Wednesday, 23 May, 2012

Size does matter, and smaller is better.

ST. LOUIS – David Krumholtz is not a real mathematician, he just plays one on TV.

Evolution’s mantra has always been “survival of the fittest,” not “survival of the funniest.” In humans, though, a sense of humor seems to have evolved anyway. For some reason, funny is fit.

Physicists commonly embark on fantastic adventures, exploring the inner complexity of the atom, the vastness of the cosmos, even parallel universes or undiscovered dimensions of space and time.

To hear some women talk, you’d think testosterone makes men stupid.

Scientists have long dreamed of discovering the reason why animals need to sleep.

If you think the news media don’t cover science enough, now is the season to rejoice. Stem cells have been in the headlines lately almost as much as torture and Tom DeLay.

Popular music has always been obsessed with dreams. Since dreams turn up in music all the time, it’s only fair that music should sometimes entertain the sleeping brain by intruding into dreams.

If you call a tail a leg, Abraham Lincoln once asked, how many legs does a dog have? Five? No, said Lincoln. Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. It’s still a tail.

For some reason, 2005 has been the year of living dangerously. Or maybe for no reason at all. Maybe it’s just bad luck, with random earthquakes and hurricanes just striking with more power and ferocity than usual. Bad things happen.