The Brain Seeing the Person Behind the Face
Feb 28, 2011 Space
Neuroscience sleuths are on the case of face blindness, a strange malady that makes some people unable to distinguish friend from foe.
Ugly US medical experiments uncovered
Feb 28, 2011 Space
Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital.
A shadow across the Shuttle (PIC)
Feb 28, 2011 Space
On Saturday, the Orbiter Discovery was in space, circling hundreds of kilometers above our planet. Here’s an interesting picture of it… but wait a sec! If it was in orbit, what could cast a shadow across it?
Funding the Final Frontier (Graphic)
Feb 28, 2011 Space
As the space shuttle Discovery travels through space on its final mission, NASA starts its next phase of discover with elevated promise and extravagant plans. With such high hopes, where will the money come from to fund it all?
Transgenic fungi may be able to combat malaria
Feb 28, 2011 Space
New findings indicate that a genetically engineered fungus carrying genes for a human anti-malarial antibody or a scorpion anti-malarial toxin could be a highly effective, specific and environmentally friendly tool for combating malaria, at a time when the effectiveness of current pesticides against malaria mosquitoes is declining.
Space Shuttle Launch: Viewed From an Airplane
Feb 28, 2011 Space
Flying from Orlando, FL I had the rare opportunity to be able to watch Discovery’s final launch as it embarks on STS-133.
Overfertilizing Corn Bad for Biofuel Crop Quality
Feb 28, 2011 Space
The researchers found that liberal use of nitrogen fertilizer to maximize grain yields from corn crops results in only marginally more usable cellulose from leaves and stems. And when the grain is used for food and the cellulose is processed for biofuel, pumping up the rate of nitrogen fertilization actually makes it more difficult to extract ethanol from corn leaves and stems
Science explains why humor turns women on
Feb 28, 2011 Space
We all know that women like funny guys (how else do you explain Woody Allen’s love life?), but empirical evidence for this phenomenon has been sorely lacking. Fortunately, in a recent study in the journal Psychological Reports, a French scientist took up the challenge of testing whether humor helps men pick up women.
People lock eyes to establish dominance
Feb 28, 2011 Space
New research suggests that the dominance behavior exhibited by staring someone down can be reflexive.