Science

Short Science, March 3, 2013

3 Mar 2013

A letter by Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, outlining the Nobel Prize-winning achievement to his young son is expected to fetch as much as US$2 million when it is auctioned by Christie's...

Book review: Wind Wizard, by Siobhan Roberts

3 Mar 2013

This book suffers from an identity crisis: it is marketed as "popular science" but its subject means much of the book is given over to scientific discussions of natural phenomenon and engineering...

Research paper finds obesity myths are still accepted at face value

24 Feb 2013

In a study titled "Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity" published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors scoured popular media and scientific literature for obesity-...

Short Science, February 24, 2013

24 Feb 2013

Nasa's Curiosity rover has scooped up a sample from the interior of a Martian rock and found that the powdery soil just beneath the planet's rust-coloured exterior was actually a light grey colour...

Short Science, February 17, 2013

17 Feb 2013

The particle collider that gave scientists a glimpse of what may be the Higgs boson shut down for a two-year revamp that will allow it to pursue the quest with renewed vigour.

Opinion

Wang Xiangwei

Super ministries may not be the right answer for mainland China

Alex Lo

Church developers remain unbowed by government rules

George Chen

A house is not a home until it becomes affordable

Cosmic rays are last gasp of dying stars: scientists

Though ubiquitous, the origin of cosmic rays has never been pinned down. Scientists have suggested that they could either come from the remains of supernovae, which are the violent explosions that...

Wellbeing trumps decorum when inflight flatulence strikes, say experts

The study concluded that anecdotal evidence that flying increases flatulence is not hot air, finding that changes in air pressure at altitude result in the gut producing more gas.

The Chinese milk scandal: Why did some children die and some live?

Scientists have found a bacteria living in the gut that makes melamine more toxic – a finding that could explain why some children in China died and others lived after drinking milk tainted with...

Love, sex, reproduction and a rose grown in space: science for Valentine's Day

You knew the scientists were going to be all over this.

ASTEROID

Asteroid set for near-miss with Earth

A 45-metre-wide asteroid will come remarkably close to Earth next week, even closer than high-flying communication and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known close miss for an object of...

SCIENCE

Dinosaur's demise an opportunity for mammals

Two studies published in the journal Science better explain the earth-shaking consequences of a catastrophic cosmic collision 66 million years ago when a comet or asteroid smashed into the Gulf of...