With the US Thanksgiving holiday coming up I thought it worth repeating this article from 2 years back. There are many religious ceremonies and prayers giving thanks to a god. I often think these are rude on two grounds: I many case these are...

I have to join the latest trend at sciblogs: morbid book reviews. Ya gotta love ‘em… Buried Alive - Bondeson Seriously, our forensic science sciblog, Anna Sandiford, has a couple of book reviews out recently, one of which I’ve read (and enjoyed) and...

The endbulb or calyx of Held is a very large synapse found in the auditory system. It consists of a very large ‘calyceal’ ending, literally wrapping around the cell body of the postsynaptic neuron. It was first described by H Held in the late...

The Copenhagen climate conference (COP15) opens its doors in a little under two weeks. To update participants on the science of climate a new assessment report, The Copenhagen Diagnosis, was released yesterday, and it makes grim reading. Designed to...

Now that our illustrious government has finally managed to pass, at great cost to itself and the Maori party, a badly designed Emissions Trading Scheme – that absolutely everyone else hates –  it is time to wonder why anyone bothered. This expensive...