Most people know that we have tried to judge what may happen during global warming by creating gigantic models of the Earth system, and see how it responds to forcing from different factors. Another…

Mauro Rubini and Paola Zaio studied skeletons from 234 graves in an early Medieval (6th-8th century) cemetery in Molise (south-central Italy). Based on grave goods, they suggest that the people…

If I ask a science audience to guess, off the tops of our collective heads, which state would hold an irrational science position that was not only boneheaded but downright dangerous to each other…

Domesticated rice, Oryza sativa indica (indica) and Oryza sativa japonica (japonica), are major staple crops in Asia.   Evolutionary biologists and historians have long wondered if both…

My pal Julie Stewart tags Humboldt squid. She catches squid, attaches little recording devices to them, then drops them back in the ocean and waits for the tag to pop off a few days later. When it…

The diving bell spider, Argyroneta aquatica, spend their entire lives underwater - they even lay their eggs in their 'diving bells'. A new study shows that each spider constructs a net of silk in…

I would show you pieces of pie, but no pie has stayed around long enough in this house to snap a picture of it. I tell you what  I'll do for my readers: when I'm shopping today, I'll buy some.…

In my previous post, I defended a 'post-modern' stance in science, as I consider quest for singular concepts to explain all kinds of things to be somewhat outdated. Or, to be more precise, it is…

Samuel George Morton (1799 – 1851) was an American physician and scientist, perhaps best known for his Crania Americana, in which he described the results of the measurements, with a focus on cranial…

Today's guess of the plot will be very poor of comments on my side, for reasons I will disclose in due time. Also, it is unfortunately a rather expert-only one, since it represents something that…