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

Earth's surface is dominated by oceans. But where did all that water come from? [More]

It could almost be enough to make Cruella de Vil consider a nicotine patch: a new analysis has found that films with scenes that show smoking reliably make less money at the box office than their cigarette-free counterparts. The finding, says Stanton Glantz , director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, adds to the case for giving any movie that depicts smoking to an automatic 'R' rating

The International Year of Chemistry commemorates the achievements that have made life better. Breakthroughs promise a greener and more productive future. [More]

[More]

1 How Did Life Begin? The moment when the first living beings arose from inanimate matter almost four billion years ago is still shrouded in mystery. How did relatively simple molecules in the primordial broth give rise to more and more complex compounds

The popular idea that chemistry is now conceptually understood and that all we have to do is use it is false. Sure, most of the products we use in our daily lives were made possible by modern chemistry. But producing useful compounds is far from all chemists do.

For years, ripples at the surface of the Dead Sea hinted there was something mysterious going on beneath its salt-laden waters. But in a lake where accidentally swallowing the water while diving could lead to near-instant asphyxiation, no one was in a hurry to find out what it might be. This year, some intrepid divers changed that, stumbling onto a geological and biological treasure and capturing it on video

Like others, I learned of Jobs’ passing on an Apple device. S and I were just on our way out the door to pick up dinner when I hit the Facebook app on my iPhone.

I owe this 60-Second Earth gig to Steve Jobs. Without the iPod there's no podcast. But our collective lust for iPod-like gadgets has some outsized impacts on the planet

MINE! That word appears early in life. Toddlers have an idea of ownership. They also have an idea of what can be owned, and what can’t.

How much can the brain recover from years of excessive alcohol consumption? --Paul Howlen, London [More]

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The recent finding that women in seven sub-Saharan Africa countries are nearly twice as likely to acquire HIV if they use a popular, long-acting injectable contraceptive, has incensed AIDS researchers. [More]

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The recent finding that women in seven sub-Saharan Africa countries are nearly twice as likely to acquire HIV if they use a popular, long-acting injectable contraceptive, has incensed AIDS researchers. [More]

PCR--the polymerase chain reaction--is a crucial tool. The DNA amplification technique is used in genome sequencing, forensics and the diagnosis of various diseases. To give researchers more genetic material to work with, a PCR instrument repeatedly heats and cools an original biological sample

PCR--the polymerase chain reaction--is a crucial tool. The DNA amplification technique is used in genome sequencing, forensics and the diagnosis of various diseases.