22 December 2009
In case you missed it: 2009's most interesting science news
by Kate Melville
Here's what made us go WTF? in 2009 - a recap of the most interesting research news from the past twelve months. We'd also like to wish all our readers a happy and safe festive season and a prosperous 2010.
21 December 2009
Tantalizing hint of dark matter's existence
An international team of scientists conducting experiments in a disused iron ore mine have announced that they have detected two weakly-interacting massive particles - the very stuff that is thought to make up dark matter...
8 December 2009
Lightning unleashes radiation cocktail for air travelers
Physicists have estimated that airplane passengers could be exposed to a radiation dose equal to that from 400 chest X-rays if their plane happens to be near a lightning discharge...
4 December 2009
Biodiversity now a public health issue
Bringing epidemiology and ecology together is the only way to mitigate a surge in exotic and resurgent human diseases brought on by species loss and plummeting biodiversity, say researchers who have for the first time linked species and habitat loss with human disease...
1 December 2009 23 November 2009 20 November 2009 17 November 2009 10 November 2009 3 November 2009 29 October 2009 26 October 2009 20 October 2009 14 October 2009 8 October 2009 7 October 2009 2 October 2009 24 September 2009 16 September 2009 15 September 2009 8 September 2009 7 September 2009 29 July 2009 24 July 2009 23 July 2009 17 July 2009 15 July 2009 7 July 2009 18 June 2009 8 June 2009 28 May 2009 6 May 2009 21 April 2009 27 March 2009 24 March 2009 11 March 2009 3 March 2009 27 February 2009 5 February 2009 28 January 2009 6 January 2009
LHC revs up to set new world record
The Large Hadron Collider yesterday become the world's highest energy particle accelerator, shooting twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV and beating Tevatron's previous 2001 record of 0.98 TeV...
Plastics chemicals linked to ADHD symptoms
Adding to concerns that phthalates are feminizing boys' brains and causing genital deformities, Korean scientists say they now have evidence linking ADHD symptoms to the ubiquitous chemicals...
Popular cigarette brands loaded with bacteria
Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria known to be harmful to humans, a new study claims. And, according to the researchers, some of the organisms identified are resilient enough to survive the burning process...
Common chemical found to feminize boys' brains
Adding to an earlier investigation that linked two common phthalates to abnormal male genital development, the same researchers now say that those chemicals can also alter masculine brain development, making boys less likely to play with male-typical toys and games...
Biologists plot concept of "organismality"
A new paper argues that high levels of cooperation and low levels of conflict - from the genetic level on up - give a living thing its "organismality," whether it's an animal, a plant, a bacterium, or a colony...
Nutrients from animal carcasses a missing piece of biodiversity jigsaw
A new study demonstrates an unforeseen link between the hunting behavior of wolves and biochemical hot spots on the landscape that provide vital nutrients for plantlife...
Bad driving may be genetic
Scientists have found that people with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it. Disturbingly, about 30 percent of the population has the variant...
Cleanliness next to goodliness
Experiments involving fairness and generosity showed that people in rooms which had been freshly scented with a cleaning product exhibited a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior. Such ethic-promoting scents, say the researchers, could have significant application in workplaces and retail environments...
Toxin producing algae key to mass extinctions, claims new study
Algae, rather than asteroids, were the key to the end of the dinosaurs, claims a new study that notes that current environmental conditions show a significant similarity to the periods in the past when mass extinctions occurred...
Uncanny valley response observed in monkeys
The uncanny valley, a phrase that describes the disquieting feeling that occurs when viewers look at (almost) realistic human-like animated characters or androids, has now been observed in monkeys...
Unnatural selection: Courtesy of The Pill
Hormonal contraceptive methods may be having an underappreciated impact on a woman's ability to choose, compete for and retain her preferred mate...
Honey, I shrunk the earthworm
The ancient relatives of modern dung beetles and earthworms were reduced in size by as much as 50 percent during the Earth's last warming period, creating new concerns for scientists already worried about the effects of climbing temperatures and dwindling rainfall on global agriculture...
Loss of top predators causing widespread ecosystem disruption
The decimation of "apex" predators such as wolves, cougars, lions or sharks has led to a huge increase in smaller "mesopredators" that are causing major economic and ecological disruptions...
New doomsday map shows planet's dire state
"The threats [to the planet] are so enormous that it is too late to be a pessimist," say an international group of scientists who have been mapping the scale of human activities that impact Earth's biophysical thresholds...
Surreal experiences boost brain power
Psychologists have found that exposure to surrealism, by say, reading a book by Franz Kafka or watching a film by director David Lynch, enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee some of the learning functions in the brain...
Showerheads delivering a pathogen payload
Analyzing 50 showerheads from around the US, researchers found that a third of them harbored slimy biofilms of Mycobacterium avium at more than 100 times the concentrations found in municipal water supplies. M. avium is linked to pulmonary disease and can cause serious conditions in people with compromised immune systems...
Compelling new evidence for prostate cancer virus
A type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells. The finding could have important implications for the development of a vaccine to block infection by the virus and thus prevent the development of prostate cancer...
Far out: measuring GDP from orbit
Measuring economic growth in developing countries is a tricky business, but Brown University economists believe the accuracy of GDP estimates might be improved by using images of nighttime lights as seen from space...
Deep oil reserves created without organic matter?
Counter to traditional wisdom, experiments involving basic molecules subjected to extreme heat and pressure suggest that reserves of oil and gas could exist deep in the Earth and that their creation did not require organic matter...
Germans getting horny over natural disasters
German researchers have applied for a patent covering a technology which allows the horns of thousands of parked cars to be activated simultaneously in case of an impending disaster...
Predator-prey relationships a key driver in nature's synchronicity
Synchronicity in nature is seen in beating hearts and the simultaneous rise and fall of populations across vast reaches. Now, scientists have identified that predator-prey interactions are the "conductors" of this synchronicity in living organisms...
Male chromosome facing extinction
The male sex chromosome, the Y chromosome, is evolving at a much more rapid pace than the X chromosome, and researchers say that it is losing genes at a rate that eventually could lead to the Y chromosome's complete disappearance...
Global warming estimates "fundamentally wrong," contends new study
No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect...
The joy of sex - courtesy of parasites
Why do we have sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as you might think. And now, a new study suggests that sex may have evolved mainly as a defense against parasites...
Bacteria found to exhibit anticipatory behavior
Bacteria can anticipate future events and prepare for them, according to new research that explores how a microorganism's genetic networks are hard-wired to "foresee" what comes next in a sequence of events...
Parasite puzzle: scientists mull coextinction conundrum
Climate change and environmental degradation will make extinctions a sure-bet in the future; but scientists are still struggling to come to grips with what happens to a species' parasites when the host disappears. One worrying scenario predicts rapidly escalating numbers of pathogens and parasites affecting both humans and our domesticated animals...
Tantalizing glimpse of macroscopic quantum effects
The weird laws of quantum mechanics govern how molecules, atoms and smaller particles behave, but quantum phenomena sometimes "leak up" to macroscopic scales, researchers have found...
Modified Newtonian dynamic could do away with dark matter
The number of physicists questioning the existence of dark matter has been increasing for some time now. And while competing theories of gravitation have been developed independent of dark matter, they conflict with Newton's theory of gravitation. Now, some physicists are suggesting that Newton might be wrong...
Beer-goggles put to the test
British researchers have been surveying people in bars and cafes by asking them to rate the attractiveness of underage and mature females with and without makeup...
Estrogen contamination in bottled water "just the tip of the iceberg," say scientists
The notion that bottled mineral water is clean and without contamination is being challenged by new research that has identified significant levels of estrogen leaching from plastic bottles into the water...
Cold fusion a hot topic - again
In a sign of science's reinvigorated quest for new energy sources, the American Chemical Society's annual shindig features no less than 30 papers on the topic of cold fusion - or Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions as it is now known - with some of the presenters saying their findings are "very significant"...
Salt: nature's antidepressant
Most people consume far too much salt and an American researcher thinks we might crave it because it puts us in a better mood...
Truth-in-spam-shock: penis enlargement possible
Contrary to conventional medical dogma, a new European study has found that the mechanical devices known as penile extenders do increase the length of the human penis...
CO2 behind prehistoric global cooling
Ice in Antarctica appeared suddenly (in geologic terms) about 35 million years ago, after more than 100 million years of being ice-free. Scientists have long puzzled over what triggered the formation of Antarctica's massive ice-sheets, and they now believe they know the answer...
Primitive whales gave birth on land
A pair of ancient whale fossils - a pregnant female and a male of the same species - reveals how these primitive ancestors of today's whales gave birth and provides new insights into how whales made the transition from land to water...
Honeybees show surprising numeracy skills
Honeybees can discriminate between patterns containing two and three dots - without having to count the dots, a skill the researchers believe the bees use to navigate their environment...
Central tenet of theory of relativity looks shaky
Physicists have developed a promising new way to identify a possible abnormality in a fundamental building block of Einstein's theory of relativity, which, if confirmed, would disprove that the laws of physics remain the same for any two objects traveling at a constant speed...