Thursday, 9 February, 2012

Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology given to inventors of MRI machine — but were these guys really the inventors? Meet an unprecedented PR campaign to change the Nobel.

Edward Teller helped invent the hydrogen bomb, then pushed missile defense. By public advocacy and secret research, he changed the 20th century.

Manned space flight is expensive — and risky. What causes accidents? Was the destruction of space shuttle Columbia a result of NASA’s failed safety culture? Are accidents normal?

An international team of scientists selected the Homestake goldmine to be the world’s deepest underground lab, but the project may sink.

Scientific journals choose self-censorship, decide not to publish articles related to biological weapons, bioterrorism and national security. Is this a necessary change in scientific tradition, or an over-reaction to a fearful political climate?

Genetically modified corn in Mexico starts scientific scandal; journal retracts article. What do we really learn from scientific publications? How have money and patents changed the scientific process?

New evidence from records of lake ice freezing and thawing is evidence for global warming.

War and civil strife make life difficult for archeologists and destroy archeological sites, but some archeology sites are strictly about war. We name names and give examples.

Scientific myths and fables have a long life: The Coke myth, the lemming myth, the baffling butterflies, and a raft of errors in science textbooks.

What is evolution by natural selection and what is the evidence for evolution? Some fishy fossils from 375 million years ago may be a missing link showing how fish moved from water to land.