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Our own spin on topical science news and issues. This blog also serves as a place to discuss AAAS's goals to "advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people."

  • Using the ocean to run a heat engine
    January 28, 2013

    In 1976, science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle published a Galaxy magazine article titled How Long until Doomsday? It was written partly in response to The Club of Rome’s downer of a book called The Limits to Growth, which saw economies going forward as severely resource-limited. One way out of our energy dilemma, according to Pournelle, was to harness the heat being harvested by the ocean. The Gulf Stream, he pointed out, had 75 times the energy being used at the time in the United States. »

  • Can rehab help scientists guilty of misconduct?
    January 25, 2013

    Could remediation work for researchers who have committed scientific misconduct? A new program run by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) aims to find out. »

  • Interdisciplinary research on Flamingo Bay, South Carolina
    January 24, 2013

    Training and working in interdisciplinary studies can be difficult. Everyone has a different opinion and a different viewpoint on the major topics. However, these differing perspectives are exactly what make an interdisciplinary team shine. A recent article in Archaeology about the study of Carolina bays exemplify this. »

  • Appreciating methodology
    January 23, 2013

    The most basic reporting of scientific research can be broken down into four sections: introduction, methods (and materials), results, and discussion. However, it is not the purpose of this article to discuss the merits of these in detail, rather I would like to shed a light on what I believe to be an often underappreciated component of it: The methods section. »

  • Deadly amphibian fungus found in crayfish
    January 17, 2013

    A fungus has been decimating amphibian populations across the globe for more than two decades. Now scientists have identified a new culprit in spreading the disease — freshwater crayfish. »

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