At the White House Science Fair, US President Barack Obama met a year eight kid who had built an air cannon that shoots marshmallows. Of course, Obama had to give it a go …
Science
Research funding cuts: scientists should be making a noise
Rumours that the federal government is considering cutting $400 million over three years from the National Health and Medical Research Council are concerning, writes science blogger and author Stephen Luntz.
Academy of Science: how to deal with the uncertainty in the science
A balanced assessment of the available evidence and prior knowledge allows us to attach levels of confidence to the findings of climate science.
The entire universe…in one website
Science geeks, eat your heart out! This website endeavors to encapsulate the scale of the universe. And it damn near succeeds.
Should science journalists pick science?
It’s a nice concept that journalists are objective and neutral. But journalism need to report the truth and provide the additional analysis and context that readers don’t always have in scientific debates, argues science journo Ed Yong.
Do gay animals exist?
Albatrosses are known for being the most monogamous birds in the animal kingdom, but don’t assume they’re all male and female couples. Jon Mooallem explores the taboo topic of homosexuality in the animal kingdom.
Krill ask the tough questions…
Whales, are they our adorable, bigboned aquafriends or cynical, obese, mass-murderers?
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The lack of good journalism
Crikey readers weigh in on lazy summer journalism, hate groups of Facebook — how can they be stopped? — and the PR abuse of science.
PHOTO GALLERY: The dying, derelict Biosphere 2
Photographer Noah Sheldon captures the rotting and semi-derelict Biosphere 2, a US$200m bio-architectural experiment in the Arizona desert, an example of one of science’s big experimental failures.
Meat sits in your colon for 40 years and other celebrity myths
From Roger Moore claiming that foie gras gives you Alzheimers, to claims that chemotherapy poisoned Patrick Swayze to death, The Telegraph debunks the crazy scientific myths that celebrities spout.
The science of Chinese whispers gone wrong
It all started when Reuters published a story about the positive cognitive effects of bad moods. Too bad the “study” doesn’t exist and neither does the journal it reportedly comes from, says science blogger Michael Slezak.
Has the sun lost its spots?
Among some global warming sceptics, there is speculation that the Sun may be on the verge of falling into an extended slumber similar to the so-called Maunder Minimum, several sunspot-scarce decades during the 17th and 18th centuries.
How to find fraud in science
A meta-analysis of scientific studies has found that many scientists are guilty of engaging in some subtle number tweaking — but just what is “cleaning up” data and what is outright fraud?
weird 
Man without fingerprints confounds US customs
An estimated one in 50 people around the world lack matchable fingerprints. One cancer patient’s fingerprints were so eroded by the medication he was taking that the US authorities couldn’t let him into the country.
Lessons from the bones of Ida
A 47 million-year-old fossil gives a new sense of mankind’s enduring adaptability.
Big bang boffins’ black hole to swallow earth on Wednesday
The world will be destroyed on Wednesday, writes Neil Walker.
Crikey essay: The fiction of impartial Australian science
Our society lives with a couple of open fictions. One of those fictions is the idea that science is impartial, that it can be relied upon to form the best possible basis for public policy, writes Ben Gilna.
The 8 bad meta-arguments against global warming
When the science fails, anti-global warming irrationalists resort to meta-arguments. And that’s where the thinking gets really bad.
