Artistic mega-octopus may topple ichthyosaur from top of Triassic food chain
Neatly arranged fossilized vertebrae from a number of bus-sized ichthyosaurs could actually be a self portrait composed by a verylarge…
Fish frequent flyers
A new Northern Arizona University study into how fish behave when stranded on land suggests that excursions onto dry land…
Energy levels of Crab Pulsar defy explanation
An international team of scientists has detected pulsed gamma rays from the neutron star at the heart of the Crab…
Zinc’s role in the brain revealed
Researchers have discovered that zinc plays a critical role in regulating how the neurons in our brain communicate with one…
Alzheimer’s may be transmissible a la mad cow disease
Alzheimer’s disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; suggests new…
First images from ALMA radio telescope
The world’s most complex ground-based astronomy observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, has captured its first…
Scale of epigenetic changes observed in stimulated brain is “mind boggling”
In a discovery with major implications for treating psychiatric diseases and neurodegenerative disorders, Johns Hopkins neurologists have established that non-dividing…
Single dose of magic mushrooms “may create lasting personality change”
After a single dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, lasting personality changes in volunteers occurred that were larger in magnitude than…
Awfulness of poverty ensured global spread of class system
Evolutionary biologists at Stanford University have been pondering why most cultures have a class structure instead of being egalitarian. The…
Shrinking critters could derail planet’s ecosystems
Previous research into dwarfism in soil dwelling organisms found that the ancient relatives of modern dung beetles and earthworms were…
Adolescent boys aspire to be average
An intriguing study that looked at male adolescence and body image found a prevailing view among boys that the pursuit…
Videos reconstructed from brain scan
Using MRI brain scans, computational models and a large quantity of YouTube videos, University of California, Berkeley researchers have demonstrated…
Unfashionably early neutrinos trigger faster-than-light brouhaha
The physics community is abuzz about a paper to be published on arxiv.org today that indicates neutrinos can travel faster…
Radiation’s bad rep a beat-up, controversial new research claims
University of Massachusetts toxicologist Edward Calabrese claims to have evidence that Nobel Prize winner Hermann Muller knowingly lied when he…
Proton-based transistor could control biological processes
Transistors that control electron flow are the foundation of electronic gadgets, but human bodies and all other living things send…
Cool findings from yawning research
Traditionally associated with boredom, very little research has been done to uncover the biological function of yawning. Now, Princeton researchers…
“It’s not all in the genes,” say epigenetic code-breakers
“Genes are not destiny,” say the Salk Institute scientists who have been delving into the epigenetic code that allows organisms…
First exoplanet with twin suns discovered
The discovery of exoplanet Kepler-16b is the first confirmed, unambiguous example of a circumbinary planet – a planet orbiting not…
Self-delusion a winning strategy in life
A mathematical model that simulates the effects of overconfidence shows that harboring a mistakenly inflated belief that we can easily…
Pain detector accuracy surprises medicos
The need for a better way to objectively measure pain instead of relying on patient self-reporting has long been an…
MRI scans reveal diverse female sexual sensory palette
The notion that the clitoris is the major source of female genital sensation has been directly challenged after MRI brain…
Study confirms Pill’s memory altering effects
Women who use hormonal contraceptives such as the Pill experience memory changes where their ability to remember the detail surrounding…
Gene For Tolerance Of Heavy Metals Found In An Animal
Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered the first biochemical pathway in animals responsible for the detoxification of heavy…
Not all trans fats are created equal
Natural trans fats produced by ruminant animals such as dairy and beef cattle are not detrimental to health and in…
Researchers warn of clinical mousetrap
Two new studies that compare the immune systems of humans and mice and gene expression in humans and mice directly…
Fattening-up with Facebook
Social and physical environments can have a profound effect on metabolic processes, say the scientists behind rodent experiments that showed…
See-through critters get biologists excited
A ground-breaking new chemical reagent developed at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan turns biological tissues transparent (normal and…
Switch hands for a healthier diet
Psychologists from the University of Southern California found that popcorn munching moviegoers ate about the same amount of popcorn regardless…
Surfs Up! Tsunami To Devastate US
A tsunami wave higher than any in recorded history threatens to ravage the US coastline in the aftermath of a…
Gettin’ drunk and fallin’ down; who cares?
In a fascinating new study, University of Missouri researchers have shown that contrary to previous research, alcohol doesn’t reduce your…