"Random" numbers are in hot demand. They're needed, for instance, in cryptography, to keep things like your bank account secure, and in science, where they're used in simulating complex systems.…

How can you tell if a vaccine for a bug is effective? It's not so easy; indeed, it can be excruciatingly difficult. At the individual person level you'd need to…

Why do cops, and home and shop owners, empty their guns when shooting at bad guys? Another way to ask this is our title: How Many Times Must You Shoot…

When my boys and I seize power and I become emperor, the very first thing I do (after having the mess hosed clean) is to place a strict two-year moratorium…

A toxin, as the redoubtable reader undoubtedly knows, is a poison. And a poison, says Mr Webster, is that which causes "morbid, noxious, or deadly effects". People who ingest or…

Here's a typical recent propaganda headline: "Climate change made Libya flooding 50 times more likely: Report." This is not so. Here's another recent one from PBS: "Climate change made global…