An explosion of Virgin Births is happening in the US

I’ve come across an article that dates back a couple of years within the British Medical Journal, and is a study that reveals that 1 out of every 200 women in the US who are pregnant, claim to have done so without ever having had any sexual intercourse. Do we have lots of little Jesuses and gangs of shepherds roaming … Read more

This week’s Insanity: Invitation to a Chickenpox party

One manifestation of the rising tide of the non-scientific anti-vaccine movement has been the arrival of the pox party. The idea is that when somebody has a kid who has chickenpox they hold a party and invite all their friends around so that their kids can catch it and thus get it all over and done with early. … Read more

Claim: Bacon is as bad as smoking and will give you cancer

As I’m sure you are aware, scary sounding headlines (“Processed meats cause cancer“) have been popping up all over the place, and some of it is more than slightly over the top and not warranted by the actual research. Here is the Express Headline … OK, the short summary is this : “eating Bacon is … Read more

An Example of a “Hey, that’s odd” discovery.

Isaac Asimov is often credited with the following quote, and while I’ve never been able to confirm that he really did say or write this, it still does resonate with many … “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny … Read more

Calif. residents sue homeopathic manufacturer, claim products do not work as advertised

Generally, if something is sold and does not do what it is claimed to do, then there will be repercussions, but we still live in an age where there are a few exceptions to that, which itself is indeed rather odd. One such exception that is often granted a free ride has been homeopathy, the … Read more

2015 Nobel Prize: Physiology or Medicine

It is once again the time of year when the Nobel Prizes are awarded, and so each day this week we will be hearing about an award for one specific category. The roadmap is as follows: Mon 5 Oct – Physiology or Medicine Tues 6 Oct – Physics Wed 7 Oct – Chemistry Thur 8 Oct – Literature Fri 9 Oct … Read more