Ideas / Findings
Overhyped Placebos of Doom?
Research Blogging / by / October 28, 2009
Despite centuries of investigation, scientists still have much to learn about the origins and meaning of the placebo effect.
Now In Findings
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Evolved for Extinction?
Could the novel evolutionary adaptations of animals like the Galapagos tortoise and the Komodo dragon actually leave these species more vulnerable to extinction?
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Microbial Warfare
Antibiotic resistance is more than just a medical scourge; it’s also a window into a war microbes have been waging against each other for hundreds of millions of years.
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Uncovering Ardi
Anthropologist John Hawks explains why Ardi, the oldest known skeleton of a human-like primate, matters so much to the science of human origins.
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The Dead Zone Dilemma
Is saving our atmosphere killing our seas? Biofuels may stifle global warming, but scientists warn that agricultural runoff causes new problems.
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Rethinking Addiction
What makes someone an addict? The clinical definition of drug “dependence” is flexible, but may still mislabel individual choices as disorders.
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This Image Is Not Moving
Optical illusions may seem to deceive, but they actually reveal truths about how our brains construct reality.
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Molecular Mimicry
New biological research has revealed mimicry at the molecular scale that could have profound implications for medicine and industry.
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Acupuncture: Real or Sham?
Controls for acupuncture studies are improving. Their results are not. How are peer reviewers reacting?
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(Tele)Present at the Future
Attending a virtual conference—and what it tells us about the future of scientific communication.
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Signal to Noise
What we’re learning about pancreatic cancer now—and why the cure remains so elusive.
Research Blogging
Sweet Obesity
As obesity rates soar, Americans are consuming more low-calorie artificial sweeteners. But do artificial sweeteners actually help people lose weight?
Research Blogging
Dave Munger
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.
Analysis
A Writing Revolution
Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow's.
What We Know
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.
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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World
Sad Sacks
As a UK adviser is fired over politically unpalatable advice and an English teacher is suspended over an article about animal sexuality, the fate of facts is on the line.
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Ideas
Sweet Obesity
As obesity rates soar, Americans are consuming more low-calorie artificial sweeteners. But do artificial sweeteners actually help people lose weight?
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Books
Books to Read Now
November releases feature the mysteries of Grigori Perelman, the evolutionary origins of reading, and strategies for containing strains of flu.
