Entropy the major player in chirality conundrum
Why many of the important molecules in our bodies almost always occur in just one chiral form (either right or…
Dino farts warmed early climate
Mesozoic methane emissions from dinosaurs could, according to new calculations, have produced more of the notorious greenhouse gas than all…
Robot probe maps brain neuron activity faster, more accurately
Researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a robotic probe to automate the process of finding…
“Seeing” auras is really synesthesia, say Euro scientists
Spanish researchers say that healers who claim to be able to see the auras surrounding people are actually suffering synesthesia,…
Venus transit to help identify possible neo-Earths
Hoping to eventually identify Earth-like planets in other solar systems, astronomers plan to point the Hubble telescope at the Moon’s…
Single gene mutation responsible for modern humans
Scientists believe that the appearance of a partial, duplicate copy of a gene, occurring around the time that the Australopithecus…
Controversial bird flu research finally published
After an unprecedented recommendation by a government review panel to block publication, a study that shows how the avian H5N1…
Hundreds of rogue stars found outside galaxy
Vanderbilt University astronomers say they have identified more than 600 stars that have been violently flung out of the Milky…
Inch-long fleas tormented dinosaurs
Ten times bigger than their modern cousins, prehistoric flea fossils unearthed by Chinese scientists reveal a proboscis like a hypodermic…
Antibiotics found to have transgenerational effects
Male pseudoscorpions treated with tetracycline suffer significantly reduced sperm viability and this toxic effect is passed on to their untreated…
Top chemical suspects in autism identified
US medical researchers have published their list of the top 10 chemicals believed to be implicated in autism and other…
SETI needs self-replicating robot explorers, argues prof
Autonomous, self-replicating robots are the best way to explore the universe, locate extraterrestrial life and perhaps even clean up space…
Bowerbirds gardening for pleasure
Scientists say they have uncovered the first evidence of a non-human species cultivating plants for use other than as food.…
Parkinson’s treated with Victorian era device
A 19th century “vibration chair” has been found by Rush University researchers to significantly improve some of the symptoms of…
Humans drawn to high emotion
Pictures of the left side of the face are perceived and rated as more pleasant than pictures of the right…
Heredity and evolution seen in synthetic DNA
DNA and RNA possess two features believed essential for life: they display heredity (pass on genetic information) and they can…
Cholesterol’s cancer fighting properties revealed
In an intriguing new study published in theJournal of Biological Chemistry, scientists investigating cholesterol’s binding properties within cells say that…
New blow to dark matter theory
A study of the motions of stars in the Milky Way has found no evidence for the existence of dark…
Food and sex behaviors predicted with MRI
Previously used in experiments to see whether it could predict pop music success, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain…
Chin augmentations skyrocket
The always fascinating annual statistics report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) shows that chin augmentation is the…
Water not necessary for life?
The proteins that are vital to living creatures evolved in Earth’s water-rich environment and it was thought that water was…
Penguins counted from space
Scientists using very high resolution satellite images to estimate penguin populations around the coastline of Antarctica were surprised to find…
Worrying and intelligence evolutionarily inseparable
Anxiety and excessive worry, traits that are usually viewed as maladaptive, appear to have co-evolved with the attribute that is…
Climate change treaties wrongheaded, argues radical plan to lock-up fossil fuels
An intriguing analysis of fossil fuel trading and environmental policy shows that rather than attempting to limit consumption via pollution…
Oxytocin has “blockbuster potential” as lifestyle drug
A case report in The Journal of Sexual Medicinedetails how “significant, broad-spectrum improvements in sexual function” were apparent in a…
Genes a good predictor of social status
Scientists using an experimental approach to observe how gene expression patterns correlate with social dominance claim that gene expression can…
Empirical evidence for homophobia’s link to repressed same-sex attraction
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex and the University…
Brain scans hint at root of consciousness
Imaging internal brain activity under anesthesia has provided researchers with revealing insights into what happens when the subjective phenomenon of…
Black Queen Hypothesis offers new interpretations of organism interdependency
A new theory based on the same premise as the card game Hearts (also known as Hunt the Lady or…
Facebook study reveals social media gender traits
A new European study into Facebook usage reports that women, but not men, feel less happy and less content with…