There are an ever increasing number of formats dedicated to demonstrating the entertaining aspects of science, and these are becoming increasingly more high profile.

The loss of lab animals at New York University’s Langone Medical Center to Hurricane Sandy has the potential to be devastating to medical research there. However, a scientist from Houston who has been through something similar says there’s a silver lining to this cloud.

During Halloween, people temporarily surrender their bodies to well-known occult figures. For the rest of the year however, there's always the option of donating your body to science, and there are several ways to do this

Specially bred mice and rats perished in the flooding from Superstorm Sandy. Now cell lines and DNA stored in refrigerators and freezers might be dying as the temperature rises. The loss could set researchers back years.

Why do so many people get turned off the most exciting thing they can do with their clothes on? Form a hypothesis!

Since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the popular imagination has been alive with stories of mad scientists and the chilling experiments they conduct. But sometimes, real life is even more frightening than fiction.

Big data could change the way we see the world. This week experts have gathered in Washington DC to discuss it, these are some of the examples that came up• More data

Americans who care about science and its wider benefits should back Obama for a second term, says geneticist and Democratic campaign adviser Andy Feinberg

It's time that scientists learned to talk amicably to faith groups about research on the origins of the universe, argues Michael Brooks

Answers reveal partisan divides, but broad support for basic research

The manslaughter verdicts passed on Italian seismologists in L'Aquila have serious ramifications for all scientists, living or dead. Many more criminal convictions could follow

Spiders, weevils, wasps, lice, mites and mosquitoes are among the creepiest subjects of the winners of Nikon's Small World microscope photography competition this year. Super-close-ups of eyes, tongues and silk spinnerets are amazingly beautiful, but also gross enough to induce shivers.

Writer Shawn Lawrence Otto traces the history of anti-science beliefs in the United States and says that too many political candidates today pander to this point of view on such hot-button issues as climate change, stem cell research and evolution.

Sixty-eight laureates support reelection, criticize Romney on climate change

Craig Venter imagines a future where you can download software, print a vaccine, inject it, and presto! Contagion averted. “It’s a 3-D printer for DNA, a 3-D printer for life,” Venter said here today at the inaugural Wired Health Conference in New York City.