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One in Six Stars Has Earth-Sized Planet

January 14, 2013
Using NASA's Kepler spacecraft, astronomers are beginning to find Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars. A new analysis of Kepler data shows that about 17% of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury. Since the Milky Way... continued

When Getting Sick is a Roll of the Dice

January 14, 2013
This year's flu season has been declared an "epidemic:" with 41 states reporting widespread and severe outbreaks of flu this season, researchers are wondering why less than half of the American population has gotten a flu shot. Due to the... continued

Internet Catches Criminals With Words

January 11, 2013
Covert agencies--as well as corporations--are searching email files for words and phrases that may reveal incipient (or ongoing) criminal activity. The 911 terrorists knew this, which is why they emailed one another in code. Aside from the words one might... continued

Can a Computer Tell Jokes?

January 11, 2013
As if they didn't have enough to study, scientists are now trying to figure out what makes something funny. One way to do this is to get a computer to create jokes--something a standup comedian (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen... continued

Prehistoric Movie Going

January 11, 2013
Prehistoric man (and woman) put on lipstick and went to the movies--in a manner of speaking, that is. Prehistoric cave artists used cartoon-like techniques to give the impression that their images were moving across cave walls In the September 23rd... continued

What Improves With Age

January 10, 2013
Our memories may deteriorate as we get older, but our HEARTS become wiser. A hundred years ago, life was harder, so people tended to erect a hard crust around their emotions. Children died young, which led to the emotionally cold... continued

A Shot to Prevent Cancer

January 10, 2013
What if we could get a vaccine that would prevent us from getting cancer, by causing our immune systems to protect us from it--just like a flu shot does. This may be on the way. Our immune systems have trouble... continued

Digging Up the Amazon

January 10, 2013
Huge mining companies are bulldozing into the rain forests of Brazil, one of the world's most environmentally sensitive regions. They expect to spend $24 billion in the next 4 years to dig up iron ore, bauxite (used to make aluminum)... continued

Insomnia is Racial

January 10, 2013
In the August 31st edition of the New York Times, Douglas Quenqua writes: "The idea that race or ethnicity might help determine how well people sleep is relatively new among sleep researchers. But in the few short years that epidemiologists,... continued

Where Does the Myth Come From?

January 10, 2013
Where did dragons come from? They were a popular icon long before dinosaur bones were discovered, and early man came along AFTER the dinosaurs' demise, so it couldn't have been a race memory. Also, dragon myths were common in the... continued