Free Republic

I've made available nine free "MacGyverism" science project videos online and am sponsoring an Energy-saving competition.

The vast baby boom generation is now well into its fifth decade; we're becoming the old coots we used to rail against. And according to the Media Audit, a Texas research firm, a quarter of all Internet users in the United States are 50 or older. Seniors are embracing the Internet faster than any other age group, and 36 percent of people between 65 and 74 are online.

Armored snail Hydrothermal vent gastropod has a foot covered in mineralized iron sulfide scales | By Andrea Rinaldi    Given that hydrothermal vents—geysers on the deep ocean floor emitting mineral compounds that support a thriving ecosystem—were only discovered in 1977, it is perhaps unsurprising that novel organisms showing unique environmental adaptations are regularly reported from expeditions to these areas. In the November 7 Science, Anders Warén and colleagues at the Swedish Museum of Natural History report a gastropod mollusk from black-smoker chimneys in the Indian Ocean with its soft foot covered by a chain mail of imbricating scale-shaped iron...