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

Warning that famine in Somalia is likely to get worse before it gets better, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday pledged an additional $17 million in U.S. aid to East African countries racked by the worst drought in 60 years.

Regular readers will know that I often avoid discussing new palaeontological discoveries at Tet Zoo, the exceptions being those where I was personally involved (hmm). [More]

Brain: The Inside Story Through August 14, 2011 [More]

Red Planet Mars Life Lawrence M. Krauss’s “ Rethinking the Dream ” [Forum] rightly points out that the benefits of flying humans in space have not been commensurate with the cost, especially when human flight is compared with advanced robotic or automatic systems that can do many of the same tasks at one tenth of the cost and with no risk to humans.

Fast Company's editors sift breaking news for nuggets of worthwhile innovation.

BEIJING (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips China, a subsidiary of the Houston-based oil company ConocoPhillips, said on Friday that as much as 2,500 barrels of oil and mud leaked from an oilfield in China's northern Bohai Bay. A recent survey at the C platform of Penglai 19-3 oil field identified more oil-based drilling mud on the sea floor than originally estimated, the company said on its website (www.conocophillips.com.cn), adding that it expected to complete a cleanup by the end of this month.

A sampling of the unusual pitches at this year's showcase of 14 fund-seeking start-ups. DreamIt , a start-up incubator founded in Philadelphia hosted a demo day in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday for about 250 attendees, many of them venture capitalists and angel investors looking for the next Dropbox or Scvngr. Fourteen teams presented the start-up companies they have been developing for the past three months.

What's the best way to find out if an unknown mixture contains a specific substance, like an environmental contaminant? You could use an expensive, bulky gas chromatograph--but Harvard researchers have developed an instrument you can carry in your pocket. They describe the device, called an inverse opal, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society .

This is not a climate science blog, nor is it a political or media critique blog.

When I was getting my solar panels installed, I couldn’t wait to see my electric meter literally spin backwards. [More]

In the past months, Skype's launched a massive upgrade on Android; a brand-spanking-new iPad app; unveiled a massive partnership with Facebook; and announced its acquisition to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. Is it enough to win against Google's and Apple's competitors? "When I started, we were on a pretty slow product release," says Neil Stevens, VP of products at Skype

In the past months, Skype's launched a massive upgrade on Android; a brand-spanking-new iPad app; unveiled a massive partnership with Facebook; and announced its acquisition to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. Is it enough to win against Google's and Apple's competitors? "When I started, we were on a pretty slow product release," says Neil Stevens, VP of products at Skype.

You might think that temporary tattoos look cool, but what if they could also collect and transmit information about your heart rate , temperature, muscle contractions or brain waves? [More]

By David Cyranoski of Nature magazine On 11 March, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that a 3-metre-plus tsunami would hit northeastern Japan.

Welcome to the huge and wonderful day here at the Scientific American blog network, where we are having great fun discussing food and trends in modern agriculture and why people are so passionate about these topics. [More]