Stories by JR Minkel

7 Radical Energy Solutions

The failure rate may be 90 percent, but if any of these exotic technologies succeeds, it could significantly improve energy security and efficiency

More Vitamin D Could Prevent Some Psychosis

Low levels in pregnant mothers may put babies at risk of developing schizophrenia

Student Surveys Contradict Claims of Evolved Sex Differences

New data is undermining the evidence that has long been proposed to support the eager males—choosy females paradigm

How Acquired Diseases Become Hereditary Illnesses

New understanding of epigenetics, or the molecular processes that control genes, show how it underlies hereditary forms of obesity and cancer

Fear Review: Critique of Forensic Psychopathy Scale Delayed 3 Years by Threat of Lawsuit

Does an academic's use of legal threats to stop a critical paper from being published subvert the peer review process, which is fundamental to modern scientific research?

Black-and-White TV: Nonverbal Racial Bias Found in Popular Television Shows

Facial expressions and body language may reinforce racism

Putting Madness in Its Place: Can the Environment Explain Schizophrenia's Hereditary Patterns?

Growing evidence points to birthplace as a risk factor for schizophrenia

Head Lines: Men Are Choosy, Too

Also: Pack Your Bags for Creativity and Confidence Wins over Smarts

Abruptly Forgotten: Working Memory Disappears in a Blink

Certain memories die suddenly rather than fading away

Phobos-Grunt Probe to Put Microbial Life in Mars Orbit

A tagalong to the Russian sample-return mission makes some researchers uncomfortable

Strange but True: Superfluid Helium Can Climb Walls

Quantum rivers, waterfalls and fountains you can see with your naked eye

Star Making around Holes

Updates: Whatever Happened to LED Lightbulbs?

Also Updates on Bubbles Producing Light, Virus-Infecting Viruses and Galapagos Tortoise Breeding

No Ruling Out Life

Microscope on a Dime

News Scan Briefs: Eyes on the Tops of Their Heads; Play Dates for Germ Sharing; Another Gene for Alzheimer's

Also: The New Stone Age; Mountain Climbing Trees; Location Influences Voters; and Martian Hit-and-Run

World's "most powerful magnet" isn't quite--But is still impressive

Discovery News directs our attention to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University, where researchers are working on the "world's most powerful magnet—one that won't blow up a split second after it's turned on."

The bit about not blowing up is key...

Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Packed a One-Two Punch

Distant explosion visible to the naked eye breaks the mold with double jet

How long would it take the LHC to defrost a pizza?

Evolving Creationism in the Classroom

Creationists cast themselves as proponents of "academic freedom"