One in six cellphones in Britain may be contaminated with fecal matter that can spread E. coli, likely because so many people don't wash their hands properly after using the toilet, according to  researchers at the London School of Hygiene&Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London.

The findings also suggest that many people lie about their hygiene habits. The study authors went to 12 cities and collected 390 samples from the cellphones and hands of volunteers, who were also asked about their hand-washing habits.

Neuroscientist Bradley Voytek recently got asked why a person can't individually control their toes.  Well, I never thought about it before - I don't have great need to use individual toes in some prehensile fashion but perhaps that is only because I can't.

Voytek says the primary motor cortex is the issue and shows us all about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to boot.

We've all heard of politicizing science, like when tobacco companies cast doubt on the scientific evidence for a connection between tobacco and lung cancer or environmental groups try to cast doubt on the benefits of GMO foods.

But in the case of Yucca Mountain, the reverse happened: Government officials "scientized" politics. They made decisions that were largely political but cloaked them in the garb of science.

Long ago, in a galaxy very, very near (because it was this one) we all talked like Yoda from "Star Wars", one hypothesis suggests.

The original "proto-human language", linguists contend, used subject-object-verb (SOV) ordering, with some variation.  So when prehistoric men met prehistoric women, he likely said, "Make out with me you will."

The researchers came to their conclusion after creating a language family tree, which shows the historical relationships between all the languages of the world.

The Original Human Language Like Yoda Sounded by Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries

If you're in the life sciences, you have like heard of The Scientist.  After 25 years of making a go of it, they announced they are closing the doors.

It's a tough market out there, as we can attest.  If we had 2008 advertising rates and 2011 traffic, we would be making pretty darn good money.  I have no idea how companies with expensive midtown Manhattan offices do it.   Well, they have a sales force and we don't, and multiple publications.   But you get the idea.  It's always a difficult market for science; Henry Donahue, former CEO of Discover, once said to me over coffee, "I think media buyers went into that business because they hate science."

Pity Pittsburgh. The Steelers are not having a good year and don't even get me started on the Pirates.  I got to wear my baseball jersey out of pride rather than defiance for the first time since Barry Bonds left for free agency - and then the first week of August arrived and they remembered they were the Pirates.

It's not even great to be a bridge in the Steel City which, since there is really no steel any more, is more accurately a City of Bridges.

Outside the city, in North Beaver township, thieves just stole a 50-foot-long bridge.  The whole thing.  It was a private bridge and made of corrugated steel.  Value?  About $100,000.

Sarah Churman: “I had an implant put in 8 weeks ago called The Esteem Implant by Envoy Medical. I was born deaf and have worn hearing aids from the age of 2, but hearing aids only help so much. I have gotten by this long in life by reading lips. This was taken as they were activating the implant.”

Her husband recorded the moment her hearing implant is activated:

People want to live in important times and no one has more acolytes than Steve Jobs - he can do no wrong.  When he was caught illegally giving himself stock options, which other CEOs went to jail for, he simply gave them back and even his most progressively anti-corporate fans dismissed the problem because the stock did not go down.   

The more centralized the power, the easier corruption becomes.  Hu Zhicheng, a Chinese-born American scientist who returned to China to bring some entrepreneurship to the Communist world superpower, discovered the dark side of that.

Chinese companies cultivate influence with local officials and use law enforcement and a malleable legal system as competitive weapons and, because a business civil claim in the US is a criminal one in China, competitors can make sure you never get back home if you try to compete there.

There are other cases like Hu's, the US embassy said, without specifying how many.   Obviously quiet lobbying has not worked so maybe some international attention will.