The science of ever-larger Godzillas

A 55,000-ton, city-destroying lizard beast could pee 151,436,928 gallons per day. They never show you all the people who died, drowned in Godzilla's urine. Read the rest

How a hospital contributed to the deaths of five children

Spores of Mucor sp. fungus can cause a potentially deadly disease that causes human skin and tissue to rot. Thankfully, it's rare. But mortal fungal infections are on the rise in the United States. Read the rest

Down on the bird's nest soup farm

How do you produce enough hardened bird-spit structures to feed a growing demand for one of the most expensive dishes in the world? Rowan Hooper visits the bird's nest soup farm. Read the rest

Recreational Mathematics magazine

You can download a free copy of this new magazine as a PDF. Enjoy! Read the rest

How World War I shaped the creationism/evolution debate

The National Center for Science Education has a really interesting six-part series talking with historians about the impact WWI had on shaping rhetoric about creationism and evolution, and how the public discourse and laws might have been very different had the Great War never happened. Read the rest

Food fight

Scientists are experimenting with ways to reduce the impact of certain food allergies with the help of other foods. For instance, chemicals in cranberry juice might be able to mute the effects of peanut allergies. Read the rest

What if we threw a revolution, and nobody came?

Two things I did not realize: 1: The phrase "the Copernican Revolution" was coined by Immanuel Kant. 2: Copernicus' contemporaries didn't see his ideas as controversial. Read the rest

Why should you care about a dead king's DNA?

"Oh look a king, let’s break out the thermocycler," writes osteoarchaeologist Alison Atkin in a piece on the not exactly essential DNA analysis of the remains of Richard III. Read the rest

Antibiotics and the microbiome

This post on overselling the microbiome by microbiologist Jonathan Eisen is worth reading if, for no other reason, than that it serves as a nice reminder that we don't actually have this microbiome thing figured out yet, and the community of scientists don't agree on ideas that are fast becoming pop culture "everybody knows" material. Read the rest

No climate change, please. We're Fox & Friends

In totally unsurprising news, Scientific American editor Michael Moyer was told he couldn't talk about climate change in a recent appearance on Fox News' morning show. Read the rest

Pyramid Parts Would Slide Superbly on Soaked Sand, Says Study

A new theory is adding to our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians might have built the pyramids. You'll recall that, today, most Egyptologists believe the pyramids were built by workers pulling blocks of stone on sledges. Read the rest

Why feed babies one new food at a time?

Do you really have to start with rice cereal? Why do we only feed babies unseasoned food? Matt Shipman gets some interesting answers from a NC State nutrition professor. Read the rest

Untested drug cocktails from secret sources leads to torturous executions in Oklahoma

Over the past year, there's been more and more coverage about the fact that European chemical companies are refusing to sell American states the ingredients to make execution drugs — and the fact that many states are responding to those limits by creating new, untested drug cocktails with the help of compounding pharmacies that they refuse to name. Read the rest

Read this before you buy probiotic supplements

Probiotics have a ton of potential for improving health, but the marketing for them is getting out ahead of the science and creating some big misconceptions about the true benefits of good bacteria supplements. Read the rest

Why does everybody climb Mt. Everest in spring?

Emily Sohn at Discovery News has a really interesting story about the meteorology and weather physics that explain why the Everest climbing season is so short and why, even in the "good" months, weather is still a major risk factor on the mountain. Read the rest

The media still does a terrible job of covering drug use

The American media has a terrible track record when it comes to covering drug use and the real risks of imbibing, writes Maia Szalavitz at Substance. Read the rest

MRSA is from Washington Heights

The majority of community acquired (i.e., not caught in a hospital) cases of antibiotic-resistant staph can be linked to a single strain of the bacteria. And, now, scientists have pinpointed where that strain first evolved. Read the rest

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