If you need some science for your Christmas tree, here are a few articles. There are more but how much Christmas science can you read in one day?

The Great Debate: Real vs. Artificial Christmas Trees - a good reason to go organic in your choice of trees.

Need A Christmas Gift For That Special Left-Leaning Chick? Try Ethical Underwear - because you'll believe anything.

The Science Of Eco-Friendly Christmas Wrapping - mathematically terrific Christmas wrapping.

A Quantum Mechanics Explanation For Santa Claus - the mystery of Santa physics solved; in rhyming verse, no less.

A Space Station Christmas - Send Them A Greeting! - astronauts can probably see Santa from space but he isn't flying up there with presents.

Vampires, Mummies, Ghosts, Zombies - we have it all today. Not all of these articles are exactly new(s), some of them are even old, but they're all science.

So if you're a Goth chick, sorry about that whole 'vampires don't exist' thing and if you're trick or treating, make sure to wear clothes that glow.

If you can't get enough of the news articles on the main page today, you can also read about Vampire Squid and Vampire bats here and why one scientist says we need witchcraft in our lives.

If you can't be bothered to stay here for your Halloween reading, the author who writes Cocktail Party Physics wrote a whole book on the physics of the Buffy Universe. None of us read it but it's probably good, because it's about Buffy ( Faith - editor ).

If you know of other sites with Halloween science we should mention, don't hesitate to speak up. Or you could all continue to read and never comment, as usual.

We are currently in private beta.

You can create an account and start writing or read the FAQ to get an idea what we're all about.

If you want to get started and are curious about the interface and writing articles, take a look at our Overview page. It explains everything about getting around, creating an account and submitting articles.

Giant electrical circuits power the magical open-air light show of the auroras, forming arcs in high-latitude regions like Scandinavia. New results obtained thanks to ESA's Cluster satellites provide a new insight into the source of the difference between the two types of electrical circuits currently known to be associated to the auroral arcs.

The deep mechanisms that rule the creation of the beautiful auroras, or polar lights, have been the subject of studies that are keeping solar and plasma scientists busy since years. While early rockets and ground-observations have already provided a few important clues for the understanding of these phenomena, the real break-throughs in our knowledge have started with dedicated auroral satellites, such as S3-3, Dynamics Explorer, Viking, Freja and FAST, and have now come to full fruition with ESA's multi-point mission Cluster.

Auroras form in high latitude regions of Earth, and appear in many different shapes. The aurora in the early evening sky forms a green arc that stretches across the sky in an east-west direction. The longitudinal extent (length) of an auroral arc can be as large as several thousands kilometres, but its width can be as small as 100 metres. (Credits: Jan Curtis, Fairbanks, Alaska)

Africa is being torn apart. And as Ethiopia's rift valley grows slowly wider, an international team of scientists is taking a unique opportunity to plot the progress of continents on the move.

The 28-strong team is led by University of Leeds geophysicist Dr Tim Wright, who has secured a £2.5 million grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to study the seismic events taking place in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia.

It's here that two mighty shelves of continental crust, the African and Arabian plates, meet -- and are tearing the landscape apart.

3D view of satellite radar measurements of how the ground moved in September 2005. Over about 3 weeks, the crust on either side of the rift moved apart by as much as 8 metres, with molten rock filling the crack between the plates. Satellite radar data is from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite. (Figure was prepared by Tim Wright, University of Leeds using Google Earth)

Did you know that people living in the Western region of the United States are more likely to become victims of a serial killer than people living in the Northeast? The February issue of Homicide Studies, published by SAGE, is the first to explore research looking at the considerable interstate and regional differences in serial killer activity.

The study led by University of Connecticut Emeritus Sociology Professor James DeFronzo examined male serial killers in the United States from 1970 to 1992 using sociological perspectives long used to understand other crimes.

Can you judge a man's faithfulness by his face? How about whether he would be a good father, or a good provider?

Scientificblogging.com math whiz Garth Sundem was on Good Morning America today - even better, Diane Sawyer referred to him as both 'genius' and 'charming.'

The powerful vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to study for the first time the layer-cake structure of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. Hubble discovered a dense upper layer of hot hydrogen gas where the super-hot planet's atmosphere is bleeding off into space.

This artist's illustration shows an extrasolar planet orbiting very close to its host star. The planet designated HD 209458b, is about the size of Jupiter. Unlike Jupiter, the planet is so hot that its atmosphere is "puffed up." Starlight is heating the planet's atmosphere, causing hot gas to escape into space, like steam rising from a boiler.

How can space inspire fashion? Has it inspired fashion throughout history? These were questions put to participants of a fashion workshop in Stockholm, timed to coincide with Christer Fuglesang’s trip to the ISS.

As part of the ‘Space Base Stockholm’ (Rymdbas Stockholm) event, 7 – 12 December, a number of workshops were held. One of these was entitled ‘Fashion & Design’, a hands-on workshop culminating in a real photo shoot. Driving the show was Johan af Geijerstam, freelance project and production manager in fashion and PR.

"As part of Space Base Stockholm, there was the idea to combine the interests of the target group for fashion with space and the special aesthetics of space. What brings space and fashion together? We wanted to find these connections, and see how they have formed over time," said af Geijerstam.

Space as inspiration – then and now

With space and its place in history as a source of inspiration, the goal was to create a meeting place that primarily showcased the process of how a product is conceived, but with actual results that could be used after the project was formally ended.

Johan af Geijerstam explained: "We ended up with a work station showcasing the process in a mini-format, where the three parts were 'inspiration', 'creation' and 'studio'. As a finale there was a genuine photo shoot where visitors could see how make-up assistants, photographers, lighting supervisors and project manager work – but most of all to see the clothes."

To show the role of space as a source of inspiration for fashion, a number of films were shown of the most prominent, futuristic designers of the 1920s and 1990s.

A breast cancer treatment based on MIT research originally intended for detecting missiles is documented in a new book by Alan J. Fenn, an MIT researcher and inventor of the technique.

Image at left shows process of detecting and destroying an enemy missile using MIT targeted radar. Microwave energy is fixed on a missile while simultaneously nullifying enemy jammers. On right, microwave energy is aimed at a cancerous tumor with a deep focused beam while simultaneously nullifying any energy that would overheat surrounding healthy tissue. (Image courtesy of Lincoln Laboratory_

McMaster scientists are very close to defining small molecule drugs that should be able to redirect the huntingtin protein from accumulating in the wrong place within brain cells, which could potentially translate to a therapy for Huntington's Disease (HD).

Three proteins viewed in a live cell. (Image courtesy of McMaster University)

Russia's Federal Space Agency said Wednesday it hopes the Sea Launch project will be resumed despite the explosion of a Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite.

"A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle, carrying the NSS-8 satellite, experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of this anomaly," said a statement issued by Sea Launch.

Probes designed to find life on Mars do not drill deep enough to find the living cells that scientists believe may exist well below the surface of Mars, according to research led by UCL (University College London). Although current drills may find essential tell-tale signs that life once existed on Mars, cellular life could not survive the radiation levels for long enough any closer to the surface of Mars than a few metres deep -- beyond the reach of even state-of-the-art drills.

Elysium's frozen sea may be one of the best places to look for life on Mars. (Credits: ESA/DLR/Berlin/Neukum)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that microtubules – components responsible for shape, movement, and replication within cells – use proteins that act as molecular motors and brakes to organize into their correct structure. If microtubules are not formed properly such basic functions as cell division and transport can go wrong, which may have implications in such disease processes as cancer and dementia. The study, published in the January issue of Cell, is featured on the cover of that issue.

Daughter microtubule (red) being formed on mother microtubule (red), within yeast cell (dashed line). Green represents the molecular motors, the kinesin proteins klp2, on each microtubule. (Image Credit: Phong Tran, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)

When it comes to the inequality in people's health across the globe, says Professor Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) "you can say it, you can prove it, you can tabulate it, but it is only when you show it that it hits home."

Public Health Spending: Worldmapper Poster 213. Source of data used to create map: United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2004. (Credit: Worldmapper)

A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara led by Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize, has reported a major breakthrough in laser diode development.

The photograph shows the far-field pattern of the world's first gallium nitride (GaN) nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes. The bright spots illustrate clear lasing modes. (Credit: UCSB Solid State Lighting and Display Center)

The International Space Station will likely remain operational until 2025, the head of the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia said Tuesday.

"No one is going to sink or drop the ISS, as all countries realize that the station is becoming a full-scale industrial facility in space. Although it is scheduled for decommissioning in 2015, its operational life could be prolonged until 2025," Nikolai Sevastyanov said.

The first MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighter developed for the Indian Navy took off at the Russian Zhukovsky aircraft test centre on January 22.

The first public revelation of the earliest continuous Semitic text ever deciphered has taken place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Spell from the Egyptian pyramid text states in a Semitic language, but written in hieroglyphics: "Mother snake, mother snake says mucus-mucus." (Image courtesy of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)