The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

New Scientist reports on the wisdom of babes. Six-month-olds are able to recognize who’s really on their side and who’s trying to do them wrong, […]

For a few years now, computer engineers have been building a virtual brain – using computers to replicate every neural connection in a mammal’s gray […]

Nature recently revealed research that will please the nihilists among us, from astrophysicist Teppo Mattsson, who says that dark energy, the stuff that keeps the […]

…even when taught online by some of the world’s top universities. Maybe I can finally get chemistry to make sense.

Nature reports on a new strain of genetically modified drought-resistant tobacco. OK, so some people are probably thinking this sounds like the least healthy plant […]

Nature makes us feel lonely. It turns out that Gliese 580c isn’t that likely to have life on it after all. The most Earth-like planet […]

…from a solar-powered toothbrush, of course. The invention, from University of Saskatchewan professor Kunio Komiyama and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak, uses electrons to replace […]

UN Scientists looking at the weather have found that over the past 500 years, climate change has marched hand in hand with war, New Scientist […]

Arthropods are the creatures that have armor-like skin and jointed legs – the group that includes crawfish, scorpions, spiders and insects. The bugs. The largest […]

Despite being dead for, oh, 65 million years or so, dinosaurs still turn up in the darnedest places. Mainly museums, of course, but even there, […]

That’s the not-terribly cheerful news from Nature on the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a porpoise from Mexico’s Pacific coast: In 1999, researchers estimated there were 567 […]