24 December 2012

Science News 2012 - The year's most intriguing science stories

by Will Parker

13 January 2012
Researchers mull bacterium's link to autism
The bacterium Sutterella was found to be present at "remarkably high levels" in the gastrointestinal tracts of children with autism and scientists are pondering what the connection might be...

20 January 2012
Say what? Ambiguity makes language more efficient
To avoid conversational confusion and optimize language, linguists argue that every word should have just one meaning, but a new study from MIT turns that notion on its head, showing instead that ambiguity in words actually makes language more efficient...

23 January 2012
IQ plummets for women in social settings
A new study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences subtle social signals in group settings can have on individual cognitive functioning, especially for women...

22 February 2012
GPS location systems under increasing attack
A monitoring group in the UK has detected dozens of GPS jamming incidents as well as the first case of GPS spoofing being used to "trick" navigation systems. They warn of looming chaos in transportation systems and financial networks...

2 March 2012
Wine subtleties mostly irrelevant to consumer palates
Biology appears to play a major role in wine experts' acute sense of taste, suggests a study that found consumers are "taste blind" to the subtleties of wine, including even fundamental characteristics such as the balance of sugar and acid...

8 March 2012
QWERTY effect creates lovable words
An intriguing new study shows there is a link between the meaning of words and the letters they are composed of - a relationship the researchers have called the QWERTY effect...

14 March 2012
Trans fats and aggression: the Twinkie defense gets scientific

Researchers have provided the first evidence linking the consumption of trans fats with a range of adverse behaviors, ranging from impatience to overt aggression...

21 March 2012
Laser camera peers around corners
Using ordinary walls, doors or floors as reflective surfaces, MIT researchers have built a camera that produces recognizable 3-D images from outside the camera's line of sight...

27 March 2012
Antidepressant use primes brain for placebo effect
Putting a twist in a run-of-the-mill medication-versus-placebo trial has revealed that prior treatment with antidepressants appears to prime the brain to exhibit a much stronger response to a placebo...

2 April 2012
Beer-goggles effect explained
Alcohol reduces our ability to assess facial symmetry in others, according to UK researchers who say the effect is most pronounced in women...

11 April 2012
Oxytocin has "blockbuster potential" as lifestyle drug
A case report in The Journal of Sexual Medicine details how "significant, broad-spectrum improvements in sexual function" were apparent in a male subject after intranasal oxytocin use, leading the researchers to ponder the mass market potential of oxytocin as a lifestyle drug for men...

1 May 2012
Hundreds of rogue stars found outside galaxy
Astronomers say they have identified more than 600 stars that have been violently flung out of the Milky Way toward Andromeda; stellar victims, the scientists believe, of the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's core...

14 May 2012
Carbon emission levels from deforestation challenged
When trees are felled to create solid wood products - such as lumber for housing - the wood retains most of its locked-up carbon, say scientists who suggest that previous climate models for carbon emissions from deforestation need revision...

15 May 2012
Ovulation goggles make Mr Wrong look like Mr Right
Nice guys finish last when women are wearing ovulation goggles, say researchers who have been investigating exactly why females in the most fertile phase of their menstrual cycle choose sexy, rebellious cads to pair-up with...

24 May 2012
Nomad planets seeding life throughout the universe?
According to new calculations, planets adrift in space without a "home" solar system are abundant in the universe and scientists have proposed that these nomad planets might not only sustain life, but transport it as well...

7 June 2012
Scientists tip 2025 for possible planetary collapse
A very large meta-review by an international group of scientists suggests the Earth is perilously close to a tipping point where resource consumption, climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth will, at best, trigger major shifts in the biosphere, and at worst, cause planetary collapse...

8 June 2012
Coolness no longer cool, say boffins
An intriguing new study - "Coolness: An Empirical Investigation" - suggests that the characteristics associated with coolness today are markedly different than those that originally generated the concept of cool...

19 June 2012
Pop music created using natural selection and crowdsourcing
Software that uses Darwinian natural selection and the musical tastes of web users is well on the way to creating the perfect pop tune, according to evolutionary scientists in the UK...

28 June 2012
Nicotine vaccine mooted for children
A novel genetic vaccine that modifies the liver to produce antibodies to clear nicotine from the bloodstream could be administered to children in much the same way that polio and HPV vaccines are, say the developers...

23 July 2012
Artificial jellyfish shows new route to synthetic organisms
Using only silicon and cultured rat heart muscle tissue, bioengineers have created a jellyfish-like creature that, despite its relative simplicity, shows complex swimming and feeding behaviors...

26 July 2012
Brain hardwired for objectification of women
A new series of experiments have shown that when presented with images of men, both male and female subjects perceive the person as a whole, whereas images of women are perceived as an assemblage of various body parts...

29 August 2012
Binary star has multiple orbiting planets
Astronomers have found the first multi-planet solar system orbiting a binary star. Importantly, the discovery shows that planetary systems can form and survive even in the chaotic environment around a binary star...

13 September 2012
Sexual arousal neutralizes disgust response
Dutch researchers have found that natural responses to disgusting stimuli were lessened significantly when female subjects were sexually aroused. The researchers believe the findings may provide new insights into female sexual dysfunction...

27 September 2012
Ancient Buddhist statue, filched by Nazis, was carved from meteorite
A 1,000 year-old Buddhist statue discovered by a Nazi expedition to Tibet in 1938 has been analyzed by scientists and found to be carved from a rare ataxite meteorite...

10 October 2012
The prettier the guiltier
Past research has linked physical attractiveness to success in a variety of fields, but a new study from Europe shows that beauty can be a handicap when it comes to culpability in domestic violence crimes...

20 October 2012
Ball lightning an ion discharge, contends Aussie scientist
No explanation of how ball lightning occurs has been universally accepted by science, but an Australian researcher thinks eye-witness accounts from airline pilots may offer an important clue...

23 October 2012
Precognition may exist in biological processes, suggests new review
After reviewing more than 30 years worth of studies into "anomalous anticipatory activity," researchers at Northwestern University think the phenomenon of presentiment might be related to recent findings in the field of quantum biology...

29 October 2012
Experiment could reveal mechanism behind quantum entanglement
European and Asian physicists have devised a do-able experiment that could reveal the precise workings of Einstein's "spooky action at a distance." The results would show that either faster-than-light communication is possible, or, that the Universe is fundamentally nonlocal, in the sense that every bit of the Universe is connected to every other bit...

13 November 2012
Human intellectual abilities in decline, claims geneticist
A provocative new analysis of genetic mutation in the context of Darwinian selection indicates that humans are losing intellectual and emotional capabilities because unbeneficial mutations are not being selected against in our modern society...

20 November 2012
Solar steam generator outshines photovoltaic solar cells
Using light-capturing nanoparticles, US researchers have achieved an impressive 82 percent conversion efficiency of sunlight directly into steam; a breakthrough they say will create highly cost-effective solutions for desalination, water purification and electricity generation...

21 November 2012
Stabbed or shot? Drink up
Hospital patients with traumatic injuries such as fractures, internal injuries and open wounds were far more likely to survive if they had consumed alcohol, and the protective effect increased with the amount of alcohol consumed...

30 November 2012
New evidence for water and organics on Mercury
Scientists say data transmitted by the Messenger spacecraft provide compelling support for the notion that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters...

11 December 2012
Are we living in a computer simulation? Physicists propose test to find out
In 2003, a British philosopher published a probabilistic analysis examining the possibility that we might all be living in a computer simulation. His conclusion - that we quite likely are living in a computer simulation - might soon be put to the test by US physicists...

13 December 2012
Rethink creation of life in terms of information, argues new theory
Attempts to recreate the emergence of life by mixing and reacting basic chemicals are wrong-headed, argue two US scientists, who instead propose that it is the informational architecture of a system's chemical networks that allows it to gain causal purchase over its components and become alive...