Take a look at this photograph published in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. (You can see a larger photo by clicking on the link.) It show the asymmetric skin damage on the face of a 69-year old truck driver due to the many hours driving with just the left side of his face exposed to sunlight.

Those of us who grew up in the tropics avoided staying out in the sun if we possibly could. We sought the shade and I still find it strange when at the first sign of warm weather in the spring, people here in the US rush to lie out in the sun in skimpy clothing. [Read more…]

I find science amazing. But sometimes it is easy to forget the incredible things that engineers are able to do using basic science discoveries. Here engineer Bill Hammack explains how accelerometers work and how the miniature ones inside these devices are made.

Dr. George Murray Levick was a member of the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in 1910 where he observed penguin behavior, including necrophilia, that so shocked him that he recorded his observations in Greek so that others would not be able to read about them accidentally. [Read more…]

There has been quite a bit of publicity about watching the transit of Venus across the Sun. Apparently for a few hours earlier this week, you could see a small black dot move across the face of the Sun. [Read more…]

In my review of the futuristic novel Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, I mentioned one element that the author envisaged which was an iPod-like device that people carried with them that would immediately calculate your attractiveness, informing everyone nearby both of your absolute score as well as your ranking in a room full of people. It sounded a little disconcerting, even creepy. [Read more…]

A lot of outrage has been expressed at the behavior of the school administrators and the school nurse who did not allow a student suffering an asthma attack the use of his inhaler. The question naturally arises as to how anyone could be so callous as to not respond to an immediate visible need. This was especially so with respect to the nurse whom one would think would put medical needs first and bureaucratic niceties second. [Read more…]

Contrary to the popular American belief that it was Columbus who discovered that the Earth was round, that fact was not only known a long time before, the circumference of the Earth had actually been calculated to high accuracy 2,200 years ago. [Read more…]

(Note: I accidentally posted a draft of this yesterday before it was ready for publishing. I deleted the draft and am reposting it today with some additional editing and new material. I apologize for any confusion.)

I myself do not routinely swear. But when I accidentally do something stupid and hurt myself, I will find myself involuntarily swearing. I am sure that many people have had that same experience or at least being strongly tempted to swear when experiencing pain. But why do we do that? [Read more…]