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

This past week, I was jolted out of my chair by news that a Pfizer-led group plans to buy access to patient data in hospitals . My initial reaction was anger, on a variety of levels: as a researcher, as one who is increasingly wary of the reach of huge corporations, and as an individual

Millions of pacemakers have been successfully implanted in the past half century to regulate erratic heartbeats , but the electrical leads, which connect the device to the heart, complicate the surgery and increase infection risks. The heart's continuous and vigorous beating also creates strain on the leads and can damage them over time. [More]

Thanksgiving is just days away, a time to feast with family. And to avoid food-borne bacterial infections. [More]

courtesy of iStockphoto/MrPants Instead of cutting into a dead body to determine the cause of death, some coroners are already calling in a radiologist instead .

This year has been a painful one for fans of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, the perennial contender that has fallen to 0–10 on the season . Perhaps Hoosiers can take some small comfort in the thought of a world where star quarterback Peyton Manning is healthy rather than hobbled and the Colts are undefeated rather than winless. If the cosmological concept of the multiverse is correct , such a world could exist right now.

More than 10 million people have watched a YouTube video of an iPhone being pulverized in a blender. It's actually a commercial for Blendtec -- a company most viewers had probably never heard of. But with the viral clip, Blendtec let social networking spread its name and message rather than paying for a mass advertising campaign.

This Friday (Nov.

Male nursery web spiders often woo potential lady-friends with gifts wrapped in silk. Mating may ensue, during which a female unspools the present, expecting to find a tasty treat

Climate change can influence how infectious diseases affect the world, particularly illnesses spread by vectors like mosquitoes. Now scientists have developed some understanding about how rainfall and temperature can influence malaria, dengue and West Nile virus infections as well as ways to combat them

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The largest and most high-profile chimpanzee research centre in the United States has acknowledged to Nature that 137 infant chimpanzees have been born to federally owned animals under its care since 2000, despite a government moratorium on such births. [More]

A new network of observatories aims to take ecological science to the continental scale in the next 30 years. The National Science Foundation–sponsored network, called the National Ecological Observatory Network , or NEON, will link 20 field stations selected to provide data from 20 distinct U.S. biomes as well as 40 portable stations that can be moved from site to site

By Ivan Semeniuk of Nature magazine The most fractious and combative US Congress in recent memory is getting on with approving a 2012 budget--although perhaps only so that it can move more swiftly to the next battlefield. [More]

* Amount of CO2 rose by 2.3 ppm to 389 ppm in 2010 * Fossil fuel use, agriculture main drivers [More]

By Eric Hand of Nature magazine John Grunsfeld, an astrophysicist and astronaut who fixed the Hubble Space Telescope, has been chosen to lead NASA's science mission directorate, according to several sources with knowledge of the selection.

By Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive Monday proposed a blanket ban on shark finning, in which the fins are sliced off sharks, often while they are alive, and their carcasses dumped in the sea. [More]