Science News 2007
Here's a list of all the news articles that appeared on Science a GoGo in 2007.
20 December 2007
Squirrels Use Snake Eau de Cologne
Animal behaviorists have observed squirrels chewing up rattlesnake skin and smearing it on their fur to mask their scent from predators...
19 December 2007
Tunguska Revisited
It's not the size that matters; it's what you do with it. Supercomputer simulations of the Tunguska impact have revealed the asteroid to be considerably smaller than previously thought...
18 December 2007
Menopause Exclusively Human
Human females are rare or even unique among primates in experiencing a lengthy post-reproductive lifespan...
17 December 2007
Brain Can Rewire Itself On-The-Fly
Dynamic connectivity in the brain allows neuronal circuits to be rewired on-the-fly, allowing stimuli to be more keenly sensed...
14 December 2007
Immune System Sculpts The Brain
The synapse elimination that occurs during the normal development of a child's brain seems to be directed by the immune system...
13 December 2007
Engineers Generate "Rogue Waves"
UCLA researchers have succeeded in creating and capturing optical rogue waves, freakish, brief pulses of intense light that are very similar to the infamous oceanic monsters...
12 December 2007
Missing Fallout Fuels Warming Fears
Ice cores drilled from the Himalayas lack the distinctive radioactive traces that atomic explosions produce, possibly indicating that no new ice has accumulated since the 1950s...
11 December 2007
Modern Man In Evolutionary Fast Lane
Driven by exponential population growth and cultural shifts, the past 40,000 years have been a time of supercharged evolutionary change for humans...
10 December 2007
Switching Gayness On And Off
Biologists have used both genetic manipulation and drugs to switch on and off homosexual behavior in fruit flies...
7 December 2007
Neuroscientists Map Violent Media's Effects On Brain
Although past studies have shown some correlation between exposure to media violence and real-life violent behavior, there has been little direct neuroscientific support for the theory until now...
6 December 2007
Dwarf Star Activity Puzzles Astronomers
Astronomers have been observing an unusual M-dwarf star with an extremely active and complex magnetic field that is stronger than our own Sun's, and a huge hydrogen hot-spot that covers half of its surface...
5 December 2007
Between The Sheets
Life on Earth may have originated as the organic filling in a multilayer sandwich of mica sheets...
4 December 2007
Biological Cause For Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
A new imaging project reveals that the brains of people with BDD look normal, but function abnormally when processing visual details...
27 November 2007
Lake Vostok Meltdown
Scientists have melted million-year-old ice from 2 miles under Antarctica and are about to search the melt-water for ancient microbes...
22 November 2007
Academics Mull Flow-On Effects Of Climate Change
More wars, starvation and population decline are just some of the less-than encouraging predictions coming from a new study based on past historical events linked to climate change...
21 November 2007
Call For Review Of "Safe" Lead Levels
A new study has found that even very small amounts of lead in children's blood - amounts well below the current federal standard - are associated with reduced IQ scores...
20 November 2007
New Molecular Insights Into Post-Coital "Ladies' Choice"
Scientists report possible biochemical proof that the reproductive system of female mammals can "sense" the presence of sperm and "choose" which males' sperm fertilizes the egg...
19 November 2007
Females Finessed By Fishy Fellatio
Male cichlid fish have evolved specialized fin markings that lure female fish close enough so the male can deposit sperm in the female's mouth...
16 November 2007
Viral-Vector Vaccines Vexed
Hopes for radical new vaccines using so-called viral vector technology have received a setback, with researchers reporting that the method may actually do more harm than good...
15 November 2007
Men: Simple Creatures
Sexual selection drives males to evolve flashier features in order to win mates, and now scientists are a step closer to understanding this peculiar male imperative...
14 November 2007
New Rationale For Biological Complexity Proposed
A changing environment and the biochemistry of horizontal gene transfer are the factors that make modularity and hierarchy - and complexity - prevalent in biology...
13 November 2007
Digging Chimps Provide Insights Into Early Human Diet
Even when food is plentiful above ground, chimps still prefer to dig for roots and tubers, indicating that perhaps our hominid ancestors were not such big meat-eaters after all...
12 November 2007
Evolutionary Algorithms Used To Design A Better Leaf
A computer model of a plant has been created that produces more leaves and fruit without needing extra fertilizer...
8 November 2007
Genome Analysis Left Wanting
The sequencing and comparison of 12 fruit fly genomes has revealed considerable flaws in the way scientists identify genes...
7 November 2007
Prof Pooh-Poohs Western World's Anti-Bacterial Crusade
An immunologist says society's infatuation with anti-bacterial products makes children and adults more likely to develop asthma and allergies - and perhaps even mental illnesses...
6 November 2007
Biodiversity Crunch Threatens Plant Productivity
The impact of species loss on ecosystems will dramatically compromise the important benefits that humans get from nature...
5 November 2007
Evolutionary Risk Distribution Law Identified
When do cells retain specific gene sequences, and when do they allow evolution to experiment with them? New research indicates that a sort of "risk distribution law" is in effect...
1 November 2007
Evidence of "Memory" In Molecular Interactions
Evidence has been uncovered that some molecular interactions on cell surfaces may have a "memory" that affects their future interactions...
31 October 2007
Massive Longevity Boost From Lithium
Nematode worms treated with lithium showed an astonishing 46 percent increase in lifespan, raising the question of whether humans taking the bipolar drug are also taking an anti-aging medication...
30 October 2007
Organic Carbon Declines In Fertilized Soils
Adding nitrogen fertilizer is believed to benefit the soil by building organic carbon, but University of Illinois soil scientists have overturned this central tenet of the agricultural revolution...
29 October 2007
New Holder Of Hottest Chile Record
Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has taken the title of world's hottest...
26 October 2007
Physicists Mull Big Bang Detritus
Physicists may have discovered an example of a cosmic defect, a remnant from the Big Bang called a "texture"...
25 October 2007
Balloon-Borne Solar Telescope Reaches 120,000 Feet
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet, borne by a balloon larger than a jumbo jet...
24 October 2007
Cancer Triggered By Viral Selection?
Scientists are mulling whether viruses may contribute to cancer by causing excessive death to normal cells while promoting the growth of surviving cells with cancerous traits...
23 October 2007
CO2 Rocketing, Carbon Sinks Failing
Carbon dioxide is building up faster than ever; while the natural processes that normally slow its build-up appear to be weakening...
22 October 2007
Ancient Proto-Eyes Turned-On By Moonlight
Romance and moonlight really do go together. Ancient light-sensitive genes, known as a cryptochromes, that occur in corals, fish and humans are responsible for triggering the annual mass spawning of corals that follows a full moon...
19 October 2007
Language-Gene Evolution Shared By Humans And Neanderthals
Adaptive changes in a human gene involved in speech and language processing were shared by our closest extinct relatives, the Neanderthals...
18 October 2007
X Chromosome The Evolutionary Smoking Gun
New research contends that the X chromosome is heavily influential in the process of speciation - and the reason may be nothing like what biologists expected...
17 October 2007
Blood Could Be Integral Part Of Brain's Processing Power
Scientists believe that blood may actually help us think, in addition to its well-known role as the conveyor of fuel and oxygen to brain cells...
16 October 2007
Parenting Suffers With Too Much Testosterone
Ramping up testosterone production can help male birds win a mate, but it also turns them into bad dads, who are uninterested in parenting their young...
12 October 2007
Inventing Illness
A new book chronicles how psychiatry has created new mental disorders and "pathologized" normal behavior...
11 October 2007
Exotic Form Of Carbon Dioxide Cranks Up Greenhouse Effect On Venus
Planetary scientists have tracked down a rare molecule in the atmosphere of Venus that they believe could affect the way the greenhouse effect works on the planet...
10 October 2007
Pregnant Moose Cozy Up To Traffic
Pregnant moose around Yellowstone are shifting closer to roads during calving season, specifically to avoid road-shy brown bears that might otherwise prey on their newborns...
9 October 2007
GE Corn A Threat To Waterways?
A widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to cause significant damage to aquatic ecosystems...
5 October 2007
Fish Hatcheries Cause Stunning Loss Of Reproductive Fitness
Trout raised in hatcheries suffer a dramatic and unexpectedly fast drop in their ability to reproduce in the wild...
4 October 2007
Taking The Heat Off Inefficient Engines
Physicists are looking at how to harness the thermal energy that is wasted by hot internal combustion engines...
3 October 2007
Environmental Persistence Of Tamiflu Causes Concern
Researchers have found that Tamiflu persists through sewage treatment and its ongoing presence in bodies of water could allow influenza viruses to develop resistance to the drug...
2 October 2007
New Algorithm Speeds Lattice QCD Equations
A new mathematical algorithm that quickly solves Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics linear equations overcomes a significant bottleneck experienced by researchers...
27 September 2007
Arctic Heatwave Sends Climatologists Back To Drawing Board
Unprecedented warm temperatures in the arctic this summer were so extreme that researchers have begun revising their climate forecasts...
26 September 2007
Huntington's Disease Sufferers Get Reproductive Boost
People with Huntington's disease have more children than the general population because they are healthier during their peak reproductive years...
25 September 2007
Super Bacteria Created In Zero-Gravity
Space flight doesn't just affect human physiology; it can also make microbes much more infectious...
14 September 2007
New Insights Into Early Star Formation
A new computer model suggests that the formation of the first stars depended crucially on the nature of dark matter...
13 September 2007
Newly Identified Protein Offers Clue To Immune Infertility
A previously unknown protein could be to blame for immune infertility disorder, which affects both men and women. The disorder causes their immune systems to "declare war" on sperm, which effectively renders them infertile...
12 September 2007
The Parking Lot As Environmental Vandal
Parking spaces - which in some US counties outnumber resident families by more than 10-to-1 - are warming the climate and causing heavy-metal water pollution...
11 September 2007
Motion Important For Viable Stem Cells
New research suggests that embryonic stem cells may develop much more viably when shaken...
6 September 2007
Ozone And Skin Oils Make For Unhealthy Airplanes
Chemical reactions between body oils and the ozone found in airplane cabins can lead to the formation of a whole range of unpleasant chemical byproducts...
5 September 2007
Boffins Investigate Schizophrenia Genes
Scientists are trying to understand why several genes with strong associations to schizophrenia have evolved rapidly thanks to positive selection during human evolution...
4 September 2007
Fat And Vitamin C - A Cancerous Combo
In the presence of fat, vitamin C may actually increase, rather than reduce, certain cancer causing chemicals...
31 August 2007
Horizontal Gene Transfer Vastly Underestimated, Suggests New Study
The movement of genes between unrelated species may happen much more frequently than previously believed, allowing species to acquire new genes and functions extremely quickly...
30 August 2007
Monkeys Use "Baby Talk" With Infants
Just like human mothers, rhesus monkeys also use special "baby talk" vocalizations to engage and interact with their infants...
29 August 2007
Dehydrated Females Quench Thirst With Ejaculate
The males of some insect species produce unusually large quantities of ejaculate (up to 10 percent of their body weight), tempting dehydrated females to accept sexual invitations simply to get hold of the water in the male's seminal fluid...
28 August 2007
Shifting Evolution Up A Gear
New research suggests that "moving the goalposts" may be one method of speeding-up evolutionary change...
23 August 2007
Uncovering Autism's Disconnects
Scientists have discovered that in autistic individuals, connections between brain cells may be deficient within single regions, and not just between regions, as was previously believed...
22 August 2007
Health Officials Get Wee-lly Smart About Drug Usage
Public health officials plan to get more accurate estimates on illegal drug use by analyzing drug residues and metabolites in sewage treatment plants...
21 August 2007
Changing Climate Behind Polar Ice Clouds?
The wispy, luminescent clouds that have been shining against the deep blue of the northern sky may be a symptom of the world's changing climate, say scientists...
17 August 2007
Our Love Affair With Depression
A psychiatrist has lashed out at what he claims is the medicalization of normal human distress...
16 August 2007
"Hot" Comets The Source Of Life?
A study finding it overwhelmingly likely that life came to Earth inside a radioactive comet with a liquid water core may prompt more astrobiologists to jump on the panspermia bandwagon...
15 August 2007
Physicists Mull Whether Inorganic Dust Formations Could Be Alive
Physicists have found intriguing new evidence of life-like double-helix structures formed from inorganic substances in space...
14 August 2007
Alpine Butterflies Getting Squeezed Out
The warming climate is expanding forests in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and inexorably isolating groups of alpine butterflies from each other, making extinction a distinct possibility...
9 August 2007
Study Slams Mainstream Farming Techniques
Long-established plow-based agricultural methods combined with the economic imperative to improve crop yields are rapidly depleting the Earth's soil supply, say US scientists...
8 August 2007
Bacterial Accumulation Doesn't Appear To Impact Longevity
Investigating the aging process in flies, researchers have established that while older flies accumulate very large populations of bacteria, the infestations don't seem to hasten death...
7 August 2007
Carbon Sink Sunk
Relying on tree plantations to soak up excess carbon dioxide may not be viable, as significant uptake by the trees is only achieved with massive levels of fertilization and plentiful water...
3 August 2007
Global Food Trade A Target For Terrorists, Conference Told
Because the food industry is becoming an increasingly complex global network of supply chains, experts say the need for security collaboration between public and private trade partners has never been more pressing...
1 August 2007
Asian Brown Clouds Accelerating Warming
Pollution-filled "brown clouds" over south Asia are major contributors to rising temperatures and the associated Himalayan glacial melt...
31 July 2007
Woody Girth, Not Length, Makes For Healthy Streams
The width of the vegetated borders around waterways determines how protected the water is from excess nitrogen inflow...
30 July 2007
New Class Of Galactic Nuclei Identified
Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a relatively common, but previously unidentified, class of active galactic nuclei...
27 July 2007
Biologists Create Gene "Dimmer Switch"
A tunable genetic switch based on RNAi and repressor proteins can be used to turn on, shut off, or partially activate a gene's function...
26 July 2007
Poor Matching Improves Accuracy
Molecular recognition and the binding of molecules has traditionally been viewed as analogous to a lock and key, but in numerous real-world examples, the molecules are not an exact fit, which surprisingly, has actually been found to improve binding accuracy...
25 July 2007
Solar Cell Efficiency Approaching 50%
Researchers have achieved a record-breaking silicon solar cell efficiency of 43 percent under standard terrestrial sunlight conditions...
24 July 2007
Writer's Cramp A Sign Of Brain Abnormalities
Compared to healthy individuals, people with serious cases of writer's cramp have less brain tissue in areas of the brain that connect with the affected hand...
20 July 2007
ADHD Drug Affects Developing Brain
The use of Ritalin in treating attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder could cause long-term changes in children's brains...
19 July 2007
Report Pooh-Poohs Corn Biofuels
Corn ethanol refining will not significantly offset fossil fuel consumption without unacceptable environmental and economic consequences, says a highly critical new report...
18 July 2007
Mirror Neurons Show Their Xenophobic Side
The brain's mirror neuron network appears to be behind some intriguing brain responses that depend on whether we are looking at someone who shares our culture, or some goddamn crazy foreigner...
17 July 2007
Medicos Mull Advantageous Drug-Food Interactions
Exploiting novel interactions between food and drugs could dramatically lower the rising cost of anticancer drugs and other medications, say two oncologists...
13 July 2007
Tourette's Sufferers Enjoy Superior Grammar Skills
Children with Tourette's syndrome are much quicker at certain mental grammar skills than are children without the disorder...
12 July 2007
Antibiotics Absorbed By Vegetables
Antibiotics fed to livestock are contaminating corn, lettuce and potato crops via the cattle manure that is used to fertilize the soil...
11 July 2007
Chernobyl Radiation Affecting The Brightest Of The Bunch
Birds with brightly colored plumage are among the species most adversely affected by the high levels of radiation around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, ecologists have discovered...
10 July 2007
Chill Out... And Fight!
Researchers studying Asian wars over the last 1,000 years have found that almost all peaks of warfare and dynastic changes coincided with cold phases...
6 July 2007
Physicists Surf New Type Of Electron Wave
Physicists have proven the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces: the acoustic surface plasmon...
4 July 2007
Sperm Used To Clone Male Genome
Injecting a single mouse sperm into a mouse egg from which the nucleus had been removed, scientists have managed to successfully clone the male mouse genome...
3 July 2007
Pesticide Suspected In Case Of AWOL Honeybees
A pesticide used to combat parasitic mites may be accumulating in hive wax and reaching concentrations that can cause honeybees to desert the hive...
2 July 2007
Before The Big Bang
Using Loop Quantum Gravity theory, physicists have proposed a new mathematical model for what the universe looked like before the Big Bang...
28 June 2007
Doctors Laissez Faire About Needle-Stick Injuries
Needle-stick injuries are a source of concern in the community, but in a survey of surgeons, more than half said they didn't even bother reporting them and that they "went with the territory"...
27 June 2007
Did Trichromatic Vision Evolve Because of Colorful Bottoms Or Colorful Fruit?
Ohio University researchers believe they have shown that trichromatic color vision (the ability to discriminate red from green) was present in some primates long before it became a method of sexual communication...
26 June 2007
Smog And Women - A Bad Combination
Ozone - a major component in air pollution - may be much more harmful to women than men...
25 June 2007
Satellites Open To Amateur Attack
A new report says that college students with access to an intermediate range rocket could knock-out military or civilian satellites...
22 June 2007
Icebergs - Oases Of The Ocean
Free-drifting icebergs slowly release trapped terrestrial matter into the surrounding water, creating a halo of rich biodiversity...
21 June 2007
New Study Slams Male Circumcision As HIV Preventative
Male circumcision, which had previously been found to lessen the risk of contracting HIV, is largely irrelevant, suggests new research. Rather, it is the number of prostitutes in a country that is the determinant of new HIV infections...
20 June 2007
Tortoise-Hare Executive Functions Of Brain Identified
The human brain's chain-of-command relies on not one, but two quite different, although complementary, command-and-control areas...
19 June 2007
Human Genome "Far More Complex Than Anyone Imagined," Laments Prof
Genetics boffins have called for a reality-check on proposed gee-whiz gene therapies, after the discovery of a vast swathe of unknown protein coding that goes on beyond the boundaries of the documented genome...
18 June 2007
Military Superiority Sometimes A Hindrance To Winning A War
A detailed analysis of post-WWII military operations around the world has revealed that weaker nations prevailed in nearly half of the conflicts...
15 June 2007
Glucose Converted Directly To Faux Fossil Fuel
A big step towards viable biofuel refining was taken this week, with scientists claiming to have directly converted glucose into a surrogate for petroleum-based chemicals...
14 June 2007
Evidence Of Altruism In Plants
Potted plants can recognize their kin and change their behavior to ensure that their siblings get a fair share of water and nutrients, says a Canadian biologist...
13 June 2007
Researchers Ponder Primordial Broth
Scientists contemplating the primordial brew that all life sprang from are getting closer to understanding how simple chemicals, which have no self-interest, can become "biological" and driven to evolve by natural selection...
12 June 2007
Shrinking Icecap On Kilimanjaro Not Due To Global Warming
While there are dozens of mid-latitude glaciers that are shrinking because of a warming climate, the processes at work on tropical Mount Kilimanjaro are far different, say researchers...
11 June 2007
Dino Detectives Decode Death Dance
The peculiar pose - wide-open mouth, head thrown back and recurved tail - of many fossilized dinosaurs has led two paleontologists to challenge long established theories about how these creatures died...
8 June 2007
Wireless Power Transfer Revisited
Nikola Tesla would be proud. An MIT team using strongly coupled magnetic resonance has lit a 60W light globe from across a room without wires...
7 June 2007
Greenhouse Gases Taking The Heat For Dirty Snow
Greenhouse gases may not be the main culprit in the warming of the Arctic. Instead, researchers say dirty snow may be causing the heat build-up...
6 June 2007
Newly Identified "Starvation Hormone" Behind Low-Carb Diet Effectiveness
The effectiveness of low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets appears to depend on increased levels of what researchers have termed the "starvation hormone"...
5 June 2007
DIY Terra Preta Soils Double As Carbon Sink
Processing waste biomass using pyrolysis creates a byproduct that could help turn depleted soils into highly fertile terra preta while at the same time locking up excess carbon...
4 June 2007
Humans Took First Steps In Tree Tops
UK scientists say that our ability to walk upright developed from foraging for food in forest tree tops, not from walking on all fours on open land...
1 June 2007
Small Penis Syndrome A Big Problem?
A review of 60 years worth of research into penile size found that nearly half of the men in the studies were affected by small penis syndrome, although most were average in size...
31 May 2007
Tantalizing Hint Of Room-Temperature Superconductor
Nanoscale imaging has revealed that isolated pockets of superconductivity can exist in certain materials at higher temperatures than thought previously possible...
30 May 2007
Cooking Up Memories
Experimental work from Israel has shown that it's possible to store multiple rudimentary memories in an artificial culture of live neurons...
29 May 2007
The Cow That Laid The Golden Lactose
Biotech researchers screening milk samples from New Zealand cattle have found that some cows naturally produce skim milk, a discovery that could revolutionize the dairy food industry...
28 May 2007
Extreme Specialization In Ants Plugs Potholes
The role of some army ants in South America is simply to hunker down in potholes, smoothing them over so the rest of the army can travel more efficiently to get their prey...
25 May 2007
Train Drivers On Express Track To Leukemia
A Swiss study conducted over 30 years has linked extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields to leukemia...
24 May 2007
Three (No Longer) Blind Mice
Gene therapy has been successfully used to restore sight in mice with a form of hereditary blindness; possibly leading to new treatments for common blinding diseases...
23 May 2007
Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation
New evidence suggests that certain fungi possess the ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth...
22 May 2007
Oxygen Resuscitation In ER Damages Brain Function
Surprisingly, no one has ever scanned hospital patients' brains to examine how they respond to pure-oxygen resuscitation, but now that someone has, hospitals may want to review its use in many cases...
21 May 2007
Getting A Handle On Spintronics
For the first time, engineers have demonstrated how the spin properties of electrons in silicon can be measured and controlled, a discovery that could dramatically advance the emerging field of spintronics...
18 May 2007
Chinese Seafood Tainted With Organochlorines
Exports of fish and fish products from China have been found to contain levels of organochlorine pesticides high enough to pose a serious threat to human health...
17 May 2007
Proteins Play The Piano
Hoping to more easily identify patterns in protein sequences, molecular biologists have turned the sequences into original compositions of classical music...
16 May 2007
Galactic Cluster Collision Sheds Light On Dark Matter
The collision between two galactic clusters, creating what scientists believe is an enormous ring-shaped ripple of dark matter, is providing an unprecedented opportunity to investigate how the elusive substance responds to gravity...
15 May 2007
Pesticide Contamination Ubiquitous In Pregnant Women
A Spanish study into the environmental contaminants that cause malformations in the genito-urinary system found organochlorine pesticides in all the pregnant women that were assessed...
14 May 2007
Bee Boffins Abuzz With Theories About Honeybee Decline
Entomologists have pooh-poohed the idea that cell phone emissions are behind honeybee deaths and instead cite parasites, pathogens and/or pesticides as more likely suspects in the ongoing honeybee apocalypse...
11 May 2007
Star Shows Its Age
Astronomers have accurately dated a star that formed at the dawn of time - a mere 500 million years after the Big Bang...
10 May 2007
HPV Now Implicated In Throat Cancers
As well as cervical cancer, HPV has now been linked to throat cancer; with researchers claiming that oral HPV infection is the strongest risk factor for HPV-linked cancer - regardless of tobacco and alcohol use...
9 May 2007
More Evidence For Brain Regeneration From Electro-Shock Treatment
Recent experiments with monkeys appear to have confirmed earlier findings that electroconvulsive shock treatment can stimulate new nerve cell growth in the brain...
8 May 2007
Gene Mutation Responsible For Human Intelligence Tracked Down?
Researchers have identified the gene mutation responsible for producing a protein - found only in humans - that plays a critical role in learning and memory...
7 May 2007
Urban Areas Turn Migratory Birds Into Couch Potatoes
Urbanized environments appear to be influencing certain birds to stay-put rather than pursue their usual migratory patterns...
4 May 2007
IBM Demos Self-Assembling Chip Turbocharger
Using self-assembling nanotechnology to create insulating vacuums, researchers have boosted signal throughput in computer chips by 35 percent...
3 May 2007
Diabetes Damages Sperm DNA
Diabetic men have greater levels of DNA damage to their sperm, a finding that could have far-reaching impacts given the rapidly growing incidence of obesity-related diabetes...
2 May 2007
Gloomy Prognosis For Amphibians
Widespread environmental changes coupled with evolutionary constraints may mean that many amphibious species will soon become extinct...
1 May 2007
Synthetic Snot Enhances Artificial Nose
UK researchers have used artificial nasal mucus to significantly enhance the performance of an electronic "nose"...
30 April 2007
Plant-Methane Brouhaha Put To Bed
The suggestion that plants may be a prodigious source of the greenhouse gas methane has finally been put to the sword by Dutch scientists...
27 April 2007
Race On To Increase Biofuel Yields
Scientists are investigating plant enzymes and pre-treatment methods to make the production of ethanol from biomass more efficient...
26 April 2007
Chromosomal Changes Show Effects Of Climate Change
Researchers from the University of Oregon have produced the first chromosomal map showing the regions of mosquito chromosomes that are evolving in response to climate change...
25 April 2007
An Exoplanet With Liquid Water?
European astronomers say they have detected a distant Earth-like planet with conditions that might allow liquid water to exist...
24 April 2007
Laughing Gas Levels From Biodiesel Crops Not Funny
Rapeseed crops used to make biodiesel emit the highly potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which could make biodiesel more of a greenhouse menace than conventional diesel...
23 April 2007
Monkeys Demonstrate Metacognitive Skills
The ability to reflect on one's knowledge was thought of as an exclusively human ability, but it seems that other primates can engage in meta-cognition as well...
20 April 2007
Green Tea Suppresses Inflammatory Autoimmune Response
A compound found in green tea appears to reduce the inflammatory responses associated with autoimmune diseases...
19 April 2007
Mites Re-Evolve Sexual Reproduction
After millions of years of asexual reproduction, a family of mites has taken the unusual step of resuming sexual reproduction...
18 April 2007
Ethanol Vehicles A Health Hazard
Higher levels of ozone pollution from ethanol powered vehicles may derail claims that the fuel is eco-friendly...
16 April 2007
Cell Phones To Blame For Deserted Bee Colonies?
GSM cell phone radiation confuses honeybee navigation and researchers speculate that the effect may be behind widespread bee colony collapses...
13 April 2007
Quantum Shenanigans Of Photosynthesis Mapped
It's thanks to a remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence that plants can turn sunlight into chemical energy with such astonishing efficiency...
12 April 2007
Exoplanet Imager Takes Shape
NASA researchers have cobbled together a device that could allow space telescopes to take photographs of planets in other solar systems...
11 April 2007
"Construction" Protein Found
Scientists have discovered a protein required for two neighboring cells to fuse and become one super-cell, a function critical for building muscles...
10 April 2007
The Disappearing Male
A new study has found that significantly fewer boys are being born in the U.S. and Japan, and that an increasing proportion of fetuses that die are male...
9 April 2007
Astrophysicists Ponder Giant Cosmic Hiccup
Powerful beams of X-rays emanating from a magnetar have astrophysicists wondering what could cause such a massive starquake...
5 April 2007
Battlefield Byproduct Damages Lungs
Nitrogen dioxide gas, produced by military munitions and explosive detonations, can cause serious lung damage...
4 April 2007
Modified Rabies Virus Could Tackle HIV
Arming a weakened rabies virus with HIV-related proteins appears to prevent development of HIV-like diseases in animals...
3 April 2007
Dung Critter Lifts Mood
A bacterium that appears to trigger serotonin production in the brain could point the way to new antidepressants and shed light on the role that the immune system plays in depression...
2 April 2007
Fungicide Causing Unusual Epigenetic Changes In Rats
Unusual inherited changes caused by a common fruit fungicide (Vinclozolin) are dramatically affecting the mating behavior of rats...
30 March 2007
Plummeting Shellfish Stocks Blamed On Shark Overfishing
The fragile nature of ocean ecosystems is becoming ever more apparent as scientists uncover complex new relationships between diverse marine creatures...
29 March 2007
West Antarctic Ice Sheet Gets Climatologists Hot And Bothered
A who's who of polar ice experts say that rapid changes in Antarctica's ice cover could trigger "runaway events" in a much shorter space of time than previously thought...
28 March 2007
Neuronal Behavior Confounds Expectations
The idea that the electrical signal patterns generated by neurons represent the encoding of different types of cognitive information has not held up to scrutiny...
27 March 2007
Bacterium Fires-Up Plain Air Fuel Cell
Rather than platinum, a new kind of biofuel-cell uses bacterial enzymes to generate electricity from plain air mixed with a small amount of hydrogen...
26 March 2007
Limited Resources The Key To Biodiversity?
Somewhat counter-intuitively, experiments have shown that a plentiful supply of water and nutrients actually restricts ecosystem biodiversity...
23 March 2007
Biochemical "Noise" Critical For Regulating Biological Processes
Previously thought to be a hindrance in biology, biochemical "noise" - for example, the slight variations that occur in protein production - appears to play a key role in controlling and tuning biological processes...
22 March 2007
Getting Physical With Molecules
Mechanical force applied to molecules could turn out to be a potent new tool for chemists, allowing them to steer chemical reactions in the direction they want...
21 March 2007
Manganese Key To Radiation-Proofing Of Organisms
Protein oxidation appears to be the mechanism behind the uncanny ability of a bacterium to resist damage from radiation, say researchers from the US military...
20 March 2007
Sex Optional For Evolutionary Adaptation
Micro-organisms that gave up on sex 40 million years ago have nevertheless managed to evolve into distinct species; challenging the assumption that sex is necessary for organisms to diversify...
19 March 2007
Martian Caves Could Harbor Life
Analyzing images from Mars Odyssey, scientists believe they have identified entrances to seven large caves. Tantalizingly, the caves appear to have a temperature cycle far less harsh than the surface of the planet...
16 March 2007
Chill Out To Evolve
Species don't evolve faster in warmer climes as had been thought; rather, it is cooler regions that crank-up speciation rates...
15 March 2007
Angry Looks Trigger Reward Circuits
Angry facial expressions are a turn-off for most people, but they can also be perceived as a desirable by some...
14 March 2007
The Skinny On Bad Fat
All fats are not equal, say researchers who are probing the workings of a particular fat found in the belly, which appears to be a big contributor to diabetes, heart disease and other disorders...
13 March 2007
Chemists Take Step Toward Artificial Photosynthesis
We may be getting closer to achieving what plants do with ease. German chemists have managed to activate carbon dioxide for use in a chemical reaction by using a special new type of metal-free catalyst...
12 March 2007
Ancient Man Built For Fighting
The short legs of our ape-like ancestors were advantageous for fighting and not tree climbing, suggests a new study...
9 March 2007
Bonobos Put One Over Chimps
Our free-loving cousins, the bonobos, can outdo chimps at certain tasks thanks to high levels of social tolerance, an attribute that chimpanzees lack...
8 March 2007
Is Your Carpet Making You Fat?
Researchers are investigating whether the increasingly widespread use of fire retardant chemicals in household items might be linked to rising levels of obesity...
7 March 2007
Tundra In Retreat
Trees and shrubs are taking over tundra landscapes at a much faster rate than scientists originally thought...
6 March 2007
Birds Serve Seduction Apprenticeship
Male lance-tailed manakins serve as chorus line dancers for the alpha males in the hope of picking up some nifty dance moves so that they can eventually become alpha males themselves...
5 March 2007
3-D Fabrication Goes Open Source
The high price of rapid prototyping systems has kept them out of reach of basement tinkerers, but that may change thanks to Fab@Home, a DIY open source 3-D fabricator that can be put together for US$2,300...
2 March 2007
Researchers Map Neuron Connections
A modified rabies virus has been used to identify all of the connections to a single brain neuron, a significant step toward understanding how the brain is "wired"...
1 March 2007
Pluto Probe Cranks Up Pace
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, picking up speed thanks to a gravity assist from Jupiter, has snapped some nice pics while passing the Jovian system...
28 February 2007
Insects Keep Coming Back For Nicotine-Laden Pollen
Certain plants use nicotine in their nectar to increase the number of visits by birds and other pollinators, thus ensuring their pollen is spread more effectively and increasing their own genetic diversity...
27 February 2007
Bacterial Swimming Style Goes Against The Flow
Yale scientists have shown that E.coli bacteria have a propensity to swim upstream, possibly explaining why catheters are associated with such high rates of infection...
23 February 2007
African Trial Shows Circumcision "Can Save A Lot Of Lives"
After years of controversy, it seems that the evidence is now irrefutable that circumcision significantly reduces the risk of HIV infection...
22 February 2007
Bacteria Used To Reinforce Buildings
Natural soil bacteria could be used to stabilize buildings against earthquakes, turning loose sand around the building's foundations into sandstone...
21 February 2007
Rogue Stem Cell Study Yields Anti-Cancer Protein
Rogue stem cells are at the heart of some, if not all, cancers, say European researchers, who have discovered a protein that they believe could disable cancerous cells...
20 February 2007
Can Biodiverse Farming Feed The World?
Biodiverse farms may offer the only option in feeding an increasingly hungry world where energy is more expensive and the climate is less predictable...
19 February 2007
Vomiting Virgos Provide A Cautionary Tale For Clinicians
An analysis of health conditions and star signs has demonstrated the risks inherent when researchers find patterns in clinical data where in fact none exist...
16 February 2007
Organic Molecules Coaxed Into Thermoelectric Generation
Organic molecules trapped between metal nanoparticles have been used to produce electricity from heat...
15 February 2007
Honeybees Hit The Road
A mysterious ailment called Colony Collapse Disorder is causing agricultural honeybees around the country to abandon their hives and disappear...
14 February 2007
St Valentine's Day Sperm Massacre
Valentine's Day isn't about flowers and chocolates for some researchers; instead, they've been mulling over the business-end of the courtship process - evolution and its effect on human sexual reproduction...
13 February 2007
Glacier Behavior Confounds Climate Pundits
The behavior of Greenland's glaciers changes dramatically from year to year, leading climatologists to speculate that future warming may lead to rapid retreats and increased discharge rather than a long, steady melt...
12 February 2007
Prof Questions Darwinian Dogma
Cell biology seems to run contrary to the model that most people have in their heads, says a Darwinian detractor...
9 February 2007
Strep Implicated In Psychiatric Problems
Researchers have found an intriguing association between streptococcal infection in children and behaviors that are more usually associated with neurological disorders...
8 February 2007
Casimir Force Gets Hot And Sticky
Researchers have found that the Casimir-Polder force of attraction is stronger when the surface of a material is heated...
7 February 2007
Greenhouse Thermostat Kept Young Earth Balmy
Analysis of the world's oldest sedimentary rocks reveals that greenhouse gases may have saved Earth from completely freezing over early in the planet's history...
6 February 2007
Skin Samples Rife With Unknown Bacteria
Scientists from the NYU School of Medicine say that the skin - the largest organ in our body - is a zoo of bacteria, with nearly ten percent being previously unknown species...
5 February 2007
Physicists Hope For Glimpse Of Extra Dimensions
Looking backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists have devised a way to unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe...
2 February 2007
UV Damage To DNA Clocked
Chemists have used a special technique to watch strands of DNA sustain damage from ultraviolet light - sunburn - in real time...
1 February 2007
Composite Material Dogma Gets Stiffed
Composite materials with virtually limitless performance capabilities could be in the offing thanks to a rethink of stiffness and stability theory...
31 January 2007
Scientists Mull Why Size Matters
Researchers are trying to understand why males are larger than females in some animal species (most mammals), while females are larger than males in others...
30 January 2007
Horizontal Gene Transfer Accelerating Evolution
Sexual selection and random genetic mutations are slowpokes in the evolution stakes, say scientists who are modeling the evolutionary effects of horizontal gene transfer...
29 January 2007
Researchers Plan Soft-Bodied Robots
A multidisciplinary initiative focused on engineering a new class of robots that are completely soft-bodied has been launched...
26 January 2007
Quitting The Hard Way
Smokers who suffer damage to a certain region of their brain have their addiction to nicotine negated; a finding that could lead to new smoking cessation treatments...
25 January 2007
Rodent Sperm Cooperate For Success
The individual sperm from rodents have learned to band together in groups to maximize their chances of a successful fertilization...
24 January 2007
Physicists Propose Test For String Theory
String theory could soon be put to the test, thanks to the Large Hadron Collider which begins operations this year...
23 January 2007
Honey, I Ate The Kids
A new study is the first to demonstrate that male fish are more likely to eat their offspring when they have been cuckolded during the act of spawning...
19 January 2007
"Walking" Molecule Does Some Work
A molecule that scientists designed to be able to move in a straight line on a flat surface has now been fitted with some additional molecular bits and pieces that allow it to carry a load...
18 January 2007
Prussian Blue Wrangled Into Data Storage Duty
French scientists, manipulating the pigment known as Prussian Blue, have created an extremely effective magnetic data storage medium...
17 January 2007
World's First City Destroyed By Fierce Ancient Battle
Hamoukar appears to have become the world's first concentrated urban settlement thanks to its thriving obsidian industry. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in what archaeologists say was the world's first major urban battle...
16 January 2007
Size Of Family Associated With Stomach Cancer Risk
A new study has found that family size can greatly influence the development of stomach cancer linked to the bacterium Helicobacter pylori...
15 January 2007
Lakes Missing Their Ice Cover
Ice cover on small- and intermediate-sized US lakes will arrive later than usual this year, reflecting both continuing global warming, and a stronger-than-expected El Nino phenomenon...
12 January 2007
Migration Out Of Africa May Have Occurred Later Than Previously Thought
Modern humans spread out of Africa up to 50,000 years later than previously thought, say anthropologists...
11 January 2007
Females Get Into Sexual Selection Game
Stiff competition amongst breeding female meerkats suggests novel selection pressures previously only seen in male animals...
10 January 2007
Use The Force, Luke
British researchers have found that you are more likely to perform some tasks well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts...
9 January 2007
Plethora Of Pulsar Poles Perplexes Physicists
Never-before-seen radio emission spectra from the Crab Nebula pulsar leads physicists to speculate that it could be the first cosmic object with a third magnetic pole...
8 January 2007
Hubble Captures Birth Of A Planet
Hubble has captured imagery of a "blizzard" of snowflake-like particles in a disk around a young star, revealing the process by which planets grow from tiny dust grains...
5 January 2007
Fossil Records Show Yo-Yo Effect Of Changing Climate
The mid-Permian transition from ice age to an ice-free planet was marked by abrupt dips and rises in carbon dioxide and extreme swings in climate...
4 January 2007
Scientists Slam ExxonMobil's Global Warming "Disinformation"
A group of scientists say that ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics to cloud the issues behind climate change and delay action on the issue...
3 January 2007
Menstrual Suppression OK, Say Doctors
Birth control pills cycle through three weeks of active contraception followed by one week of placebo, but many gynecologists now believe the week break - when a faux period occurs - isn't necessary...
2 January 2007
Human Brain Evolution Slows To A Crawl
The human brain underwent explosive growth after we split from our chimp cousins, but the pace of evolutionary change among the thousands of genes expressed in brain tissue has slowed since then...
1 January 2007
Antiquarian Herbal Book Yields Potential New Drugs
Mayo Clinic doctors are impressed with the anti-bacterial properties of a plant extract that they identified from a 17th century Dutch herbal textbook...