Ideas / Findings
Nature’s Bizarre Bedfellows
Research Blogging / by / January 27, 2010
Evolutionary theory predicts that species must compete to survive. But often the best chances for survival come when different species work together for the benefit of both.
Now In Findings
-
Science or Séance?
Media fanfare over an incapacitated car accident victim (and the nurse who “communicates” for him) raises the question of how we can know whether a person is conscious.
-
Everything Is Illuminated
Martin Chalfie, the Nobelist who helped transform biology with a glowing protein, talks with us about his lab and his favorite animal—the roundworm.
-
Intergalactic Controversy
New observations of galactic clusters have revealed a controversial phenomenon called “dark flow,” which could be a sign of parallel universes.
-
Industrial-Strength Bias
The pharmaceutical industry spends millions of dollars developing drugs and millions more swaying the opinions of physicians and the public. Can this imperfect system be reformed?
-
Probing into Depression
Deep brain stimulation, already established as a treatment for stubborn Parkinson’s disease, may also be useful as a therapy for drug-resistant clinical depression.
-
Sweet Obesity
As obesity rates soar, Americans are consuming more low-calorie artificial sweeteners. But do artificial sweeteners actually help people lose weight?
-
Overhyped Placebos of Doom?
Despite centuries of investigation, scientists still have much to learn about the origins and meaning of the placebo effect.
-
Saturn’s Strange Children
Spacecraft observations of giant tenuous rings, two-toned moons, and methane fogs are showing Saturn’s moons to be even more alien than previously believed.
-
A Writing Revolution
Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow's.
-
Up the Cosmic Distance Ladder
The development of astronomy can be seen as a millennia-long quest to measure and know the true scale of the natural world.
Research Blogging
Dave Munger
Battle of the Viral Mutations
Viruses like H1N1 and HIV are hard for biomedical researchers to tackle because they mutate so readily. Will scientists uncover new treatments before the viruses adapt again?
Research Blogging
Adapt or Die
New research is coming closer to revealing why some organisms adapt quickly to changes in their environment, while others adapt slowly or simply become extinct.
Research Blogging
A Year of Research Blogging
ResearchBlogging.org’s content editors on how they select the best blog posts, the value of research blogging, and their predictions for the coming year.
Research Blogging
TV’s Unintended Consequences
The proliferation of passive sedentary activities like television viewing has led to inactive lifestyles and decreased physical fitness. But can TV positively affect health as well?
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
-
Ideas
Many Minds, One Story
Virginia Woolf’s mental illness may have ultimately defined her craft—one that rejected convention in a decades-long attempt to portray the very character of consciousness.
-
Books
Books to Read Now
February releases explore the annals of piracy; delve into the subculture of anti-aging zealots; and reveal the fraught history of the most famous cell line in science.
-
World
Slate of the Union
A few hours after Steve Jobs announced the iPad, President Obama delivered a slightly more important speech. What he said—and didn’t say—about the future of science funding and NASA.
