Scidle

Phantom jams leave motorists wondering why the hell they were just stuck in stop-and-go traffic. Researchers at the University of Alberta and MIT have an answer. Check out the Wired article complete with nifty interactive info-graphic.

In forest rife with chimpanzee warfare, attendant primatologists seem more like embedded reporters than scientists. Their exploits are dutifully documented in the New York Times and Current Biology.

A morning cup of coffee doesn’t boost alertness, it merely pulls you out of withdrawal. What withdrawal? Why the one induced by months, nay years, of drinking coffee.

“Children start off like Karl Marx, but they eventually become more like a member of the International Olympic Committee.” -Science Now article

Computer scientists in Israel have developed an algorithm to recognize sarcastic sentences (pdf). If only the same could be said about certain people.

Famous for their “fear” of mice, elephants also sound the alarm when bees are near. PLoS One has the details.

Not a white undergarment in this case! Scidle Briefs are short bits about interesting science—with a link! And a location, naturally.  After all, that’s what we do.