Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Source: Nature — Aug 11, 2010 Early hominins were using stone tools to butcher meat as long ago as 3.4 million years, about 800,000 years earlier than previous evidence dates to, scientists report in this week’s issue of Nature. The finding comes from an examination of animal bones found last year in the Lower Awash … Read more
Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower — the Perseid meteor shower — makes its appearance. The “shooting stars” promise to deliver an excellent show this year to anyone with clear and dark skies away from urban and suburban lights. The best time … Read more
Source: New York Times — Aug 6, 2010 Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells. By inactivating two genes that work to suppress tumors, a research group at Stanford University got mouse muscle cells to revert to a younger state, start dividing and … Read more
[This is a repost from the Harvard Gazette … original here] Harvard researchers have uncovered a mechanism through which caloric restriction and exercise delay some of the debilitating effects of aging by rejuvenating the connections between nerves and the muscles that they control. The research, conducted in the labs of Joshua Sanes and Jeff Lichtman, … Read more
The Westboro Baptist church truly push the boat of intolerance far out into uncharted territories and are best known for picketing funerals. Yes, you did indeed read that correctly, under the cover of the US first amendment right to freedom of speech they excel at being truly offensive by turning up at funerals and holding … Read more
Does smoking cause or cure Alzheimer’s? There is a great deal of confusion in this area and a sufficient degree of fuzziness to allow those who do smoke to feel sure that they can cite this one benefit as a reason not to quit, but is it really true? Here is a link to a … Read more