Surprising Science

As we mentioned in a previous post, Einstein himself was worried about the possibility that time travel was built into his General Theory of Relativity. In 1949, when his good friend […]

Absent legal protection, medical marijuana users are still subject to company drug policies which can result in being fired for drug use.

Researchers at the recent European Breast Cancer Conference said that up to one-third of cases could be prevented by a healthier diet and exercise regime.

In his Big Think interview, Freeman Dyson gladly discusses nearly the entire twentieth century: both its wonders (including almost miraculous advances in physics) and its horrors (for which, he says, […]

In March 2009, a federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reassess the arbitrarily imposed and scientifically unjustified age restrictions on access to emergency contraception (aka “the morning […]

A new study has revealed that humans’ ability to respond appropriately to intended harms – ie moral outrage and anger – is rooted in the brain region used for regulating emotions.

Today is world tuberculosis day, but there is “no better news” writes Global Post as complacency and lack of funding deter research into the disease.

The average American bra size has increased from 36C ten years ago to a whopping 36DD. Is this extraordinary surge one of the “up sides“ of a nation in the grip of an obesity crisis?

For generations, the topic of invisibility has been of great interest. Although it was once dismissed as science fiction, it has now become reality on a small scale. Physics textbooks around the […]

When Benoit Mandelbrot first began the work that led to the birth of fractal geometry, there was “an explosion of interest” from his colleagues. “Everybody in mathematics had given up […]

Is it time to accept that plenty of cancer-screening in the developed world is motivated by psychological needs, rather than fact? Screening addresses our fears of statistically unlikely horrors, which […]

Should abortion be permitted until the fetus’s birth? Bioethicist Jacob Appel believes so, arguing that any other guideline is too arbitrary to be legally justifiable, or enforceable. Indeed, his actual “philosophical […]

I am not one to endorse stereotypes based on ethnicity, nation or religion. Especially not the ones from the earliest Star Trek series, in which everyone in the galaxy either […]

Suspended animation, where an animal’s metabolism is slowed to seeming death, is no longer the stuff of Star Trek, says scientist Mark Roth who is pioneering research into it.

A key component in a popular Indian spice could delay liver damage and cirrhosis, according to a new study published in the research journal “Gut.”

While consolidating medical records into electronic databases might cut down on loose paper and red tape, one doctor argues the efficacy will be diminished because of privacy concerns.

This week’s installment of “The Future in Motion” features a clip from an interview with Dr. Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at CalTech. He and his team are busy developing […]

Physics is a process of rigorous, exhausting intellectual inquiry, but it does offer occasional moments that are “kind of fun.” For Harvard’s Lisa Randall, one such moment came when she […]

Eating walnuts slows the growth of prostate cancer in mice and has other beneficial effects on the multiple genes related to the control of tumor growth and metabolism.

Four men have agreed to be locked away in a steel container for 18 months in order to simulate a mission to Mars which will test the physical and mental stress of long spaceflight.

I would put Albert Einstein among the 20 top people who have ever lived, in terms of their impact on our way of life. Kings, queens, and emperors have come […]

The first ever research program of its kind, involving the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and HSBC Climate Partnership, has found rapid increases in tree growth in the US.

Seaweed could be the latest weapon in tackling the obesity crisis according to British scientists who’ve found it reduces fat absorption by up to 75 per cent.

Two votes on healthcare are scheduled in the House on Sunday as politicians navigate legislative procedure in an attempt to pass healthcare reform through the reconciliation process.

Short of a causal relationship, new research shows strong correlation between fat content in the body and occurrence rates for certain types of cancer.

NASA’s new goals were explored in New York last week in light of the reality that the manned spaceflight program has been scrapped. Is it really the end of Americans in space?

The vote count looks promising for Democrats as the Healthcare Reform Bill is scheduled for a vote in the House this Sunday in what has become a lesson in procedural politics.

A 10 year-old British boy has successfully received a transplanted windpipe that was treated with his own stem cells to prevent his body from rejecting the donated organ; the surgery is a major medical advance.

April 8th is the date when a satellite made from a converted Russian-Ukrainian nuclear missile will be sent into space to map the world’s ice fields in an effort to better understand global warming.

Twenty years on, the Department of Agriculture will beef up its enforcement of laws requiring organic food to be spot checked for pesticides responding to the industry’s rapid growth in recent years.