the first time to study this leading form of dementia in living human cells. This may also make it possible to develop therapies far more quickly and accurately than before.

Just like adults, children as young as 3 tend to judge an individual's character traits, such as trustworthiness and competence, simply by looking at the person's face, new research shows. And they show remarkable consensus in the judgments they make, the findings suggest.

The research, led by psychological scientist Emily Cogsdill of Harvard University, shows that the predisposition to judge others based on physical features starts early in childhood and does not require years of social experience. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.