Clik here to view.
Do religious people think they’re nice? It depends on the country
Religion, at least in many people’s minds, is linked to prosocial behaviour. There’s some evidence that that’s true – at least in certain circumstances - but it's a little equivocalBut at least, we can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Free speech explained
Free speech is a difficult concept for many people, particularly those people who feel entitled to say anything they please because they are ludicrously rich. Exercising your freedom of speech is not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Search for alien life could remain fruitless
Given that we are unlikely to be visiting an exoplanet any time soon, astronomers have been contemplating whether it might be possible to detect indications of simple life – a biosignature – from a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Color of Light
Sunshine, to our human eyes the light appears white, but buried within are all the colors of the rainbow. In order for you or I to detect the colors that compose white light we need help. Shining light...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The structure of DNA, 61 years later: How they did it.
"A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", Nature, April 25, 1953 (Image: Oregon State University)This month marks the sixty-first anniversary of the publication of the landmark paper on the structure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Age of Cryptozoon – In Search of the “Hidden Life”
In the first edition of “On the Origin of Species” (1859) Darwin only briefly addresses the earliest known fossils, or better the lack thereof:“If the theory [of evolution] be true, it is indisputable...
View ArticleClik here to view.
May Day! Gorilla gardening day!
OK, OK, TPP knows it's guerilla not gorilla; thank Captain Ron and Martin Short for somehow implanting that transposition in my head. Elected morons are also trying to declare May 1 Unconstitutional...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why isn't competence regulated by the availability of DNA?
Most bacteria tightly regulate the genes that enable them to take up DNA from their surroundings. This makes sense, since the uptake machinery is complicated, probably expensive to produce, and may...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Weirdly strange and strangely weird
TPP is suffering from some disconcerting feelings. Usually things just sort of happen and TPP tries to just take them in stride, but nonetheless today feels strangely weird. Yesterday, Friday, was the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medicare data reveals that U.S. wastes half a billion dollars per year on...
Hold on, you're about to get "adjusted."Ten days ago, the federal government released a huge data set detailing how it spent $77 billion in Medicare funds in 2012 to over 880,000 health care providers....
View ArticleClik here to view.
May 2014 Desktop Calendar
This is another moss from my March trip to Yosemite National Park. Since I found it in a park, I don't have collection to help with the identification and it doesn't look like a species I encountered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stem cell therapy offers hope for “irreversible” heart damage
In December 2011, I reported on one of the first attempts to inject stem cells into damaged hearts. In that study, published in The Lancet, scientists grew stem cells from patients’ own hearts after...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A day late and a maragarita short
It's been a long, busy weekend for the Phactors. Cinco de Mayo just disappeared while we were being wined and dined, semi-feted as alumni, as TPP gave a lecture on behalf of a retiring mentor,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is the internet leading people away from religion?
This is a story that has been circulating recently, so I thought I'd fact check it! The study, by Allen Downey, a Professor of Computer Science at Olin College of Engineering in the USA, hasn't yet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medicare data reveals that U.S. wastes half a billion dollars per year on...
Hold on, you're about to get "adjusted."Ten days ago, the federal government released a huge data set detailing how it spent $77 billion in Medicare funds in 2012 to over 880,000 health care providers....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stem cell therapy offers hope for “irreversible” heart damage
In December 2011, I reported on one of the first attempts to inject stem cells into damaged hearts. In that study, published in The Lancet, scientists grew stem cells from patients’ own hearts after...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Article on the Colorado Plateau Coring Project
I apologize for the hiatus since the last set of posts but I was very busy finishing up my scholastic career, as well as maintain my full-time job, and we as my private life with home and family. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Antarctosuchus polyodon, a new Temnospondyl from the Middle Triassic of...
I've always been interested in the Triassic rocks of Antarctica since as a work-study student at the Museum of Northern Arizona in the 1990s, I was tasked with returning a loan back to the American...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Really cool compact camper
OK, here's TPP's warning: you'll want one of these campers, so don't go look unless you have a tight grip on your credit cards. Hmm, actually now that TPP sees the price tag, maybe it's not going to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A whole big bunch of really cool custom cycles bi- and otherwise
TPP has a fascination with bicycles, well, cycles of all sorts, and here's a link to a photo essay of some really cool custom cycles of all sorts. You have to admire some of the ingenuity, some of the...
View Article