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The Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt, a massive structure carved from a single rock, has long fascinated visitors and experts alike. While many believed that the imposing statue, with its human head and lion's body, was created by humans during the ancient kingdom of Egypt around 2600 BC, its true origins remained shrouded in mystery. However, a recent study conducted by scientists from New York University, published in the journal Physical Review Fluids, provides insight into how this extraordinary statue was formed over 4,500 years ago. The multi-layered body: A puzzle Traditionally attributed to human craftsmanship, the exact process...

It's Memorial Day, and the forecast is for renewed mocking and derision regarding man-made climate change from the know-nothing, science-averse wing of the Republican Party. President Barack Obama's warning—issued during his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremonies Wednesday—that climate change represents a national security threat seems certain to provoke that kind of stormy reaction.[SNIP]Among the Republicans running for president, climate change denial is the current mode of thinking for most....it's hard to see anyone in the crowd calling for military preparedness. Mostly, the candidates appear interested in sidestepping the topic (albeit in a disapproving manner)..The result...

Do Americans understand the scientific consensus about issues like climate change and evolution? At least for a substantial portion of the public, it seems like the answer is no. The Pew Research Center, for instance, found that 33 percent of the public believes “Humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time” and 26 percent think there is not “solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades.” Unsurprisingly, beliefs on both topics are divided along religious and partisan lines. For instance, 46 percent of...

The scientific community is atwitter about recent reports documenting the sharp rise in retractions of articles published in scientific journals. To wit, The New York Times published a chart this week showing that such retractions have increased from a mere three instances in 2000 to a whopping 180 in 2009. The chart indicated that 235 of the articles retracted over that ten-year span were attributable to “scientific mistake.” Another 196 were attributable to “fraud or fabrication.” And the remaining 311 to “other.” That brings to mind what arguably is history’s most glaring example of scientific mistake, fraud and fabrication all...

A prominent Dutch social psychologist who once claimed to have shown that the very act of thinking about eating meat makes people behave more selfishly has been found to have faked data throughout much of his career. In one of the worst cases of scientific fraud on record in the Netherlands, a review committee made up of some of the country's top scientists has found that University of Tilburg Prof. Diederik Stapel systematically falsified data to achieve the results he wanted. The university has fired the 45-year-old professor and plans to file fraud charges against him, university spokesman Walther Verhoeven...

One of the Netherlands' leading social psychologists made up or manipulated data in dozens of papers over nearly a decade, an investigating committee has concluded. Diederik Stapel was suspended from his position at Tilburg University in the Netherlands in September after three junior researchers reported that they suspected scientific misconduct in his work. Soon after being confronted with the accusations, Stapel reportedly told university officials that some of his papers contained falsified data. The university launched an investigation, as did the University of Groningen and the University of Amsterdam, where Stapel had worked previously. The Tilburg commission today released an...

It was bad enough last month watching Washington politicians merrily flying off to the U.N. climate change Conference of Parties in Copenhagen (or COP-15 for short), ostensibly to draft a global warming treaty, when all the players knew that no meaningful pact would result and that the only sure outcome was that much energy would be squandered. Now comes the sticker shock. When CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson dug into the latest House expenses filing for the climate confab, she found that the cost for a hotel room for the congressional delegation of 15 Democratic and six Republican members of...

The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny. The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming. The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the...

In a shocking breach of medical ethics, the leading stem-cell and cloning researcher in South Korea admitted last week that he used eggs donated by subordinates in his work. According to Nature magazine, the junior researcher “felt obliged to donate after making mistakes early in the experiment that wasted eggs and set the team back by months.” This gross abuse of position and power is a lapse that Concerned Women for America (CWA) has warned could happen, and the case demonstrates growing concerns about the ethics of research involving human cloning. Hwang became a sensation in South Korea, a...

Harvard Professors Cover-up of Fluoride/cancer Link Being Investigated Newly available research, out of Harvard University, links fluoride in tap water, at levels most Americans drink, to osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer (1). The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a highly-regarded Washington DC-based organization, urges that fluoride in tap water be declared a known or probable cancer cause (2), based on this and previous animal and human studies. Elise Bassin, PhD writes, in her April 2001 Harvard doctoral thesis, “…for males less than twenty years old, fluoride level in drinking water [about 1 part per million] during growth is associated...

NEW YORK - It's not the stuff of headlines, like fraud. But more mundane misbehavior by scientists is common enough that it may pose an even greater threat to the integrity of science, a new report asserts. One-third of scientists surveyed said that within the previous three years, they'd engaged in at least one practice that would probably get them into trouble, the report said. Examples included circumventing minor aspects of rules for doing research on people and overlooking a colleague's use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data.

Glaciers in the Antarctic are retreating at an increasing rate, in what scientists said on Thursday was a clear sign of climate change. Most of the glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula, near the southernmost tip of South America, have retreated over the past 50 years as temperatures have warmed, according to a study from the British Antarctic Survey and US Geological Survey. Inland glaciers appear to be accelerating their descent to the ocean, threatening to raise the sea level. David Vaughan, one of the authors of the study, said: "The widespread retreat of the glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula over...

BURLINGTON, Vt. - A former medical school professor accused of fabricating research data on menopause, aging and hormone supplements pleaded guilty Monday to fraudulently obtaining a $542,000 federal grant. Eric T. Poehlman, 49, could get up to five years in prison and $250,000 fine at sentencing July 18. The former University of Vermont College of Medicine professor was accused of making up research between 1992 and 2000 to win millions of dollars in grant money from the federal government. Under a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements in an application for a grant on...