A common complaint about the Internet is that the typical user has to maintain multiple personal profiles on multiple sites, ranging from Facebook to Last FM. Enter mEgo, a personalized portable profile that travels online with you across social networks. The mEgo.com body-shaped widget, which resembles a high-tech baseball card on your screen, stores all […]

How do you study some of the ocean’s most inaccessible regions? Hitch your instruments to elephant seals.
That’s an approach a team of scientists has used to gather basic physical data on the Southern Ocean beneath the ice-clad reaches near Antarctica. Information on how temperature and salinity change with depth is critical to understanding ocean circulation […]

Chilies have fascinated plant scientists, anthropologists, and ecologists for years. One nagging question: What purpose does a chili’s heat serve, other than to bring tears to the eyes and beads of perspiration to the foreheads of Thai-food lovers everywhere.
The answer: The chemical responsible for the heat appears to protect seeds from a fatal fungus, ensuring […]