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Earthworms laying on sidewalks or streets after a heavy spring rain has become commonplace, but why do they do this ... and could they be a travel hazard? Researchers hypothesize several reasons why heavy rain storms bring crawlers out of their soil homes

Some endangered species on the brink of extinction might not be worth saving, according to a new algorithm developed by researchers at the University of Adelaide and James Cook University, both in Australia. Dubbed the SAFE (species' ability to forestall extinction) index, the formula takes current and minimum viable population sizes into account to determine if it is too costly to save a species from extinction

The fiscal 2011 budget compromise crafted by the White House and congressional leaders would delay a key federal climate and weather satellite program, making a lengthy gap in critical environmental data a near certainty. Cuts contained in the 2011 budget plan would push back the launch of the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) orbiter by at least 18 months past the current 2016 target, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco said yesterday.

He is one of the world’s best known and most successful entrepreneurs, with hundreds of patents to his name--including the Segway scooter. But you will never see Dean Kamen in a suit and tie: the eccentric inventor dresses almost exclusively in denim. He spent five years in college before dropping out, does not take vacations and has never married

When we launched Scientific American Mind as a new publication in 2004, it seemed like a great opportunity to give readers more stories about popular areas of mind and brain research--which, fortuitously, were also booming because of imaging and other advances. What I didn’t realize at the time, but probably should have, is how often the findings in our pages would shake loose what I thought I knew about how our gray matter works

Asthma rates have been surging around the globe over the past three decades, and for a long time researchers thought they had a good idea of what might be fueling the increase: the world we live in is just a little too clean. According to this notion--known as the hygiene hypothesis--exposure in early childhood to infectious agents programs the immune system to mount differing highly effective defenses against disease-causing viruses, bacteria and parasites.

For someone who died at the age of 32, the largely self-taught Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan left behind an impressive legacy. Number theorists have now finally managed to make sense of one of his more enigmatic statements, written just one year before his death in 1920.

By Daniel Cressey of Nature magazine Ranching cod off the coast of Iceland is far more financially sensible than conventional fishing methods or keeping the fish in cages, according to a new analysis. Fish ranching -- where the animals are free to roam but trained to return to a certain point so they can be caught -- could one day become a significant part of global fisheries, fitting between traditional catching and aquaculture, says Bj

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By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine Before committing suicide at the age of 22, an anonymous man with schizophrenia donated a biopsy of his skin cells to research. [More]

Turkey in the middle of an online auction boom; now eBay has a big part of the action thanks to a local giant they've had a long relationship with. Auction giant eBay has committed themselves to the Turkish market by purchasing a 93% stake in local site GittiGidiyor , which has more than 6.4 million registered users. Ebay was previously a minority shareholder in GittiGidiyor.Terms of the deal were not disclosed

DETROIT (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's goal of having 1 million plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015 is on its way to being met, a Department of Energy official said on Wednesday. "It's looking good," said Assistant Energy Secretary David Sandalow when asked by reporters on the chances of meeting the goal set by Obama.

When a frigid cold wave knocked out 50 power plants in Texas during February's Super Bowl week, utilities had to impose rolling blackouts across entire communities with a "blunt ax," said Robert Shapard, CEO of Dallas-based Oncor, the state's largest transmission company.

Dear EarthTalk : Why don’t cleaning products have to list their ingredients? Are these products tested for what they might do to your health? --Patricia Greenville, Bethel, Conn.

SELF-PROCLAIMED "social-media guru" and "jargon techspert" Alex Blagg from BajillionHits.Biz keeps sending us lists of "hot new Bizwords," which he insists are creating tons of buzz in the biggest meetings and boardrooms. We'll let you decide. | Illustrations by Andrew Rae #table { clear:both; width:620px; height:800px; background-image:url('http://images.fastcompany.com/magazine/154/next/next-40-arrows-background.jpg') ; background-repeat:no-repeat; } #table p{ font-size:13px; } #top #left { float:left; width:200px; margin-top:29px; } #top #right { float:right; width:200px; } #middle { height:200px; width:200px; float:left; margin-top:197px; margin-left:3px; } #bottom #left { float:left; width:200px; clear:left; margin-top:20px; margin-left:20px; } #bottom #right { float:right; width:200px; margin-top:52px; } APPTERNOON DELIGHT (AKA ANGRY LUNCH) The practice of barricading oneself in a bathroom stall for 20 or 30 minutes every afternoon just to play Angry Birds on your smartphone FACEBLOCKING Losing an otherwise solid sale, job, or business relationship just by acting like a jackass on Facebook REHABUZZITATION A hibernation period during which a person or brand takes a break from creating Internet buzz in order to recharge their buzz-driving batteries REVENUDE The sensation of vulnerable nakedness one feels when all one's puffed-up BS and profit-jargoning has been stripped away to reveal actual numbers in the harsh light of day CONTENT SHARECROPPING A practice employed by large online "content farms," in which they festoon their harvested content with a bunch of pointless social-media sharing buttons in order to give their "crops" more substance A version of this article appears in the April 2011 issue of Fast Company