Toni Vernelli thinks babies are not very eco-friendly.  She doesn't want to kill the planet but killing a baby seems to be okay.   Still, she's going to get some cultural flak for having an…

10 papers outlining psychological research on how a simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behavior, attraction, and signal power. To get around in the world, we mainly rely…

In 1,993 responses to a Sex Survey questionnaire, responses consisted of 1,351 males and 642 females.   Progressives were over-represented (N=973), while Conservatives were under-…

Ethnobotany is defined as the study of the relationship between people and plants and most commonly refers to the study of indigenous uses of plants. In other words, it is the marriage between…

With all the huge (and sadly tragic, in some cases) storms we have had in mostly the middle to eastern portions of the United States this Spring, many opportunities arise to see natural events rarely…

A few months ago LHC took a special run of proton-proton collisions at  2.76 TeV. Why the lower energy, now that we are accustomed to searching for new phenomena at the highest available energy…

Just a short post to mention that the Large Hadron Collider has reached tonight the top instantaneous luminosity of 1.075 * 10^33 cm^-2 s^-1. This is a new record for high-energy hadron colliders,…

Last year, the market squid off California were so abundant that the fishery actually reached its quota for the first time in history. Normally, squid fishing season is April 1st to March 31st--yep,…

These days, there are only two types of pirates that are important: Somali pirates and the "Pirates Of The Caribbean." As many teachers warn their students, Somali pirates are nowhere near as lovable…

If you haven't seen "Thor", I am not spoiling the movie for you if I tell you Natale Portman's character is an astronomer.   So what, you ask?   Indeed, Jodie Foster was an astronomer in "…