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

Thirty years ago Alan H. Guth, then a struggling physics postdoc at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, gave a series of seminars in which he introduced “inflation” into the lexicon of cosmology

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, known for such exploits as trying to balloon around the world, said on Tuesday he planned to explore the deepest parts of the world's oceans with a jet-like submarine. The 18-foot vessel is capable of descents more than 36,000 feet below the surface, said Branson at a news conference in Newport Beach, California.

By Adam Mann of Nature magazine NASA should be revitalized "not just with dollars, but with clear aims and a larger purpose," US President Barack Obama said last April, after cancelling the previous administration's under-resourced Constellation programme of rockets and capsules for human space flight. [More]

By Declan Butler of Nature magazine Even as the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station continue to leak radiation, researchers have begun laying the groundwork for studies that will look for any long-term effects on public health. Academic scientists face major obstacles as they try to collate baseline data on radiation doses in the face of the enormous disruption caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last month.

The 1.5-meter-long gash that opened up in the upper cabin of Friday's Southwest Airlines Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento will have a deep impact on the nature and frequency of commercial aircraft maintenance. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a directive on Tuesday ordering about 175 Boeing 737 aircraft--80 of which are registered in the U.S., most of those operated by Southwest--to be inspected using an electromagnetic device that can identify metal fatigue. [More]

Quantum information science is a bit like classroom management--the larger the group, the harder it is to keep everything together. [More]

When plans to build North Dakota's largest transmission line in three decades were unveiled, it seemed as though the political, legal and economic stars were in alignment. Minnesota's legislators wanted more renewable power, North Dakota farmers looked forward to the extra income, and environmental groups championed the line for carrying "green power" and cutting reliance on coal. A 345-kilowatt, 270-mile-long transmission line in North Dakota has been in the planning stages since 2009.

A rolling stone gathers no moss. But a salamander embryo can attract algae. Inside its tissues and cells

Whereas this August 23, 1919, Scientific American article acknowledged that there wasn’t anything particularly novel about a portable boat, the convenience offered by the one invented by Mr.

Psychologists have long known that many people are prejudiced towards others based on group affiliations, be they racial, ethnic, religious, or even political. However, we know far less about why people are prone to prejudice in the first place

I still remember the excitement and fear of April 12, 1961, the day Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space. I was seven years old: too young to fully appreciate the thrill many people felt that the mysterious universe beyond Earth had suddenly been conquered and that the adventures of the swashbuckling Flash Gordon were now one step closer to reality

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Despite the wide availability of potassium iodine to mitigate ingestion exposure to radioactive iodine in the air, food or beverages, there is still no magic medicine to give to people who have been--or will be--exposed to high levels of direct radiation. [More]

By Patricio Segura Ortiz of Nature magazine You might not expect bacteria living in Antarctic ice to be well suited to life in a boiling kettle, but that is what Chilean scientists discovered during an expedition last year. [More]

By Patricio Segura Ortiz of Nature magazine You might not expect bacteria living in Antarctic ice to be well suited to life in a boiling kettle, but that is what Chilean scientists discovered during an expedition last year. [More]