Early in 1986, I snuck out of bed and turned on the ancient black-and-white television set close to my bedroom. Only eight years old, I sat down to watch a PBS special. The Voyager 2 spacecraft was about to send back the first close-up pictures of the planet Uranus. Even at that young age, I [...]

Autism is not caused by vaccination. Autism is not caused by vaccination. Autism is not caused by vaccination. Autism is not caused by vaccination. Autism is not caused by vaccination. Autism is not caused by vaccination: …..a special federal court ruled Thursday that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and vaccines that contained a mercury-based preservative were not [...]

Human understanding of life has come in spurts, separated by decades of consolidation and grappling with new data or new ways of thinking about biology. We’re, right now, in midst of another spurt in our understanding of life.

With Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) protesting Lark over Foie Gras, and the (expected) backlash, I feel like it’s time to have a pro-animal rights post. Not pro-NARN, mind you. I want to praise the animal rights activists who created, implemented and supported the research animal use regulations. Rather than go after an outright ban [...]

The optimistic among us assume that, eventually, new technology or new political movements will stop carbon release into the atmosphere. One of the comforting assumptions about climate change is that the effects of humans putting carbon into the atmosphere can be reversed. Plants remove carbon from the atmosphere, right? So, if we just stop adding more, eventually carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere should drop, and the adverse climate changes should reverse.

Nope.

New research reveals there is hope for Mars yet. The first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars indicates the planet is still alive, in either a biologic or geologic sense, according to a team of NASA and university scientists. “Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, [...]

Wonder no more. University of Washington climate scientist David Battisti looked at 23 of the best computational models of the climate available to predict the effect of climate change on global crop yields by the end of this century. The results? Our results show that it is highly likely (greater than 90% chance) that growing [...]

This just in to the Dear Science SNOWPOCALYPSE 2008 ™ (Hannukah eve again, bitches) crisis center war room control: Dear Science, Do AWD or 4WD help me STOP my vehicle faster in inclement weather? I’ve always assumed that even with my extra weight and wider tires this was true… hence my absent mindedness when tailgating [...]

First, Science Magazine is both impressed and disgusted by the clever chemistry behind melamine finding its way into infant formula: A weeks-long investigation into China’s tainted milk scandal has left scientists astonished by the technical sophistication of those who used melamine to adulterate food products. Chinese investigators, meanwhile, are puzzling over the precise mechanisms of [...]

I asked you to help me with an experiment as a follow up to a recent column on mutation. Here are the results: (Click on the image for a full-sized version.) Ultimately, I decided to not filter out all of the noise comments (including my own) that weren’t attempts to copy the original. Almost all [...]