Why You Need to Find Your Roots

April 12, 2012
Scholars at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond are looking through eight million documents dating back to the 17th century, seeking the names of slaves, so they can help black people in the US discover their roots. They are finding... continued

Odd Cures Continued

April 11, 2012
MORE Odd cures (or preventatives, anyway): The combined effects of exercise plus caffeine consumption may be able to ward off skin cancer. Chemical biologist Yao-Ping Lu says, "We found that this combination treatment can decrease sunlight-caused skin cancer formation in... continued

Mind Reading Machines in the Future

April 11, 2012
Chimps can read each other's minds, but in order for US to do it, we may need a machine. They're building one for Stephen Hawking, the UK quantum physicist who has ELS. In the April 3rd edition of the New... continued

A Weed Killer is Killing Us

April 11, 2012
Monsanto's Bt and Roundup insecticides are not only killing weeds-- new findings show that they are also killing human kidney cells, even in low doses. Roundup, designed to be used on GM crops, is also linked to infertility, killing testicular... continued

Why are Some Eyes Blue?

April 10, 2012
We told you where white folks come from--now we're going to explain why some white people have blue eyes. People with blue eyes all have a genetic mutation that reduces that amount of melanin (color) in the eye, meaning they... continued

Weather Weirdness

April 10, 2012
March was an example of what some people call "weather weirding"--searing hot weather one week, then cold weather the next. This was a predicted result of climate change. In the March 29th edition of the New York Times, Justin Gillis... continued

What’s in that Chicken?

April 10, 2012
You don't want to know: A new study found evidence suggesting that a class of antibiotics previously banned by the US government for poultry production is still in use. And there are other strange things besides antibiotics in our chicken... continued

Another Kind of Invisibility

April 9, 2012
Scientists are working hard to achieve invisibility. A group of researchers have created a cylinder which makes its contents invisible to magnetic fields. If there's a military use for this, nobody's thought of it yet, but there are definitely medical... continued

Chimps are Mind Readers–Maybe We are Too

April 9, 2012
Chimps can read each others' minds to an extent. If, for instance, one of them spots a dangerous snake hiding in the leaves on the forest floor, he seems to know whether or not he needs to alert the others--whether... continued

Plastic: The Problem or the Solution?

April 9, 2012
Disposing of plastic trash will be one of the biggest problems we face in 2012. The oceans are filled with plastic items that have washed out to sea (or been dumped from ships), and several coastal communities in California have... continued