The American public loves underdogs, the outlier or even outcast who defies convention and is proven right.Dr. Claude Wischik may be just that. He believes that a protein called tau, which forms twisted fibers known as tangles inside the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients, is largely responsible for driving the disease.
read moreThe Tokyo University of Marine Science has developed the equivalent of a HapMap for fish, in other words a partial DNA map that focuses on differences within a species. Combining this information with selective breeding, they have already developed flounders resistant to viral lymphocistosis. This approach will continue to be useful because crowded individuals in fish farms can succumb to an...
read moreSometimes when things catch the attention of the kookier segments of the public, they really take off. Fracking is a good example. Though it's been around since the 1940s, once it got really popular people started inventing fake illnesses to get into the mainstream media Scare Journalism of the Week pieces.But natural gas isn't the only cleaner energy activists have found a reason to hate:...
read moreThe most startling thing to me about the election of 2012 was how spookily accurate polls were. Social scientists in one camp want to dismiss determinism while the other camp has biology-envy but either the deterministic side got a big boost on Tuesday or the opposing sides in this election were so entrenched there was virtually no reason to vote, other than to see who had the best Get Out...
read moreIf you haven't seen the movie "Up", you should. It's a cartoon but it tells a more authentic love story in a three-minute montage than every Katherine Heigl movie combined.And it has inspired a 2,500 mile trip for Jonathan Trappe. The only thing keeping him up? 365 helium balloons.Balloonists have wanted to cross the Atlantic for decades but there is a 'demon in the air' and five have...
read more