No power source needed for new wireless communications technique
A new wireless communications technique uses what researchers call “ambient backscatter” to allow devices to communicate and exchange information with…
Who’d have thunk it? Overthinking handicaps human performance
Appearing in the Journal of Neuroscience, a new University of California – Santa Barbara study reveals why under certain circumstances…
3D images generated from single lens
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering have developed a way for photographers and microscopists to create a 3D image…
Surprising longevity boost from Holocaust
Male Holocaust survivors have a longer life expectancy compared to those who didn’t experience the Holocaust, according to researchers from…
Faulty eye signaling may be to blame for schizoid hallucinations
By observing the eye movements of schizophrenia patients while they played a simple video game, a University of British Columbia…
Human sleep influenced by Moon
A report in Current Biology offers the first scientific evidence that humans are affected by the geophysical rhythms of the…
Magnetic wand provides three dimensions of smart phone interaction
A magnetic pen-like wand that makes use of the magnetometers built into most smart phones and tablets adds a third…
Love-hormone oxytocin also triggers anxiety and fear
It seems that oxytocin is two-faced. The hormone that promotes feelings of love, social bonding, and well-being can also cause…
New Neptunian moon discovered by Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting the distant blue-green planet Neptune, making a total of 14…
Revealing cancer’s deep evolutionary roots
A new way to look at cancer – by tracing its evolutionary roots to the dawn of multicellular life more…
A blue planet where it rains glass
Astronomers making visible-light observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have deduced the actual color of a planet orbiting another star…
Brain mapping gets a reality check
The idea that researchers can unravel different brain functions by performing MRI scans while subjects perform tasks is deeply flawed,…
Brain-training claims questioned
Brain-training companies claim scientific studies back the effectiveness of their programs, but according to a new report, most studies like…
Choir’s hearts beat as one
Swedish researchers studying how music affects the human body have found that when people sing in a choir their heartbeats…
Brain regions where ideas become contagious identified
How do ideas spread? Why do some videos go viral? UCLA scientists have taken a first step toward answering these…
Parrots solve complex mechanical problems
Untrained parrots have been solving complex mechanical problems that involved undoing a series of locks one after another; impressive feats…
“Extreme” astrophysical event likely cause of mysterious radio bursts
Mysterious bursts of radio waves detected on Earth may be coming from magnetars, say the scientists who first detected them.…
Oceanic food-chain undergoing dramatic changes
Increasing levels of carbon dioxide appear to be changing the biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystem, most notably the keystone bacterial…
Global warming getting El Niño all hot and bothered
Spawning droughts, floods, and other weather disturbances, the El Niño – Southern Oscillation affects the daily lives of millions of…
Lots more habitable planets out there, thanks to clouds
‘ An intriguing new study that calculates the influence of cloud behavior on climate doubles the number of potentially habitable…
Penicillin – not The Pill – behind the sexual revolution, suggests new analysis
The rise in casual sex that marked the swinging ’60s actually began a decade earlier, according to a new analysis…
Cheap and simple desalination unit runs from battery
Using a small electrical field that removes the salts from seawater, German and American scientists have invented a new method…
Nil by mouth: oral ingestion blamed for rapid rise of antibiotic resistance
A new study into antibiotic resistance in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy points the finger of blame squarely at…
Nearby star may have 3 habitable planets
Astronomers have announced that the star Gliese 667C in the constellation of Scorpius is likely orbited by between five and…
Eyes used to measure pleasure response
The brain’s pleasure response to tasting food can be accurately measured through the eyes using a common, low-cost ophthalmological tool,…
Dramatic images of Singapore haze from orbit
NASA satellites have captured striking images of vast palls of smoke billowing from wildfires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.…
It’s alive! Nutritional value of fresh produce varies with time of day
The fruits and vegetables we buy in the grocery store are actually still alive, leading scientists to conclude that the…
Population growth makes wildlife conservation pointless, concludes new report
A growing human population will inevitably crowd out mammals and birds and has the potential to threaten hundreds of species…
Striking correlation found between infection and mood disorders
Researchers have found that every third person who is diagnosed for the first time with a mood disorder had been…
New evidence for climate change creating modern humans
While archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that Homo sapiens originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago, it is more difficult…