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Science

Oct 2006 Estimated chance, according to new fossil research, that a Tyrannosaurus rex lived to full maturity: 1 in 50
Harper's Index

Source:

Gregory M. Erickson, Florida State University (Tallahassee)

Oct 2006 Percentage of volunteers in a four-year psychedelic-mushroom study who said they experienced “strong or extreme fear”: 31



Percentage who described the experience as “among the five most meaningful” in their lives: 67
Harper's Index

Source:

Roland Griffiths, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore)

May 2006Number of beetles that right-wing entomologists have named after Bush Administration officials: 3
Harper's Index

Source:

Quentin Wheeler, Natural History Museum (London)

May 2006

Estimated number of animal and plant species known to science: 1,800,000

Estimated number of different official names that have been applied to them: 6,000,000

Harper's Index

Source:

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (London)

Jul 2005Minimum number of ExxonMobil-funded groups that have disputed mainstream scientific findings on climate change: 31
Harper's Index

Source:

Chris Mooney, Mother Jones (Washington)

Oct 2004Estimated price a British cable company will charge for a kit to track “evidence of the paranormal” via the Internet : £150
Harper's Index

Source:

Telewest Broadband (London)

Apr 2004Number of states that do not use the word "evolution" in their science curricula : 5
Harper's Index

Source:

National Center for Science Education (Oakland)

Mar 2004Days after George W. Bush announced plans for a Moon base that the Hubble telescope's maintenance was discontinued : 2
Harper's Index

Source:

NASA (Washington)

Mar 2004Estimated percentage of television static that derives from the Big Bang : 1
Harper's Index

Source:

Adrian Lee, University of California (Berkeley)

Mar 2004Years required for the creation in 2002 of the first virus made from scratch with commercially available ingredients : 3
Harper's Index

Source:

Professor Eckard Wimmer, State University of New York (Stony Brook)

Mar 2004Weeks required to create the second such virus last fall : 2
Harper's Index

Source:

Professor Eckard Wimmer, State University of New York (Stony Brook)

Aug 2003Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz's mansion in April: 2
Harper's Index

Source:

Jonathan Finer, Washington Post

May 2003Factor by which industry funding for university biomedical research has increased since 1980: 22
Harper's Index

Source:

Dr. Cary Gross, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

May 2003Percentage change since 1988 in the average subscription price of a U.S. scientific, medical, or technical journal: +250
Harper's Index

Source:

Prof. Mark J. McCabe, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta)

Apr 2003Minimum number of U.S. college students who developed scurvy from poor eating habits last year: 1
Harper's Index

Source:

Barbara Hermreck, Lawrence Memorial Hospital (Lawrence, Kans.)

Dec 2002Ratio of the annual tariffs that developed nations impose on one another to those they impose on developing nations: 1:4
Harper's Index

Source:

World Bank (Washington)

Dec 2002Percentage by which the speed of light has decreased in the last 20 billion years, according to Australian scientists: 0.0007
Harper's Index

Source:

Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia)

Oct 2002Months since his release from prison that nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee has been looking for work: 24
Harper's Index

Source:

Stacy Cohen (Los Angeles)

Oct 2002Years that the National Security Agency's new head of research held the same position at Disney: 2
Harper's Index

Source:

National Security Agency (Fort Meade, Md.)/The Walt Disney Company (Burbank, Calif.)

Sep 2002Number of monkeys that the federal government has infected with smallpox since May 2001: 24
Harper's Index

Source:

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Frederick, Md.)

Aug 2002Extra amount Oregon charges per year to register a hybrid gas/electric car in compensation for lost gasoline taxes: $15
Harper's Index

Source:

Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles (Salem)

Jul 2002Percentage of male fish in two English rivers that scientists say have been "effectively feminised" by estrogen in the water: 100
Harper's Index

Source:

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Windermere, U.K.)

Jun 2002Ratio of the number of Americans killed by terrorists last year to the estimated number who died from food poisoning: 3:5
Harper's Index

Source:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)/Harper's research

Jun 2002Percentage of new state laws involving biotechnology that increase penalties for destroying genetically modified crops: 70
Harper's Index

Source:

Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology (Washington)

Jun 2002Chance of contracting a "fairly common" form of colon cancer reported on in the New York Times April 4: 1 in 8,000
Harper's Index

Source:

"Promising Drug Fails in Test Involving a Kind of Cancer," New York Times, 4/4/02

May 2002Minutes from nuclear armageddon shown on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists "doomsday clock" this year: 7
Harper's Index

Source:

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago)

May 2002Number of states that reported drought conditions in March: 32
Harper's Index

Source:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Washington)

May 2002Days after scientists this year cited the universe's average color as pale turquoise that it was amended to light beige: 56
Harper's Index

Source:

Ivan Baldry, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)

May 2002Estimated percentage of matter in the universe determined this year to be invisible: 98
Harper's Index

Source:

Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)

May 2002Number of imprisoned Americans who have been freed by DNA evidence since 1989: 104
Harper's Index

Source:

Innocence Project, Cardozo School of Law (N.Y.C.)

May 2002Number who were found guilty of criminal acts: 2
Harper's Index

Source:

Harper's research

May 2002Hours for which New Orleans's airport was partly evacuated in February over a package later found to contain gumbo: 5
Harper's Index

Source:

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (Kenner, La.)

Apr 2002Percentage by which genetically modified seeds increase a farm's economic yield, according to a study of 300 Iowa farms: 0
Harper's Index

Source:

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University (Ames)

Mar 2002Weeks after Italy passed a new evidence-restriction law that the prime minister tried to use it in his own defense: 2
Harper's Index

Source:

Court of Appeal (Milan, Italy)

Feb 2002Number by which a new study claims that media estimates of the U.S. Muslim population are inflated: 3,200,000
Harper's Index

Source:

American Jewish Committee (N.Y.C.)

Jan 2002Percentage who believe that the tenets of astrology "probably" or "definitely" have some scientific truth: 48
Harper's Index

Source:

National Opinion Research Center (Chicago)

Dec 2001Page on which the New York Times reported the EPA's 7-year extension of genetically modified corn sales last fall: C6
Harper's Index

Source:

Harper's research

Dec 2001Percentage change since 1980 in federal funding for research on renewable energy sources: –83
Harper's Index

Source:

U.S. Department of Energy

Oct 2001Percentage of Russian nuclear scientists who say they are willing to work on another country's missile-defense program: 21
Harper's Index

Source:

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington)

Aug 2001Duration in decades of an Alabama study that allowed hundreds of syphilitic African Americans to go untreated: 4
Harper's Index

Source:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)

Aug 2001Number of decades between the end of the study and the Alabama legislature's expression of "regret" over it in May: 3
Harper's Index

Source:

Harper's research

May 2001Chance that a page in the middle-school textbook Science Insights contains a serious factual error: 1 in 10
Harper's Index

Source:

David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Los Altos, Calif.)

Nov 2000Minimum number of chromosomal regions proposed as sites for the tendency toward schizophrenia: 6
Harper's Index

Source:

Prof. Kenneth Kendler, Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond)

Nov 2000Number of the six formerly inert elements whose inertia Finnish scientists have managed to disrupt: 4
Harper's Index

Source:

National Science Foundation (Arlington, Va.)

Oct 2000Estimated tons of lead contained in the estimated 315 million computers that will be obsolete by 2004: 600,000
Harper's Index

Source:

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (San Jose, Calif.)

Oct 2000Tons of SF5CF3, a synthetic greenhouse gas, discovered this year to have accumulated in the atmosphere since 1950: 4,000
Harper's Index

Source:

Dr. William T. Sturges, University of East Anglia (Norwich, U.K.)

Oct 2000Number of U.S. houses that are really haunted, according to the Ghost Research Society: 789
Harper's Index

Source:

Ghost Research Society (Oak Lawn, Ill.)

Oct 2000Tons by which the Earth's weight was discovered this year to have been overestimated: 8.8 X 1018
Harper's Index

Source:

University of Washington (Seattle)

Oct 2000Year in which scientists confirmed that subjecting newborn rats to pain may have long-term neurological effects: 2000
Harper's Index

Source:

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (Bethesda, Md.)

Jul 2000Percentage by which the estimated number of genes on the human genome has increased since 1995: 100
Harper's Index

Source:

Prof. David Relman, Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)

Jul 2000Minimum number of new bacteria species discovered to exist in the human mouth last year: 37
Harper's Index

Source:

National Resources Defense Council (N.Y.C.)

Jun 2000Number of Japanese couples who used Dolly the cloned sheep in their wedding photo before researchers ended the practice: 1
Harper's Index

Source:

Roslin Institute (Roslin, Scotland)

Jun 2000Years after becoming a priest that Gregor Mendel completed the work that would earn him the title father of genetics: 16
Harper's Index

Source:

Robin Marantz Henig, The Monk in the Garden, Houghton Mifflin Company (N.Y.C.)

Jun 2000Number of Charles Darwin's children who became eugenicists: 1
Harper's Index

Source:

Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale Group (Farmington Hills, Mo.)

Feb 2000Number of the 46 Africans found to be HIV-positive before 1981 who lived within 90 miles of 1950s polio vaccine trials: 45
Harper's Index

Source:

Edward Hooper, The River, Little, Brown and Company (Boston)

Jan 2000Number of the universe's spatial dimensions of which physicists now believe we are unaware: 7
Harper's Index

Source:

Prof. Michio Kaku, City College of New York (N.Y.C.)

Jan 2000Age at which Albert Einstein spoke his first words: 3
Harper's Index

Source:

Albrecht Fölsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography, Penguin (London)

Jan 2000Estimated amount lost by Isaac Newton in South Sea stock speculation in the 1720s: $2,000,000
Harper's Index

Source:

Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (N.Y.C.)

Jan 2000Estimated temperature of Hell, according to two Spanish physicists' interpretation of the Bible: 832°F
Harper's Index

Source:

Department of Applied Physics, University of Santiago (Santiago, Spain)

Jan 2000Factor by which the estimated size of the universe has been increased since 1900: 1,000,000
Harper's Index

Source:

Prof. Christopher Anderson, University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Sep 1999Number of U.S. high schools that have hired a Massachusetts firm to test students' hair for evidence of drug use: 80
Harper's Index

Source:

Psychemedics Corporation (Cambridge, Mass.)

Mar 1999Date and time of the annual pi celebration held at San Francisco's Exploratorium: 3/14, 1:59
Harper's Index

Source:

The Exploratorium (San Francisco)

Mar 1999Number of pies brought the annual pi celebration held at San Francisco's Exploratorium: 15
Harper's Index

Source:

The Exploratorium (San Francisco)

Jan 1999Change since 1916 in the percentage of U.S. scientists who say they believe in a god: 0
Harper's Index

Source:

Nature magazine (Washington)

Dec 1998Fee that an anonymous family has paid Texas A&M University to clone their pet collie mix, Missy: $2,300,000
Harper's Index

Source:

Texas A&M University (College Station, Tex.)

Dec 1998Amount the U.S. Energy Department plans to spend by 2000 to keep Russian nuclear scientists employed: $40,000,000
Harper's Index

Source:

U.S. Department of Energy

Oct 1998Amount Microsoft offers any computer-science professor who mentions its programs in an academic presentation: $200
Harper's Index

Source:

Grant/Jacoby, Inc. (Chicago)

Aug 1998Number of years the U.S. trained Pakistani nuclear-research scientists as part of the “Atoms for Peace” program: 19
Harper's Index

Source:

Arms Control Association (Washington)

Aug 1998Amount British Nuclear Fuels paid the British Scouts last year to add its logo to their scientist badge: $49,776
Harper's Index

Source:

British Nuclear Fuels (Warrington, U.K.)

Jun 1998Portion of all research time on government supercomputers granted in 1996 that went to military scientists: 1/2
Harper's Index

Source:

National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Champaign-Urbana, Ill.)

Jun 1998Portion of all research time on government supercomputers granted in 1996 that will go to military scientists this year: 5/6
Harper's Index

Source:

National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Champaign-Urbana, Ill.)

May 1998Cubic feet in the Navy's F-18 Super Hornet jet that have been set aside for computer systems not yet developed: 17
Harper's Index

Source:

Navy Press Office (Washington)

Apr 1998Minimum number of the 10 biological materials suspected in Iraqi warfare research that were supplied by U.S. firms: 9
Harper's Index

Source:

Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Apr 1998Ratio of bacteria living in a pound of mud to those living in a pound of dirt: 1,000:1
Harper's Index

Source:

W. T. Frankenberger Jr., University of California (Riverside)

June 27, 2008 Scientists found that humans laugh because they are surprised by new patterns, that they grow happier as they grow older, and that their sense of adventure is located within the ventral striatum; they also found that they can easily remember happiness and sadness, but, with the exception of some groups of Asian Americans, often have trouble recalling mixed emotions. People also sleep poorly when they eat at night, and tend to overeat as they contemplate their own deaths.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source 1:

Science Daily

Source 2:

Science Daily

Source 3:

Science Daily

Source 4:

Science Daily

Source 5:

Science Daily

Source 6:

Science Daily

June 3, 2008 Scientists located the part of the brain responsible for understanding sarcasm.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

New York Times

May 3, 2008 Scientists reported that echolocating bats cry out loud to detect their prey, emitting sounds louder than those at a rock concert.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source 1:

Plosone

Source 2:

Science Daily

May 2, 2008 Scientists found that spiders “talk” to potential mates using a type of light not visible to the human eye.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

BBC

April 13, 2008European scientists used lasers to stimulate electrical activity in thunderclouds.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Scientific Blogging

March 20, 2008 Researchers found that a diet that includes lots of folate will keep sperm healthy.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

BBC News

March 14, 2008 Scientists concluded that destroying information by throwing it into a black hole was not effective, because the information could leak from the hole at 1,000 bits per second, the same speed as a dial-up Internet connection.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Scientific American

February 22, 2008 Scientists revealed that the sun will vaporize the earth if we cannot figure out how to change our orbit within 7.6 billion years.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

Scientific Blogging

February 19, 2008 Researchers were at a loss to explain why suicide rates recently rose sharply for Americans aged 45-54, and it was revealed that the man who killed five Northern Illinois University students and himself had stopped taking Prozac shortly before his death because it “made him feel like a zombie and lazy.”
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source 1:

NY Times

Source 2:

NY Times

February 6, 2008 NASA celebrated its 50th anniversary by beaming the Beatles hit “Across the Universe” into deep space, directing the song toward Polaris, 431 light-years away. Scientists meeting at Arizona State University were concerned that the broadcast could provoke an attack by mean-spirited aliens. “Before sending out even symbolic messages,” said a researcher, “we need an open discussion about the potential risks.”
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source 1:

Washington Post

Source 2:

Telegraph

January 31, 2008 British scientists announced that it would soon be possible to convert female bone marrow into viable sperm cells, hastening the obsolescence of men.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

Death of the father: British scientists discover how to turn women's bone marrow into sperm

January 20, 2008 Scientists funded by mobile-phone companies found that if the phones are used before bedtime their radiation can reduce sleep and cause headaches and confusion; the Mobile Manufacturers Forum insisted that the “results were inconclusive.”
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

The Independent

January 20, 2008 Scientists in Chicago found that lonely people are more likely to assign human qualities to their pets and to believe in God.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Science Daily

January 19, 2008 Hungarian scientists created a computer program that, based on its analysis of 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs, can exceed human capability in accurately classifying sheepdog barks.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Science Daily

January 11, 2008 Scientists from the American Astronomical Society attended their annual meeting and agreed that the universe is bizarre and violent. “This is the glory of the universe,” said the association's president. “What is odd and what is normal is changing.”
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

Associated Press

December 12, 2007 Scientists cloned fluorescent cats, developed an antidote for zombieism in cockroaches, and revealed that evolutionary changes in the lower backs and hip joints of females prevent pregnant women from toppling over. “When you think about it,” said Harvard anthropologist Katherine Whitcome, “women make it look so very damn easy.”
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source 1:

New Scientist

Source 2:

Yahoo News

Source 3:

CNN

December 8, 2007Scientists discovered a mysterious black fungus growing on the cave paintings of Lascaux. Some thought it might be the effect of global warming, noting that soil temperatures around the caves have risen two degrees centigrade since 1982.
Weekly Review

By Sam Stark
Source:

NYT

October 5, 2007 Canadian researchers found that lonely, bullied, or ostracized children have sex earlier than happier children.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

Canada.com

September 12, 2007 Scientists predicted that ebola would also kill the last remaining western lowland gorillas.
Weekly Review

By Sam Stark
Source:

BBC

August 24, 2007 Researchers found that cornrows can cause permanent bald patches.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

BBC

August 24, 2007 Scientists found a very big hole in the universe.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Yahoo News

August 23, 2007 Studies in the U.S. showed that one in four adults read no books last year, that white youths are happier than the youths of other races, and that senior citizens are enjoying an active and varied sex life that includes masturbation, vaginal intercourse, and oral sex.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source 1:

Yahoo News

Source 2:

Yahoo News

Source 3:

Washington Post

August 22, 2007 Scientists in England determined that Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to outrun a professional soccer player.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

BBC

August 20, 2007 Scientists in Louisiana determined that some obese people may be infected with a fat virus.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

MSNBC.com

August 18, 2007 Scientists analyzing the urine of the lonely found higher levels of epinephrine, a “fight or flight” chemical that contributes to physiological decay over time.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

biosingularity.wordpress.com

August 16, 2007 German physicists claimed to have broken the speed of light.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

TelegraphUK

August 8, 2007 Scottish physicists reversed the Casimir force to make objects levitate.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

TelegraphUK

August 6, 2007Scientists found that a female mouse with a disabled nasal organ will begin to exhibit masculine behavior: mounting other mice, engaging in pelvic thrusting, and abandoning her young.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

Sydney Morning Herald

July 31, 2007 Researchers at the University of Texas identified 237 reasons that people have sex, including “he smelled nice.”
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

ABC News

July 30, 2007 Australian scientists said that rats can learn the risks of consuming marijuana.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

The Age

July 30, 2007 Marine biologists discovered an octopus with elephant ears.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

CBC News via SympaticoMSN

July 29, 2007A team of scientists had bred schizophrenic mice.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

The Sunday Times via Times Online

July 25, 2007Scientists said that obesity can spread like a virus among friends.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

New York Times

July 20, 2007A French geologist stated that a newly discovered underground lake in Darfur, which was expected to help bring peace to the water-starved region, likely dried up at least 5,000 years ago.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

BBC News

July 4, 2007A study claimed that men with high testosterone make irrational decisions.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

Newscientist.com

July 3, 2007 Scientists cloned a sperm.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

BBCNews.com

July 2, 2007 Scientists succeeded for the first time in making a baby using a lab-matured thawed egg.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

BBCnews.com

July 2, 2007Scientists announced a potential drug that could erase bad memories.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

Livescience.com

June 20, 2007 Scientists said that global warming, overfishing, and pollution are stressing out coral, causing an outbreak of lethal herpes in the world’s reefs. “The coral,” said microbiologist Forest Rowher, “is actually losing control of its microbial community.”
Weekly Review

By Christian Lorentzen
Source:

Live Science

June 20, 2007 Scientists called Europe's winter of 2006 - 2007 the warmest in 700 years. Scientists called Europe's winter of 2006 - 2007 the warmest in 700 years.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

New Scientist

June 13, 2007 Mr. Wizard died.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

LA Times

June 11, 2007 Scientists speculated that the woolly mammoth, which died off more than 10,000 years ago, as well as the saber-toothed cat, the mastodon, and the giant ground sloth, were exterminated by a comet that exploded over Canada with a force equivalent to more than a million nuclear weapons.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Washington Post

June 7, 2007 Scientists successfully produced talking construction paper, trained dogs to track polar bear feces, and made stem cells out of adult mice.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source 1:

BBC News

Source 2:

New York Times

Source 3:

Medical News today via google news

May 30, 2007It was revealed that young sparrows learn their songs by eavesdropping.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

UPI via ScienceDaily

May 29, 2007 Scientists in Des Moines, Iowa, talked to apes, who responded by pointing to lexigrams.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

ABCNews

May 28, 2007 Argentine researchers used Viagra to treat jet lag in hamsters.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Wichita Eagle

May 11, 2007 Peruvian scientists were concerned that an itinerant penguin from Chile “could suffer discrimination” among Peru's penguins.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

BBC

May 10, 2007Researchers at Johns Hopkins University linked throat cancer to oral sex.
Weekly Review

By Sam Stark
Source:

BBC

April 18, 2007A Stanford study concluded that pollution from ethanol could be a worse health hazard than that from gasoline.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

San Francisco Gate

April 13, 2007 Scientists announced the creation of nascent sperm cells from human bone marrow samples.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

BBC

April 5, 2007 Researchers used infrared and atomic-emission spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, electron microscopy, pollen analysis, and the leading “noses” in the perfume industry to determine that a rib bone unearthed at the site where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake actually belonged to an Egyptian mummy.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

New York Times and Xinhua

April 4, 2007 British scientists were “baffled” by the discovery of five-footed frogs.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Breitbart.com

March 27, 2007 Austrian scientists claimed that men who sleep in the same bed as their partners may suffer reduced mental function.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

iol.co.za

February 23, 2007 Scientists said “quasicrystalline” designs in medieval Iranian architecture indicated that Islamic scholars had made a mathematical breakthrough that Western scholars achieved only decades ago and concluded that ancient Iranian culture was very, very smart.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Chicago Tribune

February 23, 2007 Researchers at Johns Hopkins University confirmed that mothers suffering from heartburn are likely to give birth to hairy newborns, and scientists in Senegal watched chimpanzees fashion spears from sticks and use their weapons to stab sleeping bush babies.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source 1:

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Source 2:

Washington Post

February 2, 2007Biological anthropologists speculated that male chimps living in communal “free love” simian societies attempt to control the sexuality of their female partners by beating them.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Science Now

January 26, 2007A molecular scientist who owns a café announced that he had found a way to put caffeine in a donut.
Weekly Review

By Sam Stark
Source:

AP via NY Post

January 25, 2007 Scientists in Jena, Germany, who had been using spaghetti and cucumbers as bait to make a sloth climb up and down a pole, gave up after three years.
Weekly Review

By Sam Stark
Source:

AP

January 17, 2007Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands on their “doomsday clock” two minutes closer to midnight.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

BBCnews.com

January 15, 2007 Scientists in London were working on a gum that suppresses appetite and fights obesity. “Obese people like chewing,” explained a researcher.
Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke
Source:

BBCnews.com

January 2, 2007 Scientists were performing experiments to turn gay sheep straight.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

Daily Telegraph

December 7, 2006 Scientists suspected that water was flowing on Mars.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Washington Post

December 7, 2006Astronomers watched a giant black hole eat an entire star.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Washington Post

December 4, 2006 Scientists discovered that the prehistoric Dunkleosteus terrelli, the “Darth Vader of fish,” had the strongest fish bite ever and could snack on sharks.
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source 1:

BBC News

Source 2:

Washington Post

December 4, 2006 NASA head Michael Griffin compared space explorers to Vikings. “Fifty years into it,” he explained, “the amount of progress that the Vikings had made would not have been that noticeable, and that's where we are in space flight today.”
Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Source:

Washington Post

November 28, 2006 Researchers at the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory announced that they had developed explosive-sniffing bees.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

CNN

November 28, 2006 Scientists said that a “primordial meteorite” may hold clues about the “raw organic molecules needed for life,” that humpback whales may be every bit as intelligent as humans, dolphins, and great apes, and that women speak three times as much as men.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source 1:

BBC

Source 2:

The Age

Source 3:

Daily Mail

November 21, 2006 Chinese scientists revealed that showing pornography to pandas has helped increase the captive panda population; Vassar scientists said that they had successfully mated robot fish.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source 1:

AP via Australian

Source 2:

Xinhua

November 20, 2006American scientists announced the creation of a self-aware robot that can heal itself.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

Information Week

November 16, 2006The Department of Health and Human Services refused to ensure that its reports on abstinence for young people were factually and scientifically accurate.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

TPM muckracker

November 15, 2006A researcher in Germany claimed that the swords of Damascus, which were made from a type of steel known as wootz, have a microstructure of carbon nanotubes.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Nature

November 2, 2006Scientists claimed that at the current rate of consumption, global sea food supplies will be obliterated by the year 2048.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

Washington Post

October 24, 2006The Reproductive Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, revealed that men who use their cell phones too much could be making themselves infertile.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

The Independent

October 19, 2006 Scientists identified more than 200 oceanic dead zones.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

local6.com

October 19, 2006 South Korean scientists announced the development of a new genetically altered strain of adenovirus capable of destroying cancer cells.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

AFP via Breitbart

October 16, 2006In Panama, 22 people died from ingesting poisoned cough syrup that contained the industrial chemical diethylene glycol, rather than the safe solvent glycerin glycol.
Weekly Review

By Gemma Sieff
Source:

New York Times

October 8, 2006A Virginia biology teacher was suspended after compelling her students to pose with the bones of a century-old corpse in Pocahontas Cemetery.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

North Country Gazette

October 6, 2006Swiss researchers in Syria discovered the remains of an extinct species of giant camel.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

iol.co.za

October 6, 2006A new group called Scientists and Engineers for America vowed to promote a pro-science president in 2008.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

New Scientist

October 3, 2006John Mather and George Smoot won the Nobel Prize in physics for their research into cosmic microwave background radiation.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Bloomberg.com

September 28, 2006 Muslim scientists were called to jihad.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

AP via Yahoo! News

September 26, 2006A dinosaur species was cleared of cannibalism.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

New York Times

September 26, 2006Brain images showed that hysteria is real.
Weekly Review

By Miriam Markowitz
Source:

New York Times

September 20, 2006 Researchers in Massachusetts successfully gave a mouse a tan without exposing it to the sun; other scientists partially restored the sight of blind rats.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

BBC News

September 13, 2006 Scientists in India announced that they had discovered a new species of bird.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

The New York Times

September 5, 2006 English scientists were conducting experiments to determine whether sea horses could be tempted into adultery.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

New York Post via Nerve.com

August 14, 2006 Astronomers were trying to decide whether Pluto was or was not a planet. “So far,” said an astronomer, “it looks like a stalemate.”
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

CNN.com

August 14, 2006Marine biologists discovered a huge hypoxic “dead zone” off the Oregon coast. “We can't be sure what happened to all the fish,” said a researcher, “but it's clear they are gone.”
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Science Daily

August 2, 2006 Japanese physicists were preparing to create a “baby universe,” with its own laws of physics, by cutting off a piece of our own.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

Sentido.tv

August 2, 2006The London School of Economics determined that good-looking couples are 36 percent more likely than their ugly counterparts to have female offspring.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Washington Post

August 2, 2006Geologists in Ohio were baffled by the earthquakes in suburban Cleveland.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

CNN

August 1, 2006 Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control failed in their attempts to create a more virulent strain of bird flu.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Washington Post

July 31, 2006A study conducted at Texas A&M University found that cigarette smoking reduced the impact of alcohol on inebriated rats. “I hope people won't interpret that as a good thing,” said lead researcher Wei-Jung Chen.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Seed Magazine

July 21, 2006An American scientist claimed that parrots are as intelligent as five-year-old children.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

ABC (Australia)

July 21, 2006 Research revealed that giant thermonuclear explosions detected in the constellation Ophiuchus were caused by a Red Giant star dumping gas onto a White Dwarf star.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

CNN.com

July 20, 2006 Scientists in Austria recommended that men sleep alone to better safeguard their brainpower.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

BBC

July 19, 2006 Scientists learned that Britain's wealthy neighborhoods may cause cancer in children.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Washington Post and Cruises.about.com

July 19, 2006 Scientists learned that Britain's river fish are undergoing sex changes.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

EITB24.com via Google News

July 19, 2006A study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania discovered a positive correlation between education and sunburn.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

Washington Post

July 18, 2006 Research revealed that Canadian high-rise hotels may be to blame for a 200 percent increase in mist levels at Niagara Falls.
Weekly Review

By Theodore Ross
Source:

NY Times

July 13, 2006 Scientists in Pennsylvania found that menarche occurs earlier in girls who live in homes with half- and step-brothers, without fathers, or in urban areas, but occurs later in girls who live with sisters. Such an adaptation, the scientists proposed, might help limit inbreeding.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Live Science

July 12, 2006Scientists in Massachusetts implanted sensors in a paralyzed man's brain that allowed the man to check email.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

BBC News

July 12, 2006In Australia scientists found that mothers are less revolted by the smell of their child's feces than they are by the feces of other children.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

Live Science

July 12, 2006 Scientists in Bologna, Italy, disinterred the eighteenth-century castrato Farinelli in the hope of finding what made him such a powerful singer.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

BBC News

July 10, 2006 Scientists in Maryland found that two thirds of people who consumed the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin had extremely meaningful experiences.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

The Wall Street Journal

July 8, 2006 British scientists found that playing with dolls can help improve Alzheimer's patients' communication abilities.
Weekly Review

By Paul Ford
Source:

BBC News

July 7, 2006New research confirmed that smoking and obesity increase the risk of erectile dysfunction.
Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge
Source 1:

New York Times

Source 2:

Reuters

July 5, 2006Astronomers observed what they said might be a strange glowing blob of dark matter sucking in gas.
Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge
Source:

New Scientist

June 29, 2006 Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology announced the creation of a machine that can record and reproduce smells. “We can tell a green apple from a red apple,” said TIT scientist Pambuk Somboon.
Weekly Review

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
Source:

Guardian