Scientists sometimes regret when the terms they use in a scientific way get a colloquial meaning.   In physics, Peter Higgs has to like his name recognition but might edit out references to a 'God particle' if he had it to do over again, and in biology a week doesn't go by that biologists won't complain that people misunderstand the term 'junk DNA.'

Well, 'junk' had a meaning before biology and everyone knew it - junk DNA in biology isn't garbage yet it dominates the genome and seems to lack specific functions. Why nature would force the genome to carry so much excess baggage is a puzzle still unsolved.

Cambridge University researchers have discovered that whether someone is a 'people-person' may depend on the structure of their brain: the greater the concentration of brain tissue in certain parts of the brain, the more likely they are to be a warm, sentimental person.   Interestingly, the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum have previously been shown to be important for the brain's processing of much simpler rewards like sweet tastes or sexual stimuli. 

LONDON, May 20 /PRNewswire/ --

- Imagination is more important than knowledge... Albert Einstein

If we adhere to the words of the great Albert Einstein we would be lead to believe that a person's imagination holds the key to any great discovery. Could then imagination be the key to fixing what knowledge could not?

In an unprecedented move a group of unnamed artists have sent waves through the world's fine arts communities as they sent out cheques equating to over 1 billion dollars heralding a defined message to the most prominent individuals of the art world.

What happens when a guy married to an art historian who dislikes religion writes a book using science?   "Angels&Demons", that's what.   It's the book Dan Brown wrote that made even less sense than "The DaVinci Code", because it was written before that blockbuster hit, even though the new movie seems like a sequel.  

Because it was written three years earlier, he had yet to refine his craft of jumbling vaguely non-specific pop social science with revisionist history - though he still knows he dislikes Catholics enough - and basically works in the expected conspiracy theory with some science as the weapon.

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, May 19 /PRNewswire/ --

InfraReDx, Inc. announced today the first use in patients of a novel coronary catheter that uses both light and sound to image coronary plaques. Working on a team led by Dr. Patrick Serruys, Dr. Martin van der Ent performed the procedures on May 11, 2009 in patients undergoing coronary angiography at the Thoraxcenter.

The politics of science is about more than just funding and science-based policy decisions: governments, and in particular the US Federal Government, are into science education in a big way, whether you like it or not. In fact, it's hard to see how the US government can avoid being in the science education business, even if it's not setting national standards for local schools: when people want to know about swine flu, they turn to the US Centers for Disease Control; the major science agencies, the NSF, NASA, NIH, DOE, are obligated (sometimes by law) to explain to the public how billions of dollars of research funds are being spent, and many of the US national parks have visitor centers that explain the science behind the parks' impressive natural wonders.

In the last few days I indulged in a rather technical description of the checks I made on DZERO's evaluation of the significance of their observation of Omega_b particles. In those occasions I did not discuss either what the Omega_b is, nor what is its relevance, nor the details of how DZERO collected a small but significant sample of events characterized by the production of that ephemeral particle.

LAS VEGAS, May 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Spirent Data Center Testing Solutions Deliver the Industry's Only Unified Layer 2-7 Test Architecture for High Performance Virtualized, Eco-Friendly Networks

"We have the habit, as humans, of only thinking that what we see is real", began Neil Tyson.  Our job as astronomers is to 'turn something invisible and make it real'.  His premise: space weather is important to study, but scientists also have to step up their game in communicating why this is important.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke at the 3rd Space Weather Enterprise Forum today.  As an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, part of his job is "when the universe flinches and the reporters come to knock on my door" it's "because there is a hunger" for science.

LAS VEGAS, May 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Spirent's Award Winning Solutions, Services Mitigate the Risk of Migration to New, Advanced Data Centers