More evidence for environmental chemicals contributing to Parkinson’s disease
A new twin study has found a significant association between exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) and other chemicals used in dry…
Reality check for celebrity images proposed
Dartmouth College computer scientists have developed a program to automatically rank photographs based on the amount of retouching the picture…
Dreams shown to provide daily stress-busting therapy
A dream provides us with a form of overnight therapy, say University of California – Berkeley researchers who have discovered…
BPA levels in canned soup unexpectedly high
In one of the first studies to investigate levels of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in canned food, Harvard researchers…
Forgetful? Blame your house
Everyone has experienced the frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were planning to do in there. The…
Running the numbers on alien life
A multi-institute team of scientists have proposed a new method of assessing the likelihood of life on alien worlds (exoplanets)…
Bashed-in prehistoric skull hints at the invention of violence
A 126,000 year-old human cranium (pictured right) exhibiting signs of localized blunt force trauma could represent the earliest known incident…
Scientists mull advantage of tasting words and hearing colors
Carried by a surprisingly large 4 percent of the population, scientists David Brang and VS Ramachandran have been pondering why…
Brain primed for nakedness
The uniquely human part of the brain that allows us to recognize faces in microseconds is even more sensitive at…
New Europa fractured surface theory holds water – and maybe life
Taking observations of Earth’s ice sheets and floating ice shelves and applying them to Europa, scientists say Jupiter’s moon may…
Unusual physiological changes observed after adolescent sex
Working with adolescent male and mature female hamsters, researchers have found that sex during adolescence can have effects on the…
Contraceptive pill to blame for rise in prostate cancer?
Intriguing new findings from Canadian researchers link rates of prostate cancer around the globe to environmental estrogen pollution caused by…
Fine-particle air pollution causing more severe storms
Climatologists say that aerosols (fine-particle air pollution) in the atmosphere dramatically affect cloud development to reduce precipitation in dry regions…
Lost: one giant planet
Computer simulations of the early solar system suggest the possibility that our system had more than four giant planets initially…
“Green” biofuels anything but
A detailed new study on greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations has calculated a more than 50 percent increase…
Narcotic effects of carbon monoxide keep city dwellers happy
Low levels of the gas carbon monoxide have a narcotic effect on city dwellers, say Tel Aviv University researchers, leading…
Caveman cook calorie kerfuffle corrected
Despite our preoccupation with all things gastronomic, surprising little is known about how food preparation affects the energy it supplies…
T. gondii brain parasite found to alter dopamine production
The brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in an estimated 15 percent of the population, has been found to dramatically increase…
Fine structure constant may vary across universe
Electromagnetism, measured by the so-called fine-structure constant, is one of the four fundamental forces of nature and it underpins Einstein’s…
SETI needs to see the light, say astrophysicists
SETI’s (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) quest to find radio signals transmitted by extraterrestrial civilizations has so far failed to locate…
US astronomers give nod to complex organics in space
The controversial notion that complex organic molecules could be relatively common in interstellar space has garnered support from US and…
Birth control shots linked to memory loss
Depo Provera, the hormonal birth control injection, supposedly offers a convenient alternative for women who don’t want to remember to…
Boffins take aim at finance bubbles
US and European scientists have proposed two different methods for detecting finance bubbles, one analyzes verb and noun usage in…