Superstorm Sandy’s battering of the northeastern tri-state area was a sobering reminder of the realities of climate destabilization; the weather manifestations that occur when climate change has been underway. The Earth’s climatological balance is a [...]
The Wrathful Planet: Fracking the Future
The Wrathful Planet – In recent decades, a technique for natural gas exploration and extraction known as ‘fracking’ has emerged which has had a ‘game changing’ impact for energy producers worldwide. In existence since the [...]
The Wrathful Planet: The Earth does not Forgive
Talk of climate change in the mainstream media is primarily limited to abstract discussions about carbon dioxide emissions, melting ice, and rising sea-levels. Further, media attention tends to focus only on the most visible effects [...]
Bee-Dependent Growers Encouraged to Halt Use of Neonicotinoids
Since the 1990′s over a third of all raised bees have disappeared in what scientists have dubbed, ‘Colony Collapse Disorder‘ or CCD. A mysterious condition where bee colonies are rapidly decimated by as yet unknown [...]
Can Music Aid Patients Recovering from Actue Brain Injury?
I recently met up with a friend of mine who is a music teacher and as we chatted she began to tell me about one of her students. Unexpectedly, an amazing story unfolded about a [...]
Is Phobos-Grunt just the latest victim of the ‘Mars Curse’?
Contact was briefly established last week with the wayward Phobos-Grunt probe, still hobbling through low Earth-orbit since failing to fire its thrusters to escape orbit and send it on its way to Mars on November [...]
Nanosatellites may mean Bigger Opportunities in Space
When we think of satellites in orbit, one conjures up images of lumbering behemoths careening through space with out stretched arms of solar panels. Since the last shuttle flew back to Earth and straight into [...]
Doctor/Patient Communication Key in Fight Against Unnecessary Antibiotic Prescription
Patient satisfaction is essential to doctors in all settings and nowhere is this more important than in the general practitioner’s office. Satisfied patients typically have more trust for their doctors, follow medical instructions more readily, [...]
Improved Compliance Needed to Ensure Long-term Efficacy of Transgenic Crops
Diabrotica virgifera virgifera or western corn rootworm is a serious threat to corn farming causing widespread destruction to the roots of plants from feeding larvae. Transgenic strains of corn were developed to leverage toxin producing genes [...]
Your Smart Device is Making You Weird: GPS Induced Stupidity
When a technology becomes reliable to a certain level people tend to free themselves from thought and responsibility to varying degrees. Take for example the Global Position System (GPS), once an important tool limited to [...]
Flowers and Fruit of the Genus Mammillaria
joebowman.scienceblog.com – Mammillaria or the nipple cactus is one of the most popular of all cacti genera. Named for the characteristically pronounced tubercles, mammillaria as a genus are globose to barrel shaped either solitary or [...]
Your Smart Device is Making You Weird: Family Norms
joebowman.scienceblog.com – Like clockwork, new devices and technology come along to enhance and enrich our lives. Smart phones and tablets are the laptops and PDA’s of our Age. Small, usually pocket sized gadgets are more [...]
A Very Brief Overview of Cactus Spines
By Joe Bowman | joebowman.scienceblog.com In the dry and parched lands of the Americas the cactus in all it’s many forms thrive in the some of the most challenging environments. In ecosystems where even the [...]
