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

Dear EarthTalk : I heard that the less meat one eats, the better it is for the environment. How so? [More]

NASA has posted a series of satellite photos documenting the expansion of the Athabasca tar sands. The Athabasca pits cover over 54,000 square miles in Alberta with an estimated reserve of 1.75 trillion barrels of oil – good enough for third in the world behind Saudi Arabia (1) and Venezuela (2).

Watson is the IBM computer built by David Ferrucci and his team of 25 research scientists tasked with designing an artificial-intelligence (AI) system that can rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy . After beating the greatest Jeopardy champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in February 2011, the computer is now being employed in more practical tasks such as answering diagnostic medical questions.

Watson is the IBM computer built by David Ferrucci and his team of 25 research scientists tasked with designing an artificial-intelligence (AI) system that can rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy . After beating the greatest Jeopardy champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in February 2011, the computer is now being employed in more practical tasks such as answering diagnostic medical questions. [More]

It all started with a summer pool party and a Harvard neuroscientist who prefers to be called Bob. Bob--aka Sandeep Robert Datta--was splashing around the pool with his kids when science writer Carl Zimmer noticed an image of DNA inked to his shoulder

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released his “ Wastebook ” a week ago – a list of 100 government-funded projects that are supposedly a waste of money. Every campaign season, quite predictably, someone from the GOP makes a document like this, listing examples of spending that, in their view, represents the most egregious excesses of governmental spending. Counting on their voters not to know or understand anything about these projects (especially the way these are carefully framed) and aware that nobody in the mainstream media will be pointing and laughing at them, they push these memes onto the unsuspecting public

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released his “ Wastebook ” a week ago – a list of 100 government-funded projects that are supposedly a waste of money. Every campaign season, quite predictably, someone from the GOP makes a document like this, listing examples of spending that, in their view, represents the most egregious excesses of governmental spending. Counting on their voters not to know or understand anything about these projects (especially the way these are carefully framed) and aware that nobody in the mainstream media will be pointing and laughing at them, they push these memes onto the unsuspecting public

The eastern grey tree frog [sound] looks exactly like the closely related Cope’s grey tree frog [sound]. The big difference between the two species is beneath the surface--the eastern has twice the number of chromosomes as does the Cope’s. [More]

More than a third of adults in the U.S. are obese. And many of those already overweight continue to put on even more pounds.

The moon has been with us for billions of years, almost since the formation of Earth.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but when he returned from 'cross the seas, did he bring with him a new disease? [More]

Dear EarthTalk : I've heard of the slow food movement, but what is “slow money” all about? [More]

Bad science papers can have lasting effects. Consider the 1998 paper in the journal The Lancet that linked autism to the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella

By Christopher Mims Bones have amazing electrical conductivity properties and, as one artist recently found out, can vibrate at the right frequencies to make a lovely macabre speaker set. Turned on its head, bone's response to physical stress can be used to produce music---or at least musical tones.

Help with the identification and management of non-native invasive species in Texas [More]