Bruce's blog

During my hiatus, How the Universe Works host Mike Rowe got into a verbal spat with a fan over controversial remarks he made on his show.

The complainant, one Rebecca Bright, said in part

What Facebook, Google and Twitter Owe America

The Deep Space Eye in the Desert

The giant telescope will have 10 times the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing distant galaxies, the birth of stars, and the compositions of exoplanet atmospheres—a key field of research in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Americans who understand how evolution works are more likely to accept it

Unfortunately, we found that knowledge about evolutionary theory is rather low; about 68 percent of participants failed our knowledge test, scoring less than 60 percent. So there's definitely room for improvement there.

How to Survive Being Swallowed by Another Animal

We Were Wrong About Rats Spreading The Black Death Plague

Using these parameters, the scientists modeled three scenarios. In one, lice and fleas spread the plague. In another, rodents plus their parasites spread the plague. In a third, coughing humans spread an airborne version of the disease, called pneumonic plague.

The rodent model did not match the historical death rates.

Peeved by price gouging and shortages, hospitals will now make their own drugs

In an interview with The New York Times, Intermountain Healthcare’s CEO, Dr. Marc Harrison, did not mince words. “This is a shot across the bow of the bad guys,” he said. “We are not going to lay down. We are going to go ahead and try and fix it.”

Mexico: 500 years later, scientists discover what killed the Aztecs

The outbreak is considered one of the deadliest epidemics in human history, approaching the Black Death bubonic plague that killed 25 million people in western Europe in the 14th century – about half the regional population.

White Nationalists Push Back Against Efforts to Honor Black Confederates

Hardcore white supremacists want to step back and say, "Look, the Confederacy was racist, their goal was the preservation of white supremacy and slavery." And they’re actually the ones who are on solid historical ground; they’re the ones that are cutting through the myth.

Shocker: “Yeti” poo, bones not actually from yeti

While the research found no new creatures, it did add to the theory that yeti stories emerged from primeval bear encounters among snowy mountains.

Politically Homeless