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

If you’ve been near a garden lately, chances are your nose has picked up on the unmistakable scent of the roses in full-bloom in many places right now. The sight of the rose certainly holds a great amount of symbolic meaning in cultures throughout the world, though it can be argued that smell is even more important. According to an article on the "attar" or fragrant oils of the rose in the May 1921 Scientific American Supplement , “Supreme among the charms of the rose is its exquisite and haunting fragrance, a fragrance at once delicate and powerful…Small wonder that the ancients felt the perfume to be the soul of the rose…” [More]

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazine An epic victory over daunting challenges, or a costly project that should never have flown? After nearly half a century of work and US$750 million spent, Gravity Probe B, one of NASA's longest-running mission programs, has finally achieved some scientific closure. [More]

Tech giant acquires the Internet phone service for a staggering $8.5 billion.

The first new nuclear reactor in the U.S. in nearly three decades is taking shape outside Augusta, Ga

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Countries using nuclear energy must ensure their reactors are built to withstand multiple disasters after Japan's accident revealed gaps in safety standards, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. [More]

What can science reveal about our “character” -- that core of good, or evil, that shapes our moral behavior? The answer, according to a new book, is that there may not be much of a core, after all.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile gave the green light on Monday to the divisive $3.5 billion HidroAysen hydro-power dam project that promises to ease energy squeezes, despite objections that it will ruin pristine Patagonian valleys.

This time of year is deadline season for many people.

By Shinichi Saoshiro KAWAUCHI, May 10 (Reuters) - Residents of a Japanese village [More]

It is hard to court the opposite sex when you are cemented in place, which explains why polyps--the tiny creatures whose exoskeletons form corals--do not reproduce by mating. Instead they cast millions of sperm and eggs into the sea, where they drift up to the ocean surface, collide, form larvae and float away to form new coral reefs

Find a breast cancer tumor when it is tiny, and a woman will probably beat the disease. Find that same malignancy when it is larger or has spread to other organs, and she is far more likely to die, even after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Key concepts Density [More]

By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of Arctic nations gather in Greenland this week to chart future cooperation as global warming sets off a race for oil, mineral, fishing and shipping opportunities in the world's fragile final frontier.

By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of Arctic nations gather in Greenland this week to chart future cooperation as global warming sets off a race for oil, mineral, fishing and shipping opportunities in the world's fragile final frontier. [More]

Drilling for natural gas is booming in Pennsylvania--thanks to fracturing shale rock with a water and chemical cocktail paired with the ability to drill in any direction. Despite homeowner complaints, however, research on how such hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is impacting local water wells has not kept pace. Now a new study that sampled water from 60 such wells has found evidence for natural gas–contamination in those within a kilometer of a new natural gas well.