Do pets make you sneeze? Well, you’re not alone: an estimated ten percent of the population is allergic to animals. And the animal responsible for the majority of those allergies is Felis domesticus–your basic household cat. Being the cat person that I am, this strikes me as a terrible, terrible, thing, worthy of serious research. …
According to a psychiatrist who’s an expert in attention deficit disorder, a related disorder he calls attention deficit trait is reaching epidemic proportions in our fast-paced world, where the constant data input from computers, cell phones and more is diluting our mental powers and wrecking our ability to think deeply and be creative. I’d write …
The Hugo and Campbell Awards Nominations have been announced. Oddly enough, I am not on the list.
Michael S. Malone says newspapers are dead–they just haven’t realized it yet. I hate to say it, as an old newspaper hand, but I think he’s right, at least in the traditional form. I get almost all of my international news online now, and many days I barely skim the two newspapers I get–papers I …
Literally a revolutionary bridge in this case–i.e., not a bridge that revolutionized engineering, or anything like that, but a bridge that was built by continental soldiers during the American Revolution. I’d not heard of it before. Sometimes I wish I wrote a history column instead of a science column–my favorite part of researching many of …
Here’s the official CBC Web site for the new Doctor Who series, premiering in North America on Tuesday, April 5, at 8 p.m. on CBC TV. I’m pumped!
Nanoscale polymer beads, first developed as sensors to explore and monitor cellular processes, now hold promise for diagnosing and treating cancer. Excellent news, bravo, etc. But that’s not the main reason I’m blogging about it. I was just taken with the acronym they come up with for these little beads: PEBBLEs. Catchy, eh? It stands …
Here’s a gorgeous site dedicated to a century of American illustration. Beautiful! I found it through Althouse.
Scientists have discovered soft tissue preserved in a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil bone. Amazing!
Following in the footprints of the X-Prize, NASA has announced its first Centennial Challenges. The Tether Challenge calls on inventors to create a material light enough and strong enough to be part of space elevators. The Beam Power Challenge is designed to encourage inventors to find a way to wirelessly beam a robot enough power …
Oh, great, I’m writing a book on genetics, and those darn scientists are rewriting the basic laws of inheritance. Can’t they just leave well enough alone? At least until the book is published? (Which may be never, if I don’t pick up the pace…)
A Boston University research team has found evidence that naturally high level of blood cholesterol lead to better mental functioning. At least, right up until you drop dead of a heart attack.
