Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

By Brian Switek of Nature magazine A painstaking search through thousands of chunks of amber has unearthed 11 prehistoric feathers.

Construction of Vogtle units 3 and 4 (on right) in August 2011. [More]

NASA’s plans for human spaceflight, the subject of much hand-wringing since the curtains closed on the agency’s space shuttle program in July, took a big step this week when the agency announced plans for a powerful new rocket to take astronauts into deep space. [More]

Launching a new brand is expensive. Far easier, these days: Bring back (or polish up) an old one. "At one point , we were going to call ourselves 'The Re Company,'" says Mark Thomann.

By Emmett Berg SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Rising seas forecast from climate change will likely wash away some of California's most iconic beaches by century's end, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, roads and tax revenues, a new study found on Wednesday. [More]

By now, you’re probably aware of the hype over a vaccine associated with these three letters: HPV. [More]

Next month, researchers in the U.K. will start to pump water nearly a kilometer up into the atmosphere, by way of a suspended hose.

By Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. power plants can comply with new environmental rules without disrupting the supply of electricity if providers and local authorities have time to plan for the changes, energy regulators told congressional Republicans seeking to unwind the rules.

The lovely, familiar swirl of the Milky Way, with its symmetric spiral arms winding outward from a central bulge, may be scars from a smaller galaxy punching above its weight.

By Roberta Kwok of Nature magazine Researchers have equipped yeast cells with semi-synthetic chromosomes. [More]

Zo

By Ayesha Rascoe and Anna Driver WASHINGTON/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Poor management and critical mistakes by BP and its contractors led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, according to the final report of the largest U.S. government probe into last year's massive Gulf oil spill

Laughing with friends releases feel-good brain chemicals, which also relieve pain, new research indicates. Until now, scientists haven't proven that like exercise and other activities, laughing causes a release of so-called endorphins.

Become part of a social-networking effort to understand and fight viral threats [More]

Dear EarthTalk : Are as many cats and dogs being euthanized these days as back in the 1970s and 1980s when indiscriminate breeding led to explosions in pet populations? -- Mary H., Knoxville, Tenn. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the leading non-profit devoted to animal welfare, reports that in the 1970s American shelters euthanized between 12 and 20 million cats and dogs every year at a time when there were 67 million pets in U.S