Hypothesis: Scientists have a superior ability to root out gender bias in their labs because they are trained to rigorously reject subjective criteria. Experimental result: Naaahhh. Yale University researchers asked 127 scientists to review a job application of identically qualified male and female students and found that the faculty members – both men and women…
Using an innocuous bacterial virus, bioengineers have created a biological mechanism to send genetic messages from cell to cell. The system greatly increases the complexity and amount of data that can be communicated between cells and could lead to greater control of biological functions within cell communities. The researchers, Monica Ortiz, a doctoral candidate in…
There seems to be little that distinguishes the indigenous Tsimane of northern Bolivia from dozens of other native Amazonian peoples. They still live in small communities, fishing daily, hunting and relying on subsistence farming. They remain relatively isolated from the outside world. They still have large families and fall victim to parasites, worms and infectious…
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence that the area in Gale crater it is traveling through once had vigorously flowing water for perhaps thousands or millions of years. Scientists don’t know exactly how long ago this river would have flowed but it would likely be billions of years in the past. Several pieces of evidence…
Supermassive black holes appear to occupy the center of almost all galaxies. When they are actively swallowing matter, these black holes can power energetic jets that shine brighter than the entire rest of the galaxy, and can shoot matter free of it. Despite the mass and energy involved, however, the origin of these jets has…
Climate change is already contributing to the deaths of nearly 400,000 people a year and costing the world more than $1.2 trillion, wiping 1.6% annually from global GDP, according to a new study. The impacts are being felt most keenly in developing countries, according to the research, where damage to agricultural production from extreme weather…
An ancient Buddhist statue that was recovered by a Nazi expedition in the 1930s was originally carved from a highly valuable meteorite. Researchers say the 1,000-year-old object with a swastika on its stomach is made from a rare form of iron with a high content of nickel. They believe it is part of the Chinga…
An 8.7 earthquake that struck west of Indonesia on April 11 was the biggest of its kind ever recorded and confirms suspicions that a giant tectonic plate is breaking up, scientists believe. The quake, caused by an unprecedented quadruple-fault rupture, gave Earth’s crustal mosaic such a shock that it unleashed quakes around the world nearly…
From Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie’s blog at Huffington Post: The Yom Kippur liturgy does not allow one to focus on the fun of religion and to push aside the reality of evil and sin. The words are utterly uncompromising. They do not speak of sin broadly and abstractly, but concretely and specifically, thus forcing a…
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has just published a study criticizing Fox News Channel and the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section for misleading coverage of the climate change issue. Jumping straight to the key findings: Over a recent six-month period, 93% of Fox News Channel’s representations of climate science were misleading (37 out of…