Deaf cats reveal secrets of super vision
Deaf people often report enhanced abilities in their remaining senses, but up until now no one has explained how this…
Cheap-and-cheerful spectrometer for cell phones
University of Illinois chemistry professor Alexander Scheeline has written software that turns a cell phone with a camera into a…
Americans’ lagging life expectancy blamed on healthcare system
Obesity, smoking and homicides aren’t to blame, claims a new report “What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S.…
Top reasons for Facebook unfriending revealed
Researchers spend a lot of time examining how people form friendships online, but little has been known about how those…
Study finds alarming changes in rainfall patterns
A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes alarming changes in rainfall patterns which the…
New evidence that ADHD is genetic
The results of genetic analysis of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) published in The Lancet reveal they were more likely…
Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals
Female sexual dysfunction is a construct of the pharmaceutical industry, asserts a new book that claims “drug marketing is merging…
Newly discovered exoplanet may be habitable
Planet hunters from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have discovered an Earth-sized planet…
Fizzy drinks titillate pain receptors
University of Southern California scientists have discovered that the carbon dioxide in fizzy drinks activates the same pain sensors as…
Report reveals enormous global cost of Alzheimer’s
Already costing 1 percent of global GDP and growing rapidly, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are the single most significant…
“Artificial leaf” generates electricity
Solar cells that mimic nature have been created at North Carolina State University where water-gel-based artificial leaves containing chlorophyll produce…
Groundwater depletion accelerating worldwide
A new assessment of the planet’s subterranean reservoirs shows the highest rates of depletion in the world’s major agricultural centers,…
Human-powered ornithopter flaps into record books
“Snowbird”, a human-powered aircraft with flapping wings, has become the first of its kind to be capable of sustained flight,…
Neanderthal innovation surprises archaeologists
It was previously believed that Neanderthals developed tools and ornaments solely through contact with supposedly more advanced Homo sapiens, but…
Doh! Scientists uncover Homer Simpson gene
Deleting a certain gene in mice (one that is also found in humans) makes them smarter, but the Emory University…
Placebo a turn-on for women
Many women with low sex drives reported significant increases in sexual satisfaction after taking a placebo, say researchers from The…
Artificial ovary nurtures human eggs to maturity
Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital have created the first artificial human ovary and used the lab-grown…
Infant diet predicts adult love-life
A new Northwestern University study of men in the Philippines makes a strong case for nurture’s role in male to…
Pressure-sensitive crystalline semiconductor used to create artificial skin
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a pressure-sensitive electronic material from semiconductor nanowires that will help overcome…
Robots taught to deceive
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether it should deceive…
Is irrigation masking our warming climate?
Irrigation has made it possible to feed the world’s population, and it may also be temporarily counteracting the effects of…
Words decoded from brain signals
In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, researchers have translated brain signals into words…
Magic mushrooms a hit with cancer patients
Psilocybin, an hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms, can effectively and safely improve the moods of patients with advanced-stage cancer who…
MIT scientists create self-assembling solar cell
One of the problems with common photovoltaic cells is that the sun’s rays can be highly destructive to the materials…
Bright light at night carcinogenic
A new study from the University of Haifa confirms the theory that bright artificial lighting at night disrupts the body’s…
Intriguing evidence of charitable behavior in bacteria
Researchers from Harvard University and Boston University have observed that in certain populations of bacteria, antibiotic resistant strains will release…
First human communities may have originated from funeral feasts
University of Connecticut (UC) scientists working at a 12,000 year-old archeological site in Israel say they have evidence that ancient…
Shortage of medical isotopes at crisis point
Radioactive isotopes are used to perform tens of millions of medical scans and treatments every year, but scientists at this…
Solar flares spookily linked to radioactive decay on Earth
Researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have found that the radioactive decay of some elements sitting in laboratories on Earth…