Sailing around Africa in a Phoenician boat

"On Arwad Island off the coast of Syria, a group of 20 sailors-to-be are preparing for a voyage their captain believes has not been undertaken for two and a half millennia. They plan to set off on Sunday on a journey that attempts to replicate what the Greek historian...

Nobel medicine laureates welcome `marvelous honor`

""It's been a marvelous honor for the people working in the lab as well as the university," 70-year-old Mario Capecchi of the United States told AFP. He shared the prize with compatriot Oliver Smithies, 82, and Britain's Martin Evans, 66, for their discoveries on how to...

Call for Street Protests in Nigeria over Election Results

Remember in Lord of the Rings, when that big red demon falls into the pit, and Gandalf is clinging to the edge of the chasm? Then the demon's whip whips up and grabs Gandalf's ankle, pulling  him down? ... Yeah. The election fiasco in Nigeria is not over yet, regardless...

Evolutionary Hardware: AI 2.0

I wouldn't frame this story in terms of evolution-versus-creationism, but it's a stellar read anyway: Engineers have developed a way to get systems to "evolve" thourgh self-upgrade."For decades people have tried to replicate the human mind, using more and more sophisticated...

A fat target for the food police

"Big Brother had shouldered his way into the kitchen long before the New York City Board of Health moved Tuesday to prohibit the use of all but a tiny amount of trans fats in restaurant cooking. Be glad he's there. Would all the people muttering about New York's "food police"...

The Difference Between a Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse

"The most common blunder people make when the topic of a computer virus arises is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all malicious...