Nanotech threat to your safety
Does nanotechnology pose a threat to humanity on a par with the threat we face from genetically modified (GM) foods? That is the question asked by various lobbying groups from the verdant greens to the confused consumers. But, governments, academics and c

Should you worry about HRT and cancer?
A female friend of a friend started on hormone replacement therapy (to treat quite severe early postmenopausal symptoms, and on the advice of her GP to reduce the risk of osteoporosis). The symptoms have all but been relieved (although it’s diff

Welcome to Earth 2.0 (beta)
No, before you switch off, this is not a Second Life clone, or anything to do with global wikis and blogs. This is the first astronimical post on Sciencebase for quite some time, but because it is not your usual run of the mill supernova announcement, or

Chemical blogs, wikis, and quanta
I recently interviewed quantum chemist Steve Bachrach of Trinity University and asked him his thoughts on the web 2.0 revolution and whether or not chemists might benefit realistically from blogs and wikis. “Well, this is really an issue of cult

One burger could kill
Grandma always said, “Everything in moderation”, but then she always used to take her teeth out to eat soup, so what does she know? Apparently, even moderation can be dangerous, particularly when it comes to high fat food. Tavis Campbe

Cervical fluids and boron nitride
Two more reports of general interest from my SpectroscopyNOW column. The first is on a new informatics approach to understanding cervical vaginal fluids and the second on a new study of boron nitride the technological wonder material of the future Screen

Open Access Abbreviated, Combined
Just when you thought that the publishers had ran out of combinations of shortened discipline names - PhysChemOrgPhys, ChemCommPhysChem, CommPhysOrgGeoAstroChem (You know who you are!), BioMedCentral(!) is yet to launch another - PhysMath Central. PMC, an

Organic kiwi fruit
Could the claims of the “organic” farming movement be true after all? According to an international team who have analysed the antioxidant, mineral, and nitrate composition of kiwifruit, yes. Their findings published in the Journal of

Large hadron collision at CERN
Physics followers among our readers will have no doubt seen the ubiquitous LHC “typo” a million times, so we’ve been very careful to avoid it in this item (email me if you cannot work out what it is). But, one thing that is n

Save a balloon with water
What connects cooling computer chips, melting car engines, and a balloon that will not pop? This week’s science video sees Robert Krampf explaining the principles behind heat sinks, car radiators, water cooling, and how to hold a balloon above a