Stem cells engineered to kill HIV
University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers have for the first time shown that human stem cells can be…
Lightning unleashes potent radiation cocktail
Physicists have estimated that air travelers could be exposed to a dose of X-rays, gamma rays and high-energy electrons equal…
Implant enables direct alphanumeric input from brain to computer
Using a technique known as electrocorticography (ECoG), neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic have demonstrated how brain waves can be interpreted…
Biodiversity now a public health issue
The decline of species and their habitats may not just make nature less interesting. New research, published in Bioscience, suggests…
Human music and speech biologically linked
The musical scales that are most commonly used by composers are those that come closest to mimicking the physics of…
Why women live longer than men
The difference in male and female longevity may be originating at the genome level, say Japanese researchers who suggest that…
LHC revs up to set new world record
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) yesterday become the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, zapping twin beams of protons up to…
Ancient wildfire prevention technique reaps carbon credits
An Australian project that dramatically reduces the extent and severity of natural blazes by using traditional indigenous fire management techniques…
“Plasma pharmacology” wipes-out MSRA, helps wounds heal
So-called bacterial superbugs like methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) could face annihilation as high-tech low-temperature plasma devices are shown to generate safe,…
Consciousness: Big brains not necessary
A bigger brain doesn’t mean more intelligence, say biologists at the University of London who suggest that insects could be…
Global warming unstoppable?
Emissions trading schemes, zero-emission vehicles and massive carbon sequestration projects aren’t even worth bothering with, claims a controversial new study…
Plastics chemicals linked to ADHD symptoms
Adding to concerns that phthalates are feminizing boys’ brains and causing genital deformities, Korean scientists say they now have evidence…
Popular cigarette brands loaded with bacteria
Cigarettes are “widely contaminated” with bacteria known to be harmful to humans, claims a new study inEnvironmental Health Perspectives. And,…
Sunscreen, cosmetics cause DNA damage
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles – ubiquitous in common household products such as cosmetics, sunscreen and vitamins – cause systemic genetic…
Oscar Pistorius’ artificial limbs provide “major advantage for sprinting”
Human performance experts say that the artificial lower limbs of double-amputee Oscar Pistorius give him a major advantage over his…
Common chemical found to feminize boys’ brains
Adding to earlier investigations that linked two common phthalates to abnormal male genital development, the same researchers now say that…
Universal quantum processor demonstrated
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a “universal” programmable quantum information processor that uses…
Rosetta anomaly stumps scientists
When the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft swings by Earth tomorrow for a critical gravity assist, orbital data will…
Plastics workers risk impotence, ejaculation difficulties
A groundbreaking study into Bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure amongst Chinese factory workers has found that men working in environments where the…
Biologists plot concept of “organismality”
A new paper by Rice University evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann argues that high levels of cooperation and…
Social behaviors revealed by finger length
Finger length ratio is a reliable predictor of how a primate will behave socially, say scientists who have been running…
Gay or straight, the rules of attraction don’t change
A new study from a researcher at Harvard University finds that regardless of sexual orientation, men’s brains are wired for…
Midwest still shakin’ all over – 200 years later
New seismological research shows that the majority of modern earthquakes in the Midwest United States are merely aftershocks of a…
New insights into the evolution of human complexity
A fascinating new study of thousands of genes and the proteins they encode shows that human beings are biologically complex,…
Nutrients from animal carcasses a missing piece of biodiversity jigsaw
A new study in the journal Ecology shows that the carcasses of moose killed by wolves enrich the soil in…
Beetles reveal ecological speciation in action
Tiny leaf beetles that flit among the maple and willow trees in Vermont are providing scientists with some of the…
Bad driving may be genetic
UC Irvine neuroscientists have found that people with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a…
Mole rat’s cancer-proofing gene revealed
Despite a three decade lifespan that should provide ample time for cells to grow cancerous, naked mole rats have never…
Cleanliness next to goodliness
Experiments involving fairness and generosity showed that people in rooms which had been freshly scented with a cleaning product exhibited…