What if someday, instead of the usual “Flu Shots Today,” the cardboard sign in front of your local pharmacy read: “Cancer Shots Today?” Even if you were deathly afraid of needles, you would probably rush in to get an injection. The idea that a simple inoculation could eradicate cancer might sound ...read more

The Russian and the Frenchman First, let’s return to Mendeleev and his missing elements. Why were there gaps in his table? Did the Russian scientist make errors in arranging the elements? Or, based on the gaps, were these apparently “missing elements” key to another aspect of chemistry? Mendeleev was perplexed, but he ...read more

When you listen to military communications, a lot of words are slang, and actually have quite distinct meanings. For example, there was this time, long ago during my Navy days, when my squadron was working up out at NAS Fallon, Nevada. (“Working up” is Navy shorthand for getting everyone qualified ...read more

There’s a short phrase buried deep within the U.S. Constitution, at Article I, Section 8, Clause 13. It’s short. In fact, it’s only six words. But it practically guarantees us the chance to profit as investors. The Constitution doesn’t spell out many things in black and white. Heck, people litigate constitutional ...read more

For decades, digital computing has been on an exponential trend first described in Moore’s law. We’ve been able to pack more electronic components in a given space than ever before, and the trend will continue for many years. New technologies are emerging, however, that could eventually supersede the current computing paradigm ...read more

Did you hear the U.S. Mint recently ran out of silver? In mid-January, the Mint suspended sale of the 2013 run of its popular U.S. "Eagles." The new silver Eagles sold out fast. They went on sale, and buyers bought everything they could lay hands on. Within days, the shelves at ...read more

Stocks are getting gut-punched this week -- the S&P 500 took its biggest loss of 2013 on Monday, and investors are starting to feel anxious about stocks again for the first time since January. The impending sequester is getting more media buzz than the red carpet at the Oscars, and ...read more

Stem cell therapy and RNA interference (RNAi) may be the sexiest hook-up since peanut butter and chocolate. And scientists are just beginning to explore the potential of combining these medical therapies. Until very recently, the application of each therapy seemed very specific and limited: stem cells for regenerative medicine; RNAi for ...read more

On one particular occasion when Albert Einstein was presiding over a physics final exam, a puzzled student asked him, “Dr. Einstein, “Aren’t these the same questions as last year’s exam?” Einstein replied, “Yes, but this year the answers are different.” In every branch of science, the “answers” change from year to ...read more

Immortality is the sole domain of the Almighty. But “virtual immortality” is fast-becoming the domain of groundbreaking stem cell therapies. These therapies fall generally under the banner of “Regenerative medicine” — a field of medical innovation that seeks to reverse cellular aging by using rejuvenated cells to repair parts of the ...read more