26 August 2008
Size Of Genitalia Dependent On Need To Fight
Researchers examining male horned beetles from four geographically separated populations say the groups have diverged significantly in the size of the male genitalia, and natural selection operating on the other end of the animal – the fighting horns atop the beetles' heads – seems to be driving it much more quickly than expected...

22 August 2008
Growing A Home With "Plantware"
A bus-stop that grows its own foliage as shade? A house built from living tree roots that provides natural protection against earthquakes? These concepts may be science fiction today, but Israeli scientists say that fully functional "plantware" may be only a decade away...

20 August 2008
Melanoma Not Without Benefits
In male swordtail fish, black melanoma splotches help lure females, suggesting that the usually deadly melanoma gene is conserved for its beneficial role in sexual selection...

19 August 2008
"Shocking" Pesticide Levels Found In Beehives
An analysis of beehive wax samples and the bees themselves has found unprecedented levels of fluvalinate and coumaphos - pesticides used in the hives to combat varroa mites - as well as 70 other pesticides from external sources...

18 August 2008
Bio-Engineered Yeast Cranks Out Drugs
Chemical engineers at Caltech have used various plant genes to genetically modify common baker's yeast to produce large quantities of drugs, including antibiotics, nicotine, and even morphine...

14 August 2008
Slimy Future Predicted For World's Oceans
Habitat destruction, overfishing, ocean warming, increased acidification and massive nutrient runoff are combining to turn Earth's oceans into simplistic ecosystems dominated by microbes, toxic algal blooms, jellyfish and disease...

13 August 2008
Contraceptive Pill Threatening Genetic Diversity?
British researchers have found that the contraceptive pill appears to disrupt women's natural ability to choose a partner genetically dissimilar to themselves...

12 August 2008
String Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed
Two physicists have come up with a new method to travel faster than the speed of light without breaking the laws of physics. The only drawback? The drive requires a massive amount of energy. How much? Think about converting Jupiter's entire mass into pure energy...

11 August 2008
Sol System "Pretty Special," Say Astronomers
Existing models that attempt to explain the formation of the solar system have assumed it to be average in every way, but a new study using recent data from the 300 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars turns that view on its head and indicates that solar systems like our own are likely quite rare...

8 August 2008
Testosterone Key In Disease Transmission
It's been known for some time that testosterone makes males more susceptible to disease, but new research indicates that high levels of testosterone in an individual can also spur the transmission of disease throughout a population...

7 August 2008
Quantum "Uncollapse" Muddies Definition Of Reality
Measuring (observing) a quantum object forces it to collapse from a waveform into one position. This collapse, according to quantum mechanics dogma, is what makes objects "real," but new verification of "collapse reversal" suggests that we can no longer assume that measurements alone create reality...

6 August 2008
Prof Pooh-Poohs "Exercise Pill" Reports
An expert in exercise and the human metabolic system has criticized recent media stories about the invention of an "exercise pill" as unrealistic and largely ignorant of the benefits that physical activity has on human physiology...

5 August 2008
The High Cost Of Intelligence
The metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of human cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities and that schizophrenia may be one of the costly by-products of this evolutionary leap...

4 August 2008
Drug Testing And Approvals Process Fatally Flawed, Says New Study
More drug catastrophes like the Vioxx disaster are inevitable, says a health expert who contends that the current system of FDA administered testing and approval in the United States is increasingly inadequate...

1 August 2008
Elephant Extinction Mooted
Elephants are in a perilous decline that could mean most remaining large groups will be extinct by 2020 unless renewed public pressure brings an end to the international ivory trade...

31 July 2008
Titan Moist, Say Cassini Boffins
Scientists using an instrument on NASA's Cassini orbiter have confirmed that at least one other body in our solar system has a liquid lake. The lake, probably composed of ethane, is 150 miles long and located near the south pole of Saturn's moon, Titan...

30 July 2008
Warming Britain Attracting New Bird Species
Birds such as the Cirl Bunting and Dartford Warbler are becoming more common across a wide range of habitats in Britain as temperatures rise, while numbers of some northern species, such as the Fieldfare and Redwing, are falling...

29 July 2008
9 Out Of 10 Americans Obese Or Overweight By 2030
Most adults in the United States will be overweight or obese by 2030, with related health care costs hitting nearly a trillion dollars, say the researchers involved in a new multi-institute study...

28 July 2008
Dementia In Developing World "Substantially Underestimated"
Health experts had previously estimated the prevalence of dementia in the developing world at between a quarter and a fifth of that recorded in developed nations, but these figures may have substantially underestimated the problem, suggests new research...

25 July 2008
Meditation Shown To Slow Progression Of HIV
Researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles report that the practice of mindfulness meditation can halt the decline of CD4-T cells (the "brains" of the immune system) in HIV-positive patients...

24 July 2008
The Visual Cortex Goes Digital
A cognitive scientist is developing pictorial representations of digital circuits which he says can turn our eyes and visual cortex into a powerful, programmable digital computer...

23 July 2008
Two Bees? Aw, Not Two Bees...
The cause of the widespread decline in pollinating bee populations has still not been explained, but new research has revealed an alarmingly rapid spread of the pathogen Crithidia bombi from commercial bees to their wild pollinating cousins...

22 July 2008
Monsoon Formation Theory Gets Overhaul
Geoscientists have come up with a new explanation for the formation of monsoons, proposing an overhaul of a theory that had held firm for more than 300 years...

21 July 2008
Loud Music Boosts Booze Consumption
Canny bar owners can crank up their drink sales by turning up the music, a French study into alcohol consumption and environmental factors has found...

18 July 2008
Scientists Probe Ancient "RNA World"
Proteins carry out almost all of life's cellular functions today, but bacteria sometimes depend instead upon ancient forms of RNA, once viewed merely as the chemical intermediaries between DNA's instruction manual and the creation of proteins...

17 July 2008
African Ancestry Increases HIV Risk
A genetic variation which evolved to protect people of African descent against malaria has now been shown to increase their susceptibility to HIV infection by up to 40 percent...

16 July 2008
Novel Antibody Tackles HIV's Achilles Heel
Abzymes (antibodies with enzymatic activity) that are derived from HIV non-progressors can attack the Achilles heel of the HIV virus in a very precise way, say Texan researchers, essentially neutralizing all of the diverse HIV forms in existence...

15 July 2008
Watermelon: The Fruit Of Lerve
Scientists have been taking a closer look at citrulline, one of the phyto-nutrients in watermelon, and have discovered that one of its effects on the body is to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does...

14 July 2008
Magnolia Compound Targets Cancer Switch
Emory University School of Medicine researchers say that a natural compound from magnolia blocks a pathway for cancer growth that was previously considered "undruggable"...

10 July 2008
Obesity Linked To Abnormal Sperm
Obese men should consider losing weight if they want to have children, British researchers say, after finding that men with a higher body mass index had lower volumes of seminal fluid and a higher proportion of abnormal sperm...

9 July 2008
The Dark Side Of Dopamine
While there is a large amount of evidence to support the idea that the brain chemical dopamine mediates positive effects, such as reward, happiness and pleasure; a new study suggests that dopamine is also intimately involved in emotions like dread and fear...

8 July 2008
Web Crawler Identifies Infectious Disease Outbreaks
Web-based electronic information sources such as discussion forums and news outlets can play an important role in early disease outbreak detection and support situational awareness by providing current, highly local information, say the developers of the new HealthMap project...

7 July 2008
Farmlands Too Toxic For Amphibians
Zoologists have found that toads in busy suburban areas are less likely to suffer from reproductive system abnormalities than toads near farms – where some of the amphibians examined had both testes and ovaries...

3 July 2008
Species Extinction Threat Vastly Underestimated
Extinction risks for populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical "misdiagnosis," suggests a new study...

2 July 2008
Political Participation Flagged In Genes
A new study from the University of California, San Diego, shows that genes influence participation in elections and a wide range of political activities...

1 July 2008
Lab-Created Giant Atom Goes Classical
Physicists have built a giant millimeter-sized atom whose sole electron orbits it in a classical manner as envisaged by Niels Bohr when he suggested a planetary orbit analogy for how atoms and electrons might behave...

30 June 2008
Cancer Eradicating Treatment Goes To Human Trial
Scientists are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment that involves the transfusion of specific white blood cells will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice...

27 June 2008
Novel Molecule Shows Intriguing Quantum Behavior
Purdue University researchers have created a hybrid molecule whose quantum state can be intentionally manipulated with an externally applied electrical field - a required step in the construction of a quantum computer...

26 June 2008
Brain Wired For Adventure
Scientists have identified a key region of the brain which encourages us to be adventurous. Located in a primitive area of the brain, it is activated when we choose unfamiliar options, suggesting an evolutionary advantage for trying the unknown...

25 June 2008
Researchers Demo Neural Implant That "Learns"
The neural implants used to control prosthetic limbs have traditionally been relatively crude affairs, relying on an inflexible pattern of signals from the brain to activate a robotic limb in a preordained manner. Now, however, University of Florida researchers have devised a way for neuronal devices to evolve with the brain as it learns...

24 June 2008
Neanderthals' Last Hurrah Surprisingly Sophisticated
An archaeological excavation in southern England is providing scientists with a poignant and surprising glimpse into the last days of a group of Neanderthals on the verge of extinction...

23 June 2008
Grief Linked To Brain Pleasure Centers
University of California scientists say that long-term grief (also known as complicated grief) can activate neurons in the reward centers of the brain in a way more usually associated with addiction...

20 June 2008
Take Two Rads And Call Me In The Morning
Radiation in high enough doses is lethal and chronic exposure is linked to the development of cancer, but one maverick professor believes that short-term controlled exposure to low doses of radiation may significantly improve our health...

19 June 2008
Microbe Colonies Show Sophisticated Learning Behaviors
A cross-disciplinary team of biologists and engineers investigating how simple biochemical networks can perform sophisticated computational tasks have observed bacterial colonies anticipating coming changes in their environment and adjusting their behaviors accordingly...

18 June 2008
Male Homosexuality Placed In Darwinian Context
Italian researchers say that male homosexuality in humans can be explained by a model based on sexually antagonistic selection; where genetic factors spread in the population by giving a reproductive advantage to one sex while disadvantaging the other...

17 June 2008
Climatologists Mull Side-Effects Of Ozone Hole Closure
Climatologists modeling possible weather patterns that may occur when the ozone hole closes – projected to be sometime in the second half of this century – say that its closure may significantly affect the climate in the Southern Hemisphere, with flow-on effects that will be felt all over the planet...

16 June 2008
DNA Precursors In Meteorite Confirmed As Extraterrestrial
Scientists examining pieces of the Murchison meteorite, which crashed in Australia in 1969, say that the nucleobases found in the fragments are almost certainly extraterrestrial in origin, leading them to believe that these important building blocks for DNA and RNA may be common throughout the cosmos...

13 June 2008
Physicists Create Quantum-Entangled Images
Using a technique known as "four-wave mixing," researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute and the University of Maryland have created "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are entangled so that changes in one image are instantaneously replicated in the other image, regardless of the distance separating them...

12 June 2008
Fifteen-Thousand-Foot Fossil Find Flummoxes Fossickers
High up on the desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team has found thick layers of lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates. The fossils are relatively young (around 2 million years), leading the researchers to ponder what could have caused such a sudden and massive die-off...

11 June 2008
Omega-6 Intake Can Determine Offspring Gender In Sheep
Researchers at the University of Missouri have established that maternal diet can influence the gender of offspring in sheep, and a diet enriched with omega-6 fats offers a significantly higher chance of male offspring...

10 June 2008
ADHD A Benefit In The Wild?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been placed neatly into a natural selection context thanks to a fascinating new study that suggests that ADHD may be beneficial to nomadic African tribesmen, although it may also trigger malnourishment in their cousins who live in settlements...

9 June 2008
The Food Crisis Wildcard: Ozone
Ozone, a pollutant which can damage plants and reduce crop yields, will likely exacerbate the current global food crisis, says a scientist who believes that the new EPA standards to combat rising ozone levels will not be enough to protect plants from its effects...

6 June 2008
Moon Dust Could Be Key Ingredient For Giant Lunar Telescope
A cocktail of nanotubes, moon dust and epoxy forms a concrete-like substance that NASA researchers say would be ideal for fabricating a (relatively) low-cost mirror telescope on the moon that would allow the direct imaging of extrasolar planets...

5 June 2008
Line-Of-Sight SETI Revamp Proposed
Earth-based astronomers can detect extrasolar planets as they transit across the face of distant stars, so alien astronomers should be able to detect the Earth as it moves across the face of our sun. That's the logic behind a novel proposal to search for extraterrestrial radio signals in a tiny segment of the sky called the ecliptic band...

4 June 2008
Spread Of Human Virus In Chimps Confirmed
Building on earlier work that found evidence of human viruses in deceased chimpanzees, a new study has confirmed that chimps in Tanzania's Mahale Mountains are becoming sick from a variant of a human paramyxovirus...

3 June 2008
Anchovies A Tasty Entrée Into The Marine World For Toxoplasma Gondii
Not content messing with the brains of land mammals, cat parasite T. gondii is now making significant inroads into the marine world thanks to the humble anchovy...

2 June 2008
When Happiness Is A Disadvantage
Psychologists conducting research into how a child's mood affects their ability to learn have found that where attention to detail is required, happy children may be at a disadvantage...

30 May 2008
"Massive" Horizontal Gene Transfer In Animal Kingdom Revealed
Evidence for massive horizontal gene transfer - from bacteria, fungi, and even from plants - has been found in the genome of the tiny swimming critter known as the bdelloid rotifer...

29 May 2008
Monkey Mind Over Matter
A monkey has successfully fed itself using a robotic arm controlled by signals from its brain. The researchers involved say the breakthrough could lead to the development of brain-machine interfaces for people with spinal cord injuries and those with "locked-in" conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease...

28 May 2008
Viking DNA Retrieved
Researchers excavating a thousand-year old site containing Viking skeletons went to extraordinarily lengths to ensure that any remnant DNA would not be contaminated, thus avoiding the controversy that has dogged supposed DNA extractions from other ancient humans...

27 May 2008
Drink-Up For Superior Sperm
Men who drink alcohol regularly are more likely to have better semen quality while men in certain occupations are more likely to have poor semen quality, says a new wide-ranging fertility study carried out by scientists in the UK...

26 May 2008
Scientists Mull Earthquake Love Waves
A new study shows that large earthquakes routinely trigger smaller jolts worldwide, sometimes as far away as on the opposite side of the planet and in areas not normally prone to quakes...

23 May 2008
Turbulent Times On Jupiter
Astronomers say that the increased turbulence and storms first observed on Jupiter more than two years ago are still raging, prompting a theory that Jupiter is in the throes of a major climate shift...

22 May 2008
Jumping Robot Designed With Rough Terrain In Mind
European researchers have unveiled a novel, grasshopper-inspired jumping robot that weighs a miniscule 7 grams but can jump 1.4 meters - more than 27 times its body length. The tiny robot is designed to explore rough, inaccessible terrain or to aid in search and rescue operations...

21 May 2008
Incense Found To Be Psychoactive
Biologists have discovered that burning frankincense activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain that alleviate anxiety and depression, suggesting that an entirely new class of medicinal drugs might be right under our noses...

20 May 2008
The Photonic Bug
Creating an ideal "photonic crystal" to manipulate visible light in optical computers may now be possible; thanks to a beetle from Brazil whose shimmering, iridescent green scales provide the ideal, diamond-like crystalline structure...

19 May 2008
Grandpa's Soap Alive And Kicking
Examining East Coast estuaries, researchers have established that the endocrine disruptors triclosan and triclocarban, used in soaps and other personal care products, are still persisting in sediment after up to 50 years, with little degradation...

16 May 2008
The Great Escape
A mechanism for how information might escape from a black hole has been proposed by a team of physicists at Penn State who say that if quantum gravity is considered, then space-time becomes much larger and there is room for information to reappear in the distant future on the other side of what was first thought to be the "end" of space-time...

15 May 2008
Hunger's Longevity Effect Due To Altered Hormonal System
Comparing the effects of caloric restriction and exercise on longevity, new experiments have shown that while exercise does not extend lifespan, caloric restriction does by subtly changing the metabolic system...

14 May 2008
New Physiological Evidence For Social Anxiety Disorder
Dutch researchers report direct evidence for the involvement of the brain's dopamine regulation system in social anxiety disorder, demonstrating that social anxiety has a physical, brain dependent component...

13 May 2008
Cell Phones More Expensive Than Hubble Space Comms
A British space scientist has calculated that cell phone texting is at least four times more expensive than receiving scientific data from the Hubble Space Telescope...

12 May 2008
HIV Prevention Message Failing In Africa
The most common HIV prevention strategies - condoms, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections and abstinence - are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics occurring in Africa...

9 May 2008
Folding Proteins For Fun And Profit
A new computer game, called Foldit, turns protein folding into a competitive sport for anyone with a computer. Its creators say Foldit capitalizes on people's natural 3-D problem-solving skills and they hope to get a significant fraction of the world's population working on solving critical health problems...

8 May 2008
Biodiversity: It's In The Water
A new method for predicting biodiversity, described by its creators as "ridiculously simple," uses only the geomorphology of a river network and rainfall measurements to accurately predict the biodiversity of species in a river system...

7 May 2008
Epigenetic Changes Discovered In Abuse Victims' Brains
Scientists have discovered important differences between the brains of suicide victims who suffered abuse as children and so-called normal brains. The differences are in their epigenetic marking – a chemical coating on the DNA that is influenced by environmental factors...

6 May 2008
Fungi Enlisted To Clean-Up Depleted Uranium
In a discovery that could have important implications for the clean-up of war ravaged countries, researchers have found evidence that fungi can "lock" depleted uranium into a mineral form that would be less likely to find its way into plants, animals, or the water supply...

5 May 2008
Solar System's "Bouncing" Linked To Mass Extinction Events
A new computer model of our solar system's movement relative to the Milky Way indicates that it "bounces" up and down through the plane of the galaxy; a cycle that scientists say is a "beautiful match" with the mass extinction events that occur periodically on Earth...

2 May 2008
Lack Of A McShrinky Makes Therapy Unappealing
Television's portrayal of psychological counselors as either buffoons or unethical clods in shows like Frasier, Tell Me You Love Me and In Treatment, makes people less willing to seek professional mental health services, suggests a new study...

1 May 2008
Electromagnetic Fields Disrupt Newborns' Heart Rates
The electromagnetic fields produced by hospital incubators can interfere with newborn babies’ heart rates, potentially creating problems for infants born prematurely who may spend extended periods in incubators...

30 April 2008
Nanoparticle Laced Wastewater Could Compromise Treatment Plants
The silver nanoparticles used in a growing number of consumer products can wreak havoc with the benign bacteria that are used by water treatment plants to remove ammonia from wastewater...

29 April 2008
Graphene's "Muffin-Tin" Nanodots Explained
Researchers believe they now understand how graphene - a featureless, flat sheet of carbon atoms - lying on an equally featureless iridium surface, converted itself into a kind of "muffin tin" that formed identically sized and spaced muffins out of applied iridium atoms...

28 April 2008
Quantum-Hall Effect Observed, Sans Magnetic Field
The quantum-Hall effect (where electrons condense into an exotic quantum fluid) was thought to only occur in specially prepared materials under the influence of an intense magnetic field, but US researchers have observed the effect in a bulk crystal of bismuth-antimony without any magnetic field being present...

24 April 2008
More Evidence Of Link Between Reproductive System And Aging
Eliminating the cells that make eggs and sperm in fruit flies extends the flies' lifespan, suggesting that molecular signals from the reproductive system are directly linked to aging and metabolism in animals...

23 April 2008
Zeroing-In On Epigenetic Inheritance Mechanism
US reseachers say they now understand how "silent" heterochromatin (tightly packed clumps of DNA where the genes are effectively turned off) can be transcribed into interfering RNA and inherited across generations...

22 April 2008
Stem Cell Decimation Behind "Chemo Brain"
Chemotherapy agents are recognized to have a negative impact on brain function in cancer patients but the precise mechanisms that underlie this cognitive dysfunction are only now being identified...

20 April 2008
Harnessing The Coriolis Force
Created by the rotation of the Earth, the force that causes whirlpools to form in bathtubs could soon be used to boost traditional hydroelectric power generation by 27 percent, says the inventor of a new turbine...

18 April 2008
Smallest Transistor Created With Graphene
UK researchers have used the world's thinnest material, graphene, to create the world's smallest transistor, one atom thick and ten atoms wide...

17 April 2008
ETs Very Unlikely, New Calculations Suggest
The chance of intelligent life emerging on another planet is very low - less than 0.01 per cent over four billion years, according to a new mathematical model...

16 April 2008
Quantifying Space Radiation Dangers
Cancer researchers are working to estimate the risk astronauts on long voyages will face from exposure to the high energy radiation that is ubiquitous in space...

15 April 2008
Laser Used To Get Thundercloud Sparking
Using a powerful ground-based laser, European scientists were able to induce electrical activity in thunderclouds, a precursor to producing lightning strikes on demand...

14 April 2008
New Understanding Of Insect Olfactory Mechanism
Insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms - an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve current ideology...

11 April 2008
Spit-Swap Forces Changes To DNA Testing
Protocols for DNA testing are being revised after a man attempted to foil a DNA paternity test by placing another man's saliva in his mouth...

10 April 2008
"Paradoxical Pharmacology" Yields Radical New Asthma Treatment
One of the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath – first do no harm – has been ignored in the development of a new asthma treatment that initially worsens symptoms before eventually improving overall health...

9 April 2008
Evolution Leaves "Fingerprint" Across Human Genome
Turning genetic information into proteins leaves genetic fingerprints, even on regions of the DNA that are not involved in coding for the final protein...

8 April 2008
Organics Shaping Up As Next Wave In Digital Signal Processing
Performing digital signal processing using organic and chemical materials without electrical currents looks like being the wave of the future...

7 April 2008
Computer Recognizes Attractiveness In Women
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but what if the beholder is a software program?

4 April 2008
Animals "Stuck In Time"
Researchers investigating how animals perceive time have found that episodic-like memory in animals is qualitatively different from human episodic memory...

3 April 2008
Water Intake Guidelines Questioned
A study into the health effects of drinking 8 glasses of water a day reveals that most supposed benefits are not backed by solid evidence...

2 April 2008
Paranoia As Common As Depression, Anxiety
A virtual reality subway ride has been used by researchers to reveal the extent that paranoia occurs in the general public...

31 March 2008
Mystery Fevers Cured With Surgery
Persistent childhood fevers that don’t respond to antibiotics seem to be cured by removal of the tonsils, even though the children’s tonsils appear completely normal and don’t show any sign of infection...

27 March 2008
Brain Has Sixth Sense For Calories
New research suggests that the brain can “sense” the calories in food, independent of our normal tasting mechanism...

25 March 2008
Doctors Outline Policy To Prevent Genetic Discrimination
The American College of Physicians has released a policy document which they believe should be integral to new laws to protect against genetic discrimination in employment and insurance...

20 March 2008
Roll-Your-Own Enzymes A Reality
UCLA chemists have created designer enzymes for reactions not normally catalyzed in nature, opening the door for scientists to control the reactions that sustain life...

19 March 2008
CO2 Emissions In China Rocketing
The growth in China's carbon dioxide emissions is far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing global atmospheric greenhouse gases even more difficult...

18 March 2008
1st Rule Of Evolution: Strive For Complexity
UK scientists have revealed what may well be the first "rule" of evolution - a pervasive drive to become increasingly more complex...

17 March 2008
Brain's Secondary Depth-Perception Mechanism Uncovered
Neuroscientists have identified a small part of the brain that processes the image from a single eye, the motion of our bodies and the motion of our eyeball, to allow us to perceive depth with only one eye...

14 March 2008
Meteorites Spiced Up Primordial Soup
The organic soup that spawned life on Earth may have gotten some special ingredients from outer space...

12 March 2008
Epigenetic Changes Found In Schizophrenics
For the first time, scientists have discovered epigenetic changes (chemical changes to a gene that do not alter the DNA sequence) in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder...

11 March 2008
Real And Virtual Systems Merged In Mixed Reality State
Using a virtual pendulum and its real-world counterpart, scientists using "bidirectional instantaneous coupling" have created the first mixed reality state in a physical system...

10 March 2008
Brits Invite ET Over For Corn Chips
Snack food company Doritos is sponsoring a competition to beam a user-created advertisement (using a 2-billion watt transmitter) at a solar system 42 light years away from Earth...

7 March 2008
First Light For Binocular Telescope
The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona has captured images using its twin, side-by-side primary mirrors together for the first time, achieving first "binocular" light...

6 March 2008
Rethink On Cause Of Type 2 Diabetes
Growing evidence shows that surgery on the small bowel may effectively cure Type 2 diabetes - an approach that may change the way the disease is treated...

5 March 2008
Expensive Placebo Works Better Than Cheap One
A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50 pill, even when they are identical placebos, finds a new study...

4 March 2008
Bacterial Rainmakers Ubiquitous
Scientists have uncovered evidence linking airborne bacteria from plants to the cycle of precipitation, underscoring the complex interplay between our planet's climate and biosphere...

29 February 2008
"Safer" Cigarettes Back On The Agenda
Scientists have fingered hydrogen peroxide as the cancer causative in cigarette smoke, a finding they hope may lead to "safer" cigarettes...

28 February 2008
This Is Your Brain On Jazz
Using fMRI, two scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow...

27 February 2008
Radical Nano-Vaccines Show Promise
A novel technique using an oil-based emulsion placed in the nose has produced a strong immune response against smallpox and HIV...

26 February 2008
HIV Stigmatization Still Widespread
Stereotypes and misinformation about HIV that are commonplace among the general public are also evident in a surprising number of clinical staff...

22 February 2008
New Institute Plans Exascale Computing
Sandia and Oak Ridge researchers are designing computers that will perform a million trillion calculations per second...

21 February 2008
Fat Cats, Diabetic Dogs Vex Veterinarians
Obesity is affecting an increasing number of pets, with a new study estimating the prevalence of obesity in the canine population at 40 percent...

19 February 2008
"Language" Gene Pooh-Poohed
The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says an MIT Prof...

18 February 2008
Plenty Of Earth-Like Planets Out There, Say Astronomers
Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope now believe that at least 1-in-5 neighboring solar-mass stars in the Milky Way may form terrestrial worlds...

15 February 2008
New Cell-Phone Cancer Link
An Israeli study has found that heavy cell phone users are subject to a higher risk of benign and malignant tumors of the salivary gland...

14 February 2008
New World Record For Solar Conversion Efficiency
Sandia National Laboratories have set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate...

13 February 2008
Primatologists Snap Rare Gorilla Nookie Pic
Scientists have released the first known photographs of gorillas performing face-to-face copulation in the wild...

12 February 2008
Insects The Likely Winners From Warming Climate
Insects are likely to benefit from our warming climate, with new data linking past spikes in temperature with increased voraciousness in plant-eating insects...

11 February 2008
Subliminal Experiments Uncover Deep-Seated Racism
Research from three US universities reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes...

8 February 2008
GM Cotton Gets First Resistant Pest
Bollworm are the first pests to evolve resistance in the field to plants modified to produce an insecticide called Bt...

7 February 2008
Ink Delivers DNA
Tattooing has been found to be much more effective than intramuscular injection for the delivery of DNA vaccines...

6 February 2008
More Of The Same From The Net
While Internet search results do bring up a variety of useful materials, researchers have found that people pay more attention to information that matches their pre-existing beliefs and prejudices...

5 February 2008
Climate "Tipping Points" Identified
An international team of researchers have described a number of small climatic changes that could have large long-term consequences for the planet...

4 February 2008
California's Water Supply Dwindling
The snowpack in the Sierras has shrunk by 20 percent thanks to our warming climate, leading researchers to warn of a looming water crisis in the Western United States...

31 January 2008
Plastic Bottles And Hot Liquids A Bad Combo
Bisphenol A, an environmental estrogen that is thought to cause reproductive disorders, is released 55 times more rapidly from polycarbonate plastic bottles when they are exposed to hot water...

30 January 2008
Pimped Bacterium Churns Out Hydrogen
Deleting six genes in E. coli's DNA has transformed the bacterium into an extremely efficient hydrogen-producing factory that's powered by sugar...

29 January 2008
Something Fishy About Rocketing Oceanic Nitrogen Levels
The collapse of fishing grounds from over-fishing has played a significant role in disturbing the balance between nitrogen entering and leaving coastal water systems...

25 January 2008
Demographers Mull Effects Of Aging Populations
A new study into the aging populous contends that humanity might be headed for an age of peace, political stability and economic development...

24 January 2008
Liver Recipient Takes On Donor's Immune System
An Australian teenager who received a liver transplant has astonished medical experts by taking on her donor's immune system...

23 January 2008
Cell Phone Radiation Triggers Insomnia
Researchers in the United States and Sweden have found that cell phone use immediately prior to going to bed can disrupt sleep patterns...

22 January 2008
Tweaking Diatoms For Nanofabrication Duties
Unicellular algae known as diatoms could represent the next big breakthrough in computer chip technology...

21 January 2008
New Delivery Method For Gene Therapy
Japanese researchers say they have pioneered a new method of introducing foreign DNA into cells that is simple, cheap and does not use cytotoxic reagents...

18 January 2008
Flexible Electronics Melded With Contact Lens Creates Bionic Eye
Scientists have combined a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights...

17 January 2008
Parasite Turns Ants Fruity
A newly discovered parasite dramatically changes its ant host into what appears to be a juicy red berry, thus boosting its chances of being eaten by a bird and spread further afield...

16 January 2008
Glacial Acceleration Linked To "Plumbing" Issues
Meltwater sometimes overwhelms the interior "drainpipes" of glaciers and causes them to lurch forward, possibly explaining the widespread acceleration of glaciers observed worldwide...

15 January 2008
Aggression As Rewarding As Sex
Researchers have discovered that our brain processes aggression as a reward - much like sex, food and drugs...

14 January 2008
High Levels Of Antibiotic Resistance In Arctic Birds
Researchers are alarmed that remote colonies of Arctic birds are carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria...

11 January 2008
Glacier Woes Overstated?
New research indicates glacial ice existed on Earth during an intense period of global warming during the Cretaceous period...

10 January 2008
Chimp Culture Human-Like
Socially-learned cultural behavior thought to be unique to humans is also found among chimpanzees colonies...

9 January 2008
An Inconvenient Galaxy
The discovery of two new components within a puzzling spiral galaxy confirm that it must have a pair of arms winding in the opposite direction from most other galaxies...

2 January 2008
Polarization Technique Used To "See" Exoplanet
For the first time, astronomers have been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet...