Free Republic

Just weeks before government scientist Bruce Ivins' suicide, a grand jury was convening on the third floor of the federal courthouse, near the U.S. Capitol, looking into the 2001 anthrax murders. Things weren't looking good for Ivins, the only suspect in the case. It was July 2008. His attorney, Paul F. Kemp, according to court documents reviewed by AOL News, had just filed court papers to become a death-penalty-certified attorney in the case -- a little-known fact. And the chief U.S. District judge in Washington, Royce C. Lamberth, had approved the request. "I thought this was a precaution to take....

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Nine earthquakes, three of them greater than a 3.0 in magnitude, rocked the DFW area on Tuesday afternoon and into early Wednesday, knocking items off of walls, causing cracks to appear in ceilings and generally rattling nerves across the region. “Shook my whole house!” said CBS 11 News viewer Aprille Maganda from her home in the Las Colinas area of Irving.

**SNIP** That New Year’s Eve an interview with expedition leader Chris Turney was beamed live to Times Square in New York. Two days later, the rescue effort entered a new phase. With no icebreaker able to smash way through, a Chinese helicopter, Xue Ying, or “Snow Eagle”, rose into the air for the first of five flights to ferry passengers from the stricken ship to the Aurora Australis. A core crew remained behind to sail vessel home once conditions allowed. Media interest in the expedition faded after the rescue, but in the year since Turney and his team have been...

As fears grow over Iran secretly developing nuclear weapons, U.S. counterintelligence officials are keeping a close eye on scientists from Iran and other Muslim nations working at the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, WND has learned. The Energy Department recently revoked the security clearance of an Egyptian-born nuclear physicist because he was suspected of "conflicting allegiances." Last year, DOE and FBI agents began questioning Moniem El-Ganayni, who worked on the side as a Muslim prison chaplain.

S. Donald Stookey was a young scientist researching the properties of glass when in 1952 he put a glass plate into an oven to heat it. But the oven malfunctioned. Instead of heating to about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the oven shot up to more than 1,600 degrees. Stookey expected to find a molten mess. Instead, he found an opaque, milky-white plate. As he was removing it from the oven, his tongs slipped, and the plate fell to the floor. But instead of shattering, it bounced.

Jean Duley testified that she was "scared to death" of Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing. Duley, 45, told Judge Milnor Roberts that Ivins planned to "go out in a blaze of glory," had bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers. The audio recording was obtained by The Frederick News-Post on Monday. Duley told the court she got to know Ivins while running group and individual counseling sessions at the Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick...

GALVESTON, Tex. — Almost a decade ago, scientists from Canada and the United States reported that they had created a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against the Ebola virus. The results were published in a respected journal, and health officials called them exciting. The researchers said tests in people might start within two years, and a product could potentially be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011. It never happened. The vaccine sat on a shelf. Only now, with nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola and an epidemic raging out of control in West Africa, is...

With scientists projecting that the West African Ebola epidemic will mushroom, many people are asking how experts can be so sure it will hit a peak and come back down, considering there’s no vaccine or reliable treatment yet. Right now, the trend is steep and upwards. Of the more than 8,000 cases so far, most infections occurred in the last 3 to 4 weeks, said David Peters, Chair of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University, where he and other experts gathered for a meeting Tuesday. The World Health Organization has projected a possible 10,000 new Ebola cases...

s humans continue to transform the planet at an increasingly rapid rate, the need to inform and encourage change has become ever more urgent. The situation is becoming critical for wild species and for the preservation of human civilization. Recognizing this urgency, the Smithsonian Institution has formulated its first official statement about the causes and impacts of climate change. With special emphasis on the Smithsonian’s 160-year history and tradition of collection, research and global monitoring, the statement delivers a bold assessment: "Scientific evidence has demonstrated that the global climate is warming as a result of increasing levels of atmospheric greenhouse...

PEORIA, Ill.— Terry Whitehead's lab here is stocked with glass boiling flasks, Bunsen burners—and cans of extra-strength air freshener. The microbiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture works with pig manure in a quest for something that has largely eluded scientists and entrepreneurs: an affordable way to clear the air in farm country. In a region where hogs can outnumber people, Mr. Whitehead's research is the ultimate icebreaker. "First, you say, 'I work with manure,' and they say, 'What?' Then you say, 'Odor,' and they say, 'Thank God,' " says the lanky 57-year-old, who recently attended the North American Manure...

Britons are to be the first in the world to test a new vaccine against the deadly ebola virus. Altogether 60 healthy volunteers will be given the vaccine next month in a trial led by Oxford University scientists. If the vaccine performs as well in humans as in monkeys, the trial will be extended to 80 people in The Gambia and in Mali. The entire trial programme is being fast-tracked – subject to ethical approval – with the intention of using the vaccine in people at high risk in West Africa early next year. Latest figures show that more than...

INDIANAPOLIS (August 12, 2014)—Journalists and scientists are urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop banning leading national scientists from talking to media outlets and the public. The EPA is placing new restrictions on independent scientists who advise the agency, according to a memorandum from the EPA’s chief of staff. The memo instructs Science Advisory Board members to get permission before talking to the press, which inhibits their ability to speak freely to the public about important scientific issues, including air pollution, toxic chemicals and water quality. “The EPA wants to control what information the public receives about crucial issues...

Do We Always Believe What Scientists Say? by Brian Thomas, M.S. * Many Americans are convinced that mainstream narratives are true—like humans descended from ape-like ancestors or that burning fossil fuels causes global warming. But many times large contingents totally disagree with these popular ideas. How can equally intelligent and educated people arrive at such opposing conclusions? Conventional thinkers often assume that those who diverge from mainstream narratives simply need more science education. However, a new study shows why some other factor must be to blame. Kan Kahan, a professor at Yale Law School, studied the way people reason as...

To repurpose Willi Schlamm, the problem with science is scientists. In the current issue of National Review, Charles C. W. Cooke has a pitiless essay on the cult of Neil deGrasse Tyson and “America’s nerd problem,” and in the prior issue I touched on a similar subject, the meme-ification of science for political purposes, in “Nobody @#$%&*! Loves Science.” The common theme is prestige: Science enjoys enormous public esteem, which it has earned for itself, and it is inevitable that political types seek to bask in that prestige themselves, or to dress their policy preferences in white lab coats. Thus...

CHICAGO – The results of a comprehensive scientific study released earlier this year suggest that homosexuality cannot be directly traced to a ‘gay gene,’ but is instead dependent on a variety of factors, including environmental and social influences. Pro-homosexual activists have long claimed that homosexuality and abnormal “sexual orientations” are primarily caused by genetic factors. They argue that individuals with a hereditary “gay gene” are predisposed toward same-sex attractions and thus unable to appreciate traditional marriages. However, scientific findings released earlier this year during the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago call this premise into question. During...

Top 10 Greatest ScientistsA list of the top 10 scientists of all time. 1. Sir Isaac Newton. (1642-1726) Newton was a polymath who made investigations into a whole range of subjects including mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy. In his Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, he laid the foundations for classical mechanics, explaining law of gravity and the Laws of Motion.2. Louis Pasteur. (1822 – 1895)Contributed greatly towards the advancement of medical sciences developing cures for rabies, anthrax and other infectious diseases. Also enabled process of pasteurisation to make milk safer to drink. Probably saved more lives than any other...

Isn’t it pretty, the cover of the latest issue of TIME? TIME: The truth about fatTIME: Ending the war on fat The paradigm shift continues and the outdated fear of fat is on its way out faster and faster.You’d wish that some old-school fat phobics subscribed to the magazine. Unfortunately, I think this is hoping for too much, so I just emailed the cover to some of them.Some people will still spread low-fat margarine on their bread as long as they live, as an old habit. But most people will soon realize that not only does it taste bad, but...

Flu experts have made a mutant version of the 1918 “Spanish flu” virus that killed tens of millions of people, sparking a new debate over whether such work is too dangerous. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin says the experiments are important for helping scientists understand how new pandemics start, and for designing better flu vaccines.

Meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson has long been considered a cool head in the often heated conflict over global warming. In an interview, he defends his decision to join an organization that is skeptical of climate change. The debate over climate change is often a contentious one, and key players in the discussion only rarely switch sides. But late last month, Lennart Bengtsson, the former director of the Hamburg-based Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, one of the world's leading climate research centers, announced he would join the academic advisory council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). ANZEIGEGWPF, based in Britain, is...

The media often portrays scientists and Christians as incapable of peaceful coexistence. But results from a recent survey suggest the two are not as incompatible as one might think. In fact, 2 million out of nearly 12 million scientists are evangelical Christians. If you were to bring all the evangelical scientists together, they could populate the city of Houston, Texas. Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and her colleagues at Rice University and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reported results from the largest study of American views on science and religion at the association's annual conference in Chicago...