Chitin is a molecule that forms hard structures like fungal cell walls and the exoskeletons of invertebrates such as insects and crustaceans. It forms a strong and pliable material that is…

A generation ago, environmental activists declared war on yet another field of science - astronomy. A new telescope was going to disrupt a squirrel, they alleged, and so astronomy abandoned places in…

Why did the earliest side-scrolling games go left to right? From the 1980s on, they seemed to do that. And in the western world people write left to right. That is enough for psychologist Dr. Peter…

Almost any farmer or consumer could agree on the following ideals for our agricultural system: "Farming in ways that are best for us, best for the environment, and best for providing an…

Dr. Harold Roy-Macauley, new Director General of AfricaRice, doesn't want to just improve rice science for Africa, he wants to make the continent a world leader in it. The rice sector in Africa is…

Mutations in the presenilin-1 gene are the most common cause of inherited, early-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease. In a new study, published in Neuron, scientists replaced the normal mouse…

Where you receive medical care impacts many things - including whether or not you receive inappropriate medical tests, according to a new study. Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and its…

oday marked the publication of the first ever genome-wide association study of rosacea, a common and incurable skin disorder. Led by Dr. Anne Lynn S. Chang of Stanford University's School of Medicine…

The human eye is optimized to have good color vision at day and high sensitivity at night.  But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light…

I’ve probably lost count of the number of ‘WATER ON MARS’ and related headlines I’ve read over the years. It’s an interesting case study of how a scientific theory gains support as more evidence is…