Science & Society

The CSI Approach To Solving Hospital Infections

Researchers at Deventer Hospital recently tried Luminol, a chemical used by crime scene investigators, to detect traces of blood in their haemodialysis unit. Luminol reacts with microscopic amounts of blood to produce bright blue luminescence, which allows ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2008 - 10:27am

What Elevators Can Teach Us About Superstition

Maybe I’ve had elevators on my mind because the one in our building has gone through endless repairs of late, none of which apparently improved its speed or reliability. Or perhaps you simply cannot live in New York City without taking into account elevat ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Sep 19 2011 - 4:33pm

8 New Human Genomes Find Previously Unknown Human DNA

A nationwide consortium has completed the first sequence-based map of structural variations in the human genome, giving scientists an overall picture of the large-scale differences in DNA between individuals. The project gives researchers a guide for furth ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2008 - 11:57pm

Theory- Evolution Is Like A Darwinian Protection Racket

Evolution is like the mafia, according to Omar Tonsi Eldakar and David Sloan Wilson at Binghamton University. Altruists(the exploited) ‘pay’ the the punishers of the selfish(exploiters) by allowing themselves to be exploited, while the selfish punishers re ...

Article - News Staff - May 1 2008 - 10:32pm

Microsoft Withdraws Proposal To Acquire Yahoo!

REDMOND, Washington, May 4 /PRNewswire/-- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO). "We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! ...

Article - Anna Ohlden - May 3 2008 - 8:55pm

Mulch And Teacher Cell Phones- Some Surprising Reasons For Childhood Obesity (Diet Not Mentioned)

With over half of U.S. children ages 3-6 in child care centers, growing concern over childhood obesity has led physicians to focus on whether children are getting enough physical activity and a new study of outdoor physical activity at child care centers, ...

Article - News Staff - May 5 2008 - 8:29pm

Golden Ratio Attractiveness Crosses Cultural Boundaries

In humans, faces are an important source of social information. One property of faces that is rapidly noticed is attractiveness. Research has highlighted symmetry and sexual dimorphism (how masculine/feminine a face is) as important variables that determin ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2008 - 7:56pm

The Ocean Of Spacetime And The Higgs

With the Large Hadron Collider gearing up for its first test run this summer, physicists hope to discover the last missing particle predicted by the Electroweak theory, the Higgs boson.  Wrapped up in its own big theory, the Higgs Mechanism or Higgs Field ...

Article - Alan Gillis - Sep 1 2008 - 9:40pm

Teen Makes Simple DNA Fingerprinting Using Common Food Dyes

Most teenagers wouldn’t have a clue what agarose gel electrophoresis means, but middle school student Andrew Trigiano does- and as a result he's the youngest author to ever publish in the American Society of Horticultural Science’s journal HortTechnol ...

Article - News Staff - May 13 2008 - 1:46pm

The NBA And Firing Coaches- Is There Racism?

Do black NBA coaches have a harder time getting hired and an easier time getting fired? Not according to a new University of Michigan study, though it did find that white coaches with losing records got slightly longer opportunities before being fired than ...

Article - News Staff - May 14 2008 - 11:38am