The geology of diamonds is fascinating in itself, but they also give insights into wider geological processes and history. Up until 1725, diamonds were only known from India. That all changed when Brazilians panning river sediments for gold, instead found diamonds. Recent … Continue reading →

One of my most popular (and unpopular) articles concerns the quack cancer remedy Neoplasene. This is one of a family of herbal derivatives called bloodroot, and it has never been shown to be a safe and effective therapy for cancer. … Continue reading →

A number of mice and eight gerbils sent into space in a Russian capsule perished during their journey, after a month-long mission touched back down on Earth.

I am sitting on a Southwest Airlines flight heading to Denver for the American Society for Microbiology 2013 meeting. At 3 PM today I am scheduled to co-chair (with David Coil from my lab) a session on “Citizen Microbiology” (well the full title is Citizen Microbiology: Enhancing Microbiology Education and Research with the Help of the Public). The schedule of the session is at the bottom of this post but it promises to be very interesting and exciting (no bias here at all). As far as […]

From Concrete Mathematics: Incidentally, when we’re faced with a “prove or disprove,” we’re usually better off trying first to disprove with a counterexample, for two reasons: A disproof is potentially easier (we just need one counterexample); and nit-picking arouses our…Read more ›