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.
Science
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.
