The dramatic increase in obesity over the past few decades has been tightly associated with an increase in obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Of course,…

17 percent of all sun-like stars have planets one to two times the diameter of Earth orbiting close to their host stars, according to a team of astronomers who created their estimate based on an…

For decades, the consensus among psychologists has held that a group of five personality traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism - are a universal…

Female athletes are three times more likely than men to suffer anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures, one of the most common knee injuries.   Studies have found that pre-season and ongoing…

It's not as fun as the Martini Diet but more scientific than the Tapeworm Diet. A new paper says that parasitic worm infections, a major cause of disease and disability throughout much of the…

Some years ago, I was a bit mystified as to the distinction between prebiotics and probiotics.  These days, one can easily look them up on Wikipedia, and find that prebiotics are meant to…

In biology, you learned that the penicillin-producing mold fungus Penicillium chrysogenum only reproduces asexually through spores - it has been taught that way for much of the last century. But a…

I just read with interest and awe the nice article appeared today in the arxiv about the search for dark matter annihilation in the sun's core by the Baksan Underground Scintillator Telescope (BUST…

“A woodpecker is known to drum the hard woody surface of a tree at a rate of 18 to 22 times per second with a deceleration of 1200 g, yet with no sign of blackout or brain damage.” Suggesting, to…

There has been a debate on morality brewing of late over at LessWrong. As readers of this blog know, I am not particularly sympathetic to that outlet (despite the fact that two of my…