US medical researchers have published their list of the top 10 chemicals believed to be implicated in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Compiled by medicos from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the report also calls for increased research to identify other suspect environmental toxins and the […]
Andalgalornis couldn’t fly, but it used its unusually large, rigid skull – together with a hawk-like hooked beak – for a fighting strategy reminiscent of boxer Muhammad Ali. The agile creature repeatedly attacked and retreated, landing well-targeted, hatchet-like jabs to take down its prey, say researchers who have been examining fossils of this ancient “terror […]
Climate change scientists may need to rethink the factors governing the interaction of the world’s oceans, thanks to new findings published inNature that show the global power input from swimming creatures such as jellyfish is as much as a trillion watts of energy, comparable to that of wind and tidal forces. “The perspective we usually […]
University of Western Ontario researchers investigating how animals perceive time have found that episodic-like memory in rats is qualitatively different from human episodic memory. Reporting their findings in Science, William Roberts and his colleagues in Western’s Psychology Department found that rats are able to keep track of how much time has passed since they discovered […]
Obesity isn’t only a problem for humans. The serious implications obesity has for heart disease, diabetes and other maladies are now also becoming evident in our four-legged friends – in record numbers. According to a recent study published in theJournal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, the prevalence of obesity in dogs is between 22 and 40 […]
Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite usually found in cats that can also infect humans, has been getting more than its fair share of the limelight lately. Fresh on the heels of speculation about T. gondii manipulating human behavior on a massive scale to advance its own survival, comes news that the parasite also appears to be […]
The retina actively seeks novel features in the visual environment, dynamically adjusting its processing in order to seek the unusual while ignoring the commonplace, say researchers at Harvard University. Their report on the principle of visual novelty detection appears in the journal Nature. The study’s findings provide evidence that the ultimate goal of the visual […]
Against incredible odds, researchers working in separate sites, thousands of miles apart in Antarctica have found what they believe are the fossilized remains of two species of dinosaurs previously unknown to science. One of the two finds, which were made less than a week apart, is an early carnivore that would have lived many millions […]
