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

Can one appreciate the deep beauty of science, without mastering calculus, quantum mechanics or molecular genetics? I reckon the answer is yes, but I know at least one Nobel laureate disagrees with me. Sir Harry Kroto made the following comparison during a tense press conference on Wednesday: "Try to explain the culture and the depth of Shakespeare to someone who does not speak the English language

By Nicola Jones of Nature Magazine The world's insatiable demand for the rare-earth elements needed to make almost all technological gadgets could one day be partially met by sea-floor mining, hints an assessment of the Pacific Ocean's resources. [More]

Take a hot bath, you’ll fee better. Not only does warm water soothe us, it can combat loneliness. According to research published in the journal Emotion .

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This Fourth of July holiday, collectively Americans will eat some 150 million hot dogs, according to industry analysts.

Editor's Note: William Gilly , a professor of biology at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, embarked on new expedition this month to study jumbo squid in the Gulf of California on the National Science Foundation–funded research vessel New Horizon . This is his sixth blog post about the trip. [More]

Chronic pain affects at least one in three adults in the U.S., which is more than the sum total of those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. For many of these 116 million Americans, their pain is severe and eludes available treatments. In addition to the human suffering, the monetary cost of medical treatment and lost productivity has reached $635 billion a year

Whales can boom their songs across thousands of kilometers of ocean, and elephants' low-frequency calls can be heard by other pachyderms several kilometers away. But when body size is taken into consideration, these mammoth mammals produce but a relative whisper compared with other animals--especially one odd arthropod. [More]

What do instruments used in religious ceremonies since the fifth century have to do with modern physics? When those instruments can create liquid fountains, wave patterns, and flying droplets--quite a lot. [More]

Hundreds of global warming skeptics are in Washington to hear attacks on mainstream climate science and responses to it, like renewable energy programs and federal initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For Geofrey Greenleaf, the Heartland Institute's conference is an opportunity to gather compelling details to be used against climate change believers during political discussions in the Cleveland area, where he works as an investment adviser.

Why did the absence of the corpus callosum in Kim Peek’s brain increase his memory capacity? --A

By Verna Gates ORANGE BEACH, Alabama (Reuters) - The fund BP set up to deal with compensation claims after last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill is working too slowly, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday

Preface: I am a marine scientist by trade, however, I have run 4 marathons and I am in the midst of training for a half marathon/full marathon during a South Carolina summer. I might not be an expert in studying the physiology of heat related illnesses, but I have enough experience to make it count

The Book of Fungi: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from Around the World by Peter Roberts and Shelley Evans. University of Chicago Press, 2011 [More]

War fatalities--and especially those from terrorist or insurgent attacks--seem particularly and cruelly random. But some scientists think they have found the key to predicting just when these deadly assaults will come. [More]