Researchers expose Google’s massive network expansion
Google has dramatically increased the number of sites around the world from which it serves client queries, say researchers who…
New titleholder for most distant galaxy hints at universe’s opaque beginnings
Newly discovered galaxy z8-GND-5296 is providing astronomers with an intriguing glimpse of what the universe was like when it was…
Flickr holiday snaps yield tourism data gold
Stanford University scientists have been using the vast number of vacation snaps on photo-sharing site Flickr to measure where and…
Gay insects are just confused, say scientists
Homosexual behaviors in birds and mammals are thought to provide a number of evolutionary benefits, but scientists trying to find…
Ocean currents explain rainfall riddle
Most of the rain on Earth falls in the Northern Hemisphere and scientists have long believed that this was a…
Distant galaxy poses astronomical puzzle
Astronomers have found the most distant gravitational lens yet – a galaxy that (as predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory…
This bird sings Bach
U.S. and German researchers have found striking parallels between the music of Bach and Haydn and the songs of a…
Human Carriers of mad cow disease double previous estimate
Analyzing thousands of tissue samples from surgical procedures carried out around the United Kingdom (UK), researchers have estimated that the…
Vegetable compound protects against lethal radiation
A compound derived from cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli has been found to offer protection from lethal…
Researchers isolate protein that delivers brain benefits of exercise
A protein produced during endurance exercise has been isolated and given to non-exercising mice, where it switched on genes that…
Water discovered in remnants of destroyed exoplanet
Astrophysicists have found the first evidence of a water-rich rocky planetary body outside our solar system in its shattered remains…
Human longevity linked to loss of species
In a fascinating new study, human life expectancy – which is rarely included in analyses of human impacts on the…
Scientists link DNA to marital satisfaction
Wedded bliss or a miserable marriage? Researchers at UC Berkeley and Northwestern University say that a gene involved in the…
Giant channels discovered under Antarctic ice
Beneath the floating Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, scientists have discovered huge ice channels that are 800 feet high…
Touch-feedback out of thin air
Using focused ultrasound radiation, scientists have created a human-computer interface that provides haptic (touch) feedback above a computer screen without…
Brain connectivity may have sparked Einstein’s brilliance
A new analysis technique that compared Albert Einstein’s brain to others of the period shows the left and right cerebral…
Evidence for sonar contributing to mass whale strandings
For the first time, a mass stranding of marine mammals has been linked to the high-frequency sonar mapping systems used…
Exoplanet has its clouds mapped
NASA scientists using data from the Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet…
Mercury levels in herbal teas surprise scientists
A new study from the University of Bristol (UK) suggests that fish accounts for only seven percent of mercury levels…
Tramadol painkiller found in nature
For the first time ever, a synthetic medication produced by the pharmaceutical industry has been discovered in strong concentrations in…
Wine drinkers clueless about alcohol servings
Scientists know that environmental cues like plate size can impact eating behaviors, but the effect of environmental factors on wine…
Photonic molecules behave like light saber, say scientists
Photons have long been described as massless particles which don’t interact with each other, but Harvard and MIT scientists have…
My god, it’s full of stars. Astronomers discover densest galaxy
Alpha Centauri, our closest neighboring star lies about 4 light years distant; now imagine as many as 10,000 stars crammed…
Walk this way: how an upright gait made humans musical
Why don’t chimpanzees, our closest primate cousins, have musical ability? Scientists at örebro University in Sweden hypothesize that our musical…
Pollution changing birdsong
Songbirds are exhibiting inconsistency in their songs and pollution appears to be the culprit, say Cornell University ornithologists working in…
Effects from Toxoplasma gondii infection appear to be permanent
The Toxoplasma gondii parasite’s ability to hijack the mammalian brain is well documented, but in an intriguing twist, scientists say…
Smartphone microscope can see a single virus
A smartphone-based microscope attachment developed at UCLA is sensitive enough to detect viruses and nanoparticles, allowing sophisticated biomedical testing in…
Painkiller addiction in U.S. an “epidemic,” say senior medicos
Over the last ten years, prescriptions for strong opioid medications for non-cancer pain have doubled and public health experts say…
TV drug ads mostly false
Analyzing several years’ worth of pharmaceutical advertisements, researchers found that 6 out-of 10 claims in prescription drug ads on television…
Mechanical gears seen in nature for the first time
Gear mechanisms, previously thought to only exist in man-made machines, have also evolved in nature, according to scientists who say…