Gay animals an inconvenient truth for BBC, claims study
A new study in the European Journal of Cultural Studies criticizes wildlife documentaries produced by the BBC for ignoring widespread…
Rare strobe-like binary protostar found
The Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have teamed up to uncover a mysterious infant star that behaves like a strobe…
Earth-like planets may be closer than previously thought
A new analysis of data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope indicates that many red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets,…
Significant bacterial populations found in upper atmosphere
Using a DC-8 aircraft to scoop-up air samples from the troposphere, scientists have identified significant numbers of living microorganisms –…
TV watching a predictor of sperm count
Healthy young men who watch television for more than 20 hours a week have around half the sperm count of…
Oxycontin overdoses at epidemic levels
While heroin overdoses have declined, overdoses from prescription opioids such as oxycodone (marketed as Oxycontin) increased seven-fold in New York…
Mystery of extreme head-rotation in owls explained
Anatomical artists and neurological experts at Johns Hopkins have finally unravelled how night-hunting owls can almost fully rotate their heads…
Modified gut flora could end malnutrition
A new study conducted in sub-Saharan Africa found that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of childhood…
Simulation reveals evolutionary origins of modularity
Robotics researchers say they now understand why humans, bacteria and other organisms evolved in a modular fashion, a finding that…
Synesthesia traced to childhood toy
Experiencing a color when viewing particular letters or numbers – known as color-graphemesynesthesia – may partly be a learned behavior,…
Multitasking: you’re bad at it
Most people believe they can multitask effectively, but a new University of Utah study indicates that the people who multitask…
Car designs may change to protect obese
An analysis of traffic collision fatalities showing that obese drivers are far more likely to die than drivers of normal…
Aspirin and vision loss: a significant association
In a new study, regular aspirin use (defined as once or more per week) was shown to be “significantly” associated…
Quadruple helix DNA discovered in human cells
Cambridge University researchers have published a paper in Nature Chemistry showing that four-stranded “quadruple helix” DNA structures exist within the…
Viagra’s surprising weight-loss properties
German scientists investigating why mice given Viagra were resistant to obesity say they have discovered a “quite amazing” anti-obesity effect…
Parasitic worms could treat obesity disorders
On the list of unwelcome medical conditions, a parasitic worm infection ranks fairly high. But according to an international team…
Leadership can be an inherited trait, study finds
Using a large twin sample, an international research team found that a quarter of the observed variation in leadership behaviors…
Are close friends on Facebook the enemy?
“Likes” or positive comments from close friends on Facebook appear to inflate users’ self-esteem and reduce self-control, resulting in higher…
Ancient faces reconstructed
A new DNA system employed to analyze modern forensic samples has also been used to establish facial characteristics from centuries…
Telling time with matter waves
Berkeley scientists say they have discovered a way to tell time by measuring matter waves, the oscillations of matter whose…
Asteroid belt spotted around Vega
Astronomers say they have spotted evidence for an asteroid belt encircling Vega, a star 25 lights years from Earth and…
Habitable planets galore, suggests Kepler data-crunching
A detailed analysis of the first three years of data from NASA’s Kepler mission, which already has discovered thousands of…
Modern parenting crippling kids’ brains, says Notre Dame prof
Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an…
Fossil analysis indicates dinosaurs used feathers for courtship
A University of Alberta scientist says that fossilized dinosaur tail bones provide strong evidence that feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage…
Antarctic ice sheet warming much faster than previously thought
Remote monitoring equipment on the western part of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is showing an increase of…
30ft sea level rise may be unavoidable
Climatologists examining the relationship between sea level and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations over the last 40 million years have found…
MRI scans reveal fructose’s effects on brain’s appetite regulators
Scans of the human brain after ingesting fructose have provided insights into how the substance affects brain chemistry and increases…
Ancient mega-piranha had mega-bite
University of Washington (UW) researchers say Megapiranha paranensis, a prehistoric relative of piranhas weighing about 20 pounds, delivered a bite…
Stanford announces peel-and-stick solar panels
Solar cells have traditionally been deployed in heavy, fixed panels, but Stanford scientists aim to change that with the development…