Blog

--At some level, getting in shape seems pretty straightforward: Eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep, and push yourself when you work out, whether it’s at the gym, in the pool, or on the track. If you need some extra motivation, exercise classes and…

--Bacteria are ubiquitous. They defend and define us, constituting over 90% of the cells in the human body. They wield the ability to survive in the most extreme of environments, and the chemical reactions they catalyze hold the potential for vital…

--The story of the mysterious disappearance of the Western honeybee seems as if it should have sprung from the mind of sci-fi author Douglas Adams, rather than from sunny Florida. The strange nature of this scientific conundrum may explain why it has…

--The Human Genome turns ten years old this summer. Ten years ago President Clinton and British Prime Minister Blair announced that a draft copy of all 3 billion letters of the genetic code had been finished. The combined public and private effort cost…

--When BP CEO Tony Hayward admits that “this is an environmental catastrophe” and President Obama proclaims from the Oval Office “already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced,” the gravity of the crisis cannot be…

--Paleontologists have always differentiated between extinct species by comparative anatomy of their fossil remains. Those scientists who study living organisms have an additional technique available – the comparison of DNA sequences between specimens.…

--It turns out that I am not referring to a large, mildly cute herbivorous African mammal. HIPPO stands for HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations of Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gases. That's quite a mouthful. So what exactly is this? In short, it is a mission…

--You may have heard it said that our genome is “99% chimpanzee”. As surprising as this may sound to some, what is even more shocking is that more than 90% of “our” cells are actually bacteria. How is this possible? Read on to find out more!

--Whale watching in the Boston area is an incredibly popular activity. Last year, almost 1 million people went whale watching off the coast of New England. After all, what is there not to love? The whales are charismatic wonders themselves - mammoth…

-- Recently, a leading British medical journal, The Lancet, retracted a twelve-year old research paper that claimed a link between the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine and autism. The paper's publication sparked much controversy in autism…