Biology

Time Runs Out for 5-Second Rule Bacteria is the Winner in Beer Pong

It's happened to all of us. Just as we grab a morsel of something mouth-watering, it slips from our fingers and lands on the floor. It's times like these when invoking the so-called 5-second rule is tempting. As the latest Berkeley Wellness Letter says, many people want to believe that "anything is ... More >>

New Technology Could Keep Bread Fresh for 2 Months

A Texas company says it has found a way to keep bread fresh and mold-free for two months, the Associated Press reports. The device, called MicroZap, bombards bread with microwaves for about 10 seconds, killing mold spores. The process could eliminate the need for preservatives and ingredients used ... More >>

First Frankenfish Poised to Hit Your Plate

Anti-GMO fanatics, start your engines. The first genetically altered fish is about to hit your plates. According to The New York Times, "government regulators moved a big step closer last Friday to allowing the first genetically engineered animal -- a fast-growing salmon -- to enter the nation's fo ... More >>

Scientists Create Frankencows to Produce Hypoallergenic Milk

In what some might see as a disturbing moove move in the whole Frankenfood trend, cows in New Zealand have been genetically engineered to produce hypoallergenic milk. The target consumer is the 1.3 million children with milk allergies (which apparently includes nauseous young Justin Bieber). (What ... More >>

Dennis Hedgecock: The Oyster Is His World

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. Dennis Hedgecock wants to breed a better oyster to feed the world. Since 99 percent of the biosphere's volume is sea water, it's time to put it to work. Oysters are a nearly ... More >>

Best Food Poisoning Remedy May Be Garlic

For garlic-lovers, there's a new reason to love those cloves even more, and it doesn't have much to do with flavoring your food. A study out of Washington State University found that garlic is 100 times stronger than antibiotics when it comes to killing bacteria that causes food poisoning. Garlic co ... More >>

Red Wine's Anti-Aging Properties Confirmed in Study

What magic potion may improve the health of those on a high-fat diet and slow down the aging process? It's nothing new -- it's that same stuff Louis Pasteur called "the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages." Even the Bible recommended using a little of it "for thy stomach's sake and thine o ... More >>

Amoeba Music's 10th Anniversary: When You're Broke and Need a Fix, This Legendary Hollywood Store Has Had Your Back

Ted SoquiAmoeba Records: 10 years on Sunset Boulevard​"I just needed to get well," explains Frank Humphries, a 36-year-old punkabilly musician-turned-junkie who, since kicking the habit, works as an archaeologist. "My story is sad, but it's true. I used to have to take CDs and records to Am ... More >>

Where to Eat Near the Natural History Museum's new Dinosaur Hall

Kathy A. McDonaldA T. rex is poised to munch out at the Natural History Museum's new Dinosaur Hall​ Three Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons are posed dynamically, hovering over a skeletal carcass -- this is the dramatic centerpiece of the Natural History Museum of L.A. County's new Dinosaur Hall, wh ... More >>

Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum, the LA Weekly Review: Best Set of Bones in the West Gets Interactive

Karen Knauer, courtesy of the Natural History MuseumThomas the T. rex is ready for his debut at the L.A. Natural History Museum's new Dinosaur Hall. ​ In an exhibit ripped straight from the excavation pits, the L.A. County Natural History Museum's new Dinosaur Hall brings inquiring minds up cl ... More >>

Scientists Discover Obesity "Master Switch" Gene: And No, It Does Not Control Your Car Window

Flickr/Jeremy Brooksa drive-thru window view​ Yesterday Reuters reported that scientists have found a so-called "master switch" for obesity. And no, it is not the lock button on your car door window. Although given that the line of cars recently stacking up to order drive-thru at the first br ... More >>

Weird Science: Bad Hare Day

Not N. rex. Even scarier, the Donnie Darko bunny.​Enormous bunny rabbits, six times the size of today's rabbits, roamed Minorca three to five million years ago, reports Discovery News. Too big to hop, the well-marbled creatures, ominously known as N. rex, dragged their cottontails around the C ... More >>

Sonic Nigeria

The Man Who Assembles T. rexes for Museums

Bad Religion, the Book

What Records Did LA Buzzband Best Coast Get at Amoeba?

LA buzzband Best Coast bring their buzz to Amoeba and choose buzzworthy alt-artifacts​Best Coast is a buzzworthy LA buzzband featuring Bethany Cosentino, who sometimes is referred to as "Best Coast" in the same way Carlos Santana from the band Santana is often referred to as Santana. Bobb Bru ... More >>

FDA May Approve First Genetically Modified Animal

Flickr user woodleywonderworksWould you eat this salmon if it were genetically altered?​ The Washington Post is reporting that the FDA may be getting ready to approve the first genetically modified animal for human consumption. The FDA released a briefing document stating that the food from A ... More >>

PUT A BID ON IT

Katrina Edwards: Mistress of the Dark World

Lily The Whale Is Back In Dana Point

KTLA News​We watched television news coverage of the wayward gray whale inside Dana Point Harbor this week and wondered if marine biologists were right: All they could do is stand by, they said, even as onlookers asked if there was more that could be done. It turned out there was: The whale, ... More >>

Aisle Be Seeing You at Amoeba!

Best L.A. Record Store: Amoeba Records

Dino-Mite!

Tyranny of the Natural: David P. Barash's Natural Selections

"Dangerous David" on the wonderful complexities and conundrums of our evolutionary selves

Beirut free show at Amoeba tonight

Missed the sold out Beirut shows? Ahh, lucky you. They're playing at 6:30 tonight at Amoeba Records. Go on over and check it out or read Rena Kosnett's review to convince yourself not to miss it. Photo by Rena Kosnett Amoeba will have a webstream of the performance on their website, but come o ... More >>

Press Here

Microediting to perfection at your Los Angeles Daily Benign-Gazette

A Good Spore

Bedtime Stories

D.T. Max’s and Jonathan Franzen’s mental disorders

Bedtime Stories

D.T. Max’s and Jonathan Franzen’s mental disorders

Gut Reactions

How the contents of a termite’s stomach may revolutionize your car

A Love Song for Aron's

Darwinian days for indie L.A. record stores — but maybe that’s okay

Wooly Bully

Gen-X On Ice

When Worlds Collide

Film and science mix it up at the Egyptian

From Baghdad to Buffalo

The saga of Steven Kurtz’s bacteria

Oh So Natural

Sexual selection, the Good Book and why gay is good

Beetles and Boys

The Beasts Within

Taming SARS and other pathogens

The Final Frontier

Depending on whom you ask, stem-cell research is either a medical godsend or further proof that God is dead.

Creation Science

The gospel according to Steven Pinker

Pharm Phresh

Frankenfoods II

Demon Seed

Can the Exorcist save us from genetically modified foods, or is it another freak in disguise?

Clones and Codes

Life in these United States

Fetal Frenzy

How the embryo in amnion became the strange icon of anti-abortionists

7 Singular Successesof Science

Twisting Darwin

Evolution, eugenics and racism, American style

Frankenfoods

Should genetically modified produce frighten you?

The Boy Can’t Help It

Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer’s reductionist theory of rape

Fireflys and Fruit Flys

Strata Blaster

El Niño proves a paleontological bonanza