I stumbled upon the song “Conquistador” today and was stunned by the parallels between Procol Harum’s lyrical references to the Vietnam War and current US military actions. How many decisive…

This short story is about a surprising effect: you put something on the web without much advertising for it - and it might find perhaps more users than if you publish it in a traditional Journal.…

History Mysteries #2 - The Sawdust Coast According to Peter Freuchen, writing of his travels in Siberia, circa 1936,  the tundra coast near Tiksi in the Lena Delta was fringed with logs and the…

Mabel and Shermer It took me a while to find this photo in my stream of thousands of photos because it's more than a month old. I've been reading Michael Shermer's latest book The Believing…

Once upon a time, tool use was considered to be a uniquely human feature, setting us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. But, when Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees using sticks to ‘fish’ for…

“I am going Nuts” introduced a misunderstood little gem, the Nutmeg, and expounded a little on its preparation. Pure myristicine without safrole, elemicin, and likely unknown ones inside nutmeg,…

Life is hard when you're cutting edge.  Coming up with a good topic and title for a Science 2.0 article is not easy.  Today I tried to conceive of a unique and insightful piece about a…

Just as struggling calculus students wonder if they will ever actually use their new proof-finding skills in real life, developing athletes may be curious if their endless practice drills will ever…

I've long said that what NASA needs is not a James Webb Space Telescope but an actual James Webb for the 21st century. Webb, if you are not familiar with NASA lore, was a bold leader rather than a…

In a letter to Nature, Mark Ptashne, Oliver Hobert, and Eric Davidson question an editorial that appeared in the journal (Nature). The editorial, focused on the International Human Epigenome…