See this at: columbia.edu| Added on 06/14/06

Q. Why do you caution against using a popular measure, the price/earnings ratio, to value the market or individual companies? A: My answer to this question has a very unusual source of inspiration: slime mold. As it turns out, when food is abundant,... See more

Q. Why do you caution against using a popular measure, the price/earnings ratio, to value the market or individual companies? A: My answer to this question has a very unusual source of inspiration: slime mold. As it turns out, when food is abundant, slime mold cells operate as independent, single-celled units. But when food supplies are short, the cells converge into a large cluster. Whether slime mold is an "it" or a "they" depends on the circumstances. Good theory is about developing reliable ... See less

See this at: rollingstone.com| Added on 05/25/06

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were... See more

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were innoculated a total of eleven times with those vaccines, including boosters. The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms - an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. Finally, because of an editing error, the article misstated the contents of the rotavirus vaccine approved by the CDC. It did not contain thimerosal. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors. An earlier version of this story stated that the Institute of Medicine convened a second panel to review the work of the Immunization Safety Review Committee that had found no evidence of a link between thimerosal and autism. In... See less

Highlights: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children.

See this at: nytimes.com| Added on 05/24/06

In 1958 the National Gallery of Art in Washington embedded transmitters under its floorboards and handed out radio receivers so the electronically inclined could listen to something called LecTour, a recorded guide to the museum's masterpieces. But... See more

In 1958 the National Gallery of Art in Washington embedded transmitters under its floorboards and handed out radio receivers so the electronically inclined could listen to something called LecTour, a recorded guide to the museum's masterpieces. But the signal sometimes sounded as if as was arriving from Tibet, and unless you caught a lecture at the beginning, you had to wait for it to start over. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's version, introduced in 1963, was more tractable but a lot heavier. Patrons rented a tape player about the size of a loaf of bread, carried around with a leather shoulder strap. Over the years the technology improved, and audio tours became ubiquitous. But they are now being upended around the world by something eminently more portable, accessible and flexible: podcasting, the wildly popular practice of posting recordings online, so they can be heard through a computer or downloaded to tiny mobile devices like iPods and other MP3 players. In the spring of 2005,... See less

Highlights: The museum offers a $2 discount on admission to anyone showing an MP3 player with the museum's podcasts on it; it is also sponsoring a contest in which amateurs are invited to submit their own podcasts, the best of which will be featured alongside the museum's.

See this at: nytimes.com| Added on 05/24/06

The split between the human and chimpanzee lineages, a pivotal event in human evolution, may have occurred millions of years later than fossil bones suggest, and the break may not have been as clean as humans might like.

The split between the human and chimpanzee lineages, a pivotal event in human evolution, may have occurred millions of years later than fossil bones suggest, and the break may not have been as clean as humans might like. See less

Highlights: Get up to 50 free trades +$100 cash at the new TD AMERITRADE

See this at: abc.net.au| Added on 05/02/06

"A concrete possibility is that various choice deficits may result from an impaired or dysfunctional activity of this population [of neurones], though this hypothesis remains to be tested," says Padoa-Schioppa. with ABC Science Online

"A concrete possibility is that various choice deficits may result from an impaired or dysfunctional activity of this population [of neurones], though this hypothesis remains to be tested," says Padoa-Schioppa. with ABC Science Online See less

See this at: abc.net.au| Added on 05/02/06

"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," the Canadian researchers report in the March/April issue of the journal Behaviour & Information Technology.

"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," the Canadian researchers report in the March/April issue of the journal Behaviour & Information Technology. See less