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

This article is the second ( see the first here ) in a miniseries of five articles that will be posted over five days about civilization, fungus, and alcohol. The first four articles are already determined, but just how this series finishes up will be determined by the comments and ideas of readers. Sometimes scientists are asked if they have hobbies.

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves,” Albert Einstein is purported to have said. The quote acknowledges a fundamental characteristic of human attention

Not long ago I signed up for an improvisational theater class. I thought I might gain stage presence and confidence; little did I know I would encounter a genuine cognitive challenge

Key concepts [More]

Valentine's Day can lead to plenty of broken hearts. But for cardiac wounds that time alone won't heal, science has made some major advances. When it comes to heart attack, for example, a big development is emerging from a tiny source.

How healthy are you? Your best guess might be pretty accurate: researchers found that people who gave their health a positive rating were less likely to fall ill or die over the next 30 years than were those who thought they weren’t as healthy. The work is in the journal Public Library of Science ONE .

At the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a supermassive black hole.

Just how extraordinary has this winter been in Europe? The Danube river has frozen, for one. [More]

Let's face it, most animals get around. Only about 5 percent of mammals are considered to be monogamous . What a biologist means by monogamy is not necessarily what a marriage counselor might assume

People who succeed in their jobs and in life are typically blessed with a special blend of four qualities: efficacy (self-confidence), resilience, hope and optimism. This mental confection, which scientists call psychological capital, reflects our capacity to overcome obstacles and push ourselves to pursue our ambitions

Tuur van Balen gives a provocative how-to presentation at the Next Nature Power Show, showing how to use the Synthetic Biology Parts Registry to engineer yogurt bacteria to produce prozac: [More]

By Ivan Semeniuk, Meredith Wadman, Susan Young, Eric Hand, Eugenie Samuel Reich & Richard Monastersky of Nature magazine "It's not every day you have robots running through your house," Barack Obama quipped last week at the White House science fair, a showcase for student exhibitors that also gave the US president a chance to reiterate a favourite theme. [More]

Organize and publish nature sightings for enjoyment, education and to aid conservation efforts [More]

During America's most popular TV event, the Superbowl, one much-anticipated advertisement featuring supermodel Adriana Lima painted a pretty sad state of affairs with regards to love. [More]

Your brain is special.