Science News
Here's a list of all the news articles that have appeared on Science a GoGo this year.
3 February 2012
Gender behaviors directly manipulated
Uncovering the individual genes that are directly influenced by testosterone and estrogen has allowed scientists to manipulate individual behaviors in mice, such as sex drive, desire to pick fights, or willingness to spend extra time caring for their young...
2 February 2012
Wireless highway charging proposed for electric cars
An innovative wireless system that charges electric cars while they are on the road could also be used to control driverless electric vehicles...
1 February 2012
Brain waves reveal mind's internal voice
Eavesdropping on the brain's internal monologs or communicating with locked-in patients may one day be a reality, as scientists learn how to decode the brain's electrical activity into audio signals. The technique reads electrical activity in a region of the human auditory system and then reconstructs the words...
31 January 2012
Size matters: evolutionary changes in body size measured
For the first time, scientists have measured how quickly large-scale evolutionary changes in body size occur. Intriguingly, while it takes 24 million generations for a mouse-sized animal to evolve to the size of an elephant, shrinkage is a much more rapid process...
30 January 2012
Ankle gets top rating for scratching pleasure
American itch boffins have been studying which parts of the body produce the most pleasure when scratched. Their analysis of itch relief at different body sites and related pleasurability reveals the ankle to be a scratch-pleasure hotpspot...
26 January 2012
Magic mushrooms get MRI treatment
Brain scans have revealed that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, makes users' memories more vivid by suppressing activity in certain areas of the brain...
25 January 2012
Racehorse "speed gene" traced to 18th century British mare
Irish researchers writing in the journal Nature Communications say that the original "speed gene" variant entered the equine Thoroughbred line from a single British mare about 300 years ago...
24 January 2012
Rising CO2 levels creating crazy fish
Rising oceanic carbon dioxide levels are disrupting a key brain receptor in fish, causing dramatic changes in their brain chemistry, behavior and sensory abilities...
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...
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...
18 January 2012
Why gossip is good for you
Gossip has traditionally had a bad reputation, but a convoluted series of experiments carried out in the US have demonstrated the physiological benefits of gossiping...
17 January 2012
La Niña cooking up mutated viruses?
The La Niña weather cycle is altering the migratory patterns of birds and scientists speculate that it could possibly be triggering the development of dangerous new strains of influenza...
16 January 2012
Funding for artificial testicle project will get ball rolling
A joint venture between two US companies to develop an artificial testicle has received funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences...
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...
12 January 2012
Milky Way has "billions" of habitable planets
Working with data from telescopes located around the world, an international team of astronomers have shown that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception and that there are likely billions of planets in our galaxy where humans could live...
11 January 2012
Disrupted biological clock damages brain
For the first time, scientists at Oregon State University have shown that disrupting the biological clocks found in many animals can cause accelerated neurodegeneration, loss of motor function and premature death...
10 January
Nicotine patches reduce senior moments
Older people may benefit from the regular use of nicotine patches, according to a study that showed improvements in memory and brain function in a group of senior non-smokers who were suffering mild cognitive impairment...
9 January 2012
Insect cyborgs get onboard power source
Attaching tiny sensors, recording devices and control mechanisms to insects is now a more realistic prospect after the discovery that electricity can be generated using the insect's digestive system...
6 January 2012
Monkeys feel the love on oxytocin
Researchers evaluating the effectiveness of the "love" hormone to treat autism and schizophrenia say that their experiments with monkeys show oxytocin breaks down normal social barriers...
5 January 2012
Stem cell injections produce robust anti-aging effects
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists say that mice injected with stem cell-like progenitor cells seemed to have "sipped from the fountain of youth..."
4 January 2012
Virtual sky makes for happier workers
The European developers of a luminous ceiling that mimics the lighting of passing clouds say that their artificial skyscape creates a more pleasant office environment for workers...
3 January 2012
Scientists scope effects of marijuana ingredients via MRI
Brain scans of marijuana users under the influence of either THC or cannabidiol show that one chemical increases psychotic symptoms while the other reduces them...
2 January 2012
Hazardous levels of noise exposure for 90% of city dwellers
Nearly all city folk are exposed to sound levels that can cause permanent hearing loss, but researchers studying urban noise exposure were more surprised to learn that MP3 players, rather than noisy workplaces, were to blame...
29 December 2011
Shift work should carry health warnings, say medicos
The strong correlation between shift work, obesity and type 2 diabetes has led health experts to call for the poor diet of shift workers to be considered a new occupational health hazard...
28 December 2011
MS is a metabolic disorder, claims new study
A controversial new study that frames multiple sclerosis as a metabolic disorder rather than an autoimmune disease neatly addresses many puzzling aspects of the illness, including why it strikes women more than men and why cases are on the rise worldwide...
22 December 2011
Return of wolves triggers renaissance in Yellowstone ecosystem
Fifteen years after the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park a beautifully revitalized ecosystem is emerging. Researchers studying the park say their observations provide "persuasive" evidence of the importance of top predators to biodiversity and ecosystem health...
21 December 2011
Earth-sized exoplanet identified
Two new planets - christened Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f - are the smallest yet discovered outside our solar system. Astronomers say one is the same size as Earth and the other about the size of Venus...
20 December 2011
Lower calorie intake provides brain boost
A low caloric diet changes the chemistry in the brain, enhancing both cognitive performance and memory, a discovery which scientists hope will yield new drugs to arrest the cognitive decline associated with aging...
19 December 2011
Modern man emerged from Middle East, suggests elephantine evidence
The elephant - a huge package of protein that is easy to hunt - disappeared from the Middle East around 400,000 years ago. This would have imposed considerable nutritional stress on Homo erectus, say Israeli researchers, who suggest that the loss of easy food favored hominids who were more knowledgeable and better at hunting smaller prey...
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