- Map mashup reveals world’s top science cities – Combining citation data with Google Maps reveals the cities where science prospers, and those where it doesn't.
- 9 arguments for (against) herbal remedies – About 40% of pharmaceuticals have a herbal origin but that doesn't mean natural is all good. Here's 9 arguments often posited in support of herbal over pharma. The first one: They’re natural. (So what? Strychnine is natural.), Read on for the other 8.
- The long-distance shimmer – The secret to controlling an NMR spectrometer is not to let your mind wander. The mind can play tricks on even an experienced spectroscopist…Chris Blake explains the loneliness of the long-distance shimmer.
- Simple salt removal to get fresh water – Simple desalination. Scientists in the US have developed a membrane-free, solvent extraction method to remove salt from seawater that works at low temperatures.
- Open Laboratory 2011 – submissions so far – It's time to submit your blog posts to the 2011 Open Laboratory.
- Is 10,000 hours practice enough? – Some researchers believe that talent is learned and earned through extended and intense practice of a skill rather than being an innate expression of genes that would otherwise lie dormant. This notion is nowhere more succinctly encapsulated than in the 10,000 hours rule. posited by psychologist Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, and made famous by author Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers”. My latest Pivot Points column for the Euroscientist Blog is now online.
My latest selection of six science stories, picked up by David Bradley Science Writer @sciencebase.