May 7

  • Iron 'Snow' Helps Maintain Mercury's Magnetic Field. New scientific evidence suggests that deep inside the planet Mercury, iron “snow” forms and falls toward the center of the planet, much like snowflakes form in Earth’s atmosphere and fall to the ground. (UIUC)
  • Solar Variability: Striking a Balance with Climate Change. The sun has powered almost everything on Earth since life began, including its climate. The sun also delivers an annual and seasonal impact, changing the character of each hemisphere as Earth's orientation shifts through the year. Since the Industrial Revolution, however, new forces have begun to exert significant influence on Earth's climate. (GSFC)
  • Platypus Genome Explains Animal's Peculiar Features; Holds Clues to Evolution of Mammals. An international consortium of scientists, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has decoded the genome of the platypus, showing that the animal's peculiar mix of features is reflected in its DNA. An analysis of the genome, published today in the journal Nature, can help scientists piece together a more complete picture of the evolution of all mammals, including humans. (WUSTL)
  • Superbug Genome Sequenced. The genome of a newly-emerging superbug, commonly known as Steno, has just been sequenced. The results reveal an organism with a remarkable capacity for drug resistance. (Bristol U.)

May 6

May 5

  • Warming a Greater Danger to Tropical Species. Polar bears fighting for survival in the face of a rapid decline of polar ice have made the Arctic a poster child for the negative effects of climate change. But new research shows that species living in the tropics likely face the greatest peril in a warmer world. (Washington U.)
  • 65-million-year-old Asteroid Impact Triggered a Global Hail of Carbon Beads. The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology. (Indiana U.)
  • Unraveling the Genomic Code for Development. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have produced the first complete description of the complex network of genes that create a particular type of cell in an organism. (Caltech)
  • New Technique Determines that the Number of Fat Cells Remains Constant in All Body Types. The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and ’60s has helped researchers determine that the number of fat cells in a human’s body, whether lean or obese, is established during the teenage years. Changes in fat mass in adulthood can be attributed mainly to changes in fat cell volume, not an increase in the actual number of fat cells. (LLNL)

May 4

  • Turning Fungus Into Fuel. A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of government, academic and industry researchers has announced. (LANL)

May 2

  • Diatoms Discovered to Remove Phosphorus from Oceans. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new way that phosphorus is naturally removed from the oceans – it’s stored in diatoms. The discovery opens up a new realm of research into an element that’s used for reproduction, energy storage and structural materials in every organism. Its understanding is vital to the continued quest to understand the growth of the oceans. (GIT)

May 1

  • Animal Interaction Behind ‘Cambrian Explosion’? An event as simple as the world’s first bite may have sparked an ancient “explosion” of life 500 million years ago that led to the rise of the broad groups of animals that are still alive today. (Harvard U.)

April 30

  • Graphene-based Gadgets May Be Just Years Away. Researchers at The University of Manchester have produced tiny liquid crystal devices with electrodes made from graphene – an exciting development that could lead to computer and TV displays based on this technology. (U. Manchester)
  • Are You Looking at Me? In humans, the eyes are said to be the ‘window to the soul’, conveying much about a person’s emotions and intentions. New research demonstrates for the first time that starlings also respond to a human’s gaze. (Bristol U.)
  • United We Stand: When Cooperation Butts Heads With Competition. Phrases such as “survival of the fittest” and “every man for himself” may seem to accentuate the presence of political and social competition in American culture; however, there obviously are similar instances of inter- and intra-group conflict across almost all known organisms. So what makes competition so prevalent for life and why does it sometimes seem to be preferred over cooperation? (APS)

April 29

  • Compact Galaxies in Early Universe Pack a Big Punch. Imagine receiving an announcement touting the birth of a baby 20 inches long and weighing 180 pounds. After reading this puzzling message, you would immediately think the baby's weight was a misprint. (WM Keck)
  • Microbes Could Boost World Energy Supply. British and Canadian scientists expect to begin trials next month to find out whether microbes can unlock the vast amount of energy trapped in the world's unrecoverable heavy oil deposits. (Newcastle U.)
  • New Research Shows Consistency in Synaesthetic Experiences. A quirky psychological phenomenon known as “grapheme-color synaesthesia” describes individuals who experience vivid colors whenever they see, hear, or think of ordinary letters and digits. A hallmark of synaesthesia is that individuals seem to be idiosyncratic in their experiences. That is, most synesthaetes will consistently see the same colors accompanied with specific graphemes, but few of these experiences appear to be shared with other synesthetes. (APS)
  • Some Light Shed on Blood Sugar Production. A University of Alberta diabetes researcher has collaborated on a body of diabetes research that has unravelled the signalling pathway mystery that controls the production of blood sugar. (U. Alberta)

April 28

  • Boost for ‘Green Plastics’ From Plants. Australian researchers are a step closer to turning plants into ‘biofactories’ capable of producing oils which can be used to replace petrochemicals used to manufacture a range of products. (CSIRO)
  • Before Fossil Fuels, Earth’s Minerals Kept CO2 in Check. Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely tuned natural feedback system—a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed. (Carnegie I.)
  • Cause and Affect: Emotions Can Be Unconsciously and Subliminally Evoked. Most people agree that emotions can be caused by a specific event and that the person experiencing it is aware of the cause, such as a child’s excitement at the sound of an ice cream truck. But recent research suggests emotions also can be unconsciously evoked and manipulated. (APS)
  • Copper Nanowires Grown By New Process Create Long-lasting Displays. A new low-temperature, catalyst-free technique for growing copper nanowires has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. The copper nanowires could serve as interconnects in electronic device fabrication and as electron emitters in a television-like, very thin flat-panel display known as a field-emission display. (UIUC)
  • Insulin Pill Possibilities Starting to Gel. Insulin pills to replace the injections necessary for those suffering from diabetes appear closer to reality through new research by chemical and biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin. (UTA)
  • Global Warming "Fix" Would Damage Ozone Layer. An international team of scientists, including University of Maryland professor Ross Salawitch, says that a widely-discussed idea to offset global warming by injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere would significantly damage the protective ozone layer that protects Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays. (U. Maryland)
  • Design of Wine Bottles Makes Significant Difference in Perception, Taste. Whether you want a wine to convey sophistication, ruggedness or even how much it costs, it has a lot to do with the way that wine is packaged and designed. (Oregon SU)
  • Brookhaven Scientists Explore Brain's Reaction to Potent Hallucinogen. Brain-imaging studies performed in animals at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provide researchers with clues about why an increasingly popular recreational drug that causes hallucinations and motor-function impairment in humans is abused. Using trace amounts of Salvia divinorum - also known as "salvia," a Mexican mint plant that can be smoked in the form of dried leaves or serum - Brookhaven scientists found that the drug's behavior in the brains of primates mimics the extremely fast and brief "high" observed in humans. (BNL)

April 25

  • Laser Experiments Offer Insight Into Evolution of “Gas Giants”. By shooting the high-energy Omega laser onto precompressed samples of planetary fluids, scientists are gaining a better understanding of the evolution and internal structure of Jupiter, Saturn and extrasolar giant planets. (LLNL)
  • Chalk One Up for Coccolithophores. Scientists have feared that gradual acidification of the world's oceans would wreak havoc with organisms that build protective outer shells. But a new finding shows at least three species of coccolithophores – single-celled algae that are major players in the ocean's cycling of carbon – are responding to ocean acidification by building thicker cell walls and plates of chalk, contrary to what some recent lab experiments have shown. (U. Washington)
  • Berkeley Researchers Find New Details Following the Path of Solar Energy During Photosynthesis. Imagine a technology that would not only provide a green and renewable source of electrical energy, but could also help scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. That’s the promise of artificial versions of photosynthesis, the process by which green plants have been converting solar energy into electrochemical energy for millions of years. To get there, however, scientists need a far better understanding of how Nature does it, starting with the harvesting of sunlight and the transporting of this energy to electrochemical reaction centers. (LBNL)

April 24

April 23

  • Different Processes Govern Sight, Light Detection. A Johns Hopkins University biologist, in research with implications for people suffering from seasonal affective disorder and insomnia, has determined that the eye uses light to reset the biological clock through a mechanism separate from the ability to see. (JHU)
  • First Draft of Transgenic Papaya Genome Yields Many Fruits. A broad collaboration of research institutions in the U.S. and China has produced a first draft of the papaya genome. This draft, which spells out more than 90 percent of the plant’s gene coding sequence, sheds new light on the evolution of flowering plants. And because it involves a genetically modified plant, the newly sequenced papaya genome offers the most detailed picture yet of the genetic changes that make the plant resistant to the papaya ringspot virus. (UIUC)
  • New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers. A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation's transportation fuel if production can be scaled up. (UTA)
  • Study Captures Brain’s Activity Processing Speech. You might be able to hear the difference, but to many children and adults, these words sound exactly the same. The problem isn’t that they can’t hear the sounds. The problem is that they can’t tell them apart. (UT Dallas)

April 22

April 21

  • Researchers Identify New Class of Photoreceptors in Retina, Pointing to New Ways Sights-and Smells-Are Regulated. The identification of a new class of photoreceptors in the retina of fruit flies sheds light on the regulation of the pigments of the eye that confer color vision, researchers at New York University’s Center for Developmental Genetics report in a new study appearing in the Public Library of Science’s journal, PloS Biology. The findings, they write, may also have implications for the regulating of olfactory receptors, which are responsible for the detection of smells, because both types of receptors belong to the same protein family. (NYU)
  • Arctic Ice More Vulnerable to Sunny Weather. The shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to summer sunshine, new research concludes. The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Colorado State University (CSU), finds that unusually sunny weather contributed to last summer's record loss of Arctic ice, while similar weather conditions in past summers do not appear to have had comparable impacts. (UCAR)
  • UCSC Computer Scientists Develop Solutions for Long-term Storage of Digital Data. The technique lizards use to grab their grub influences how they move, according to researchers at Ohio University. (UCSC)
  • Lizard Hunting Styles Impact Ability to Walk, Run. The technique lizards use to grab their grub influences how they move, according to researchers at Ohio University. (Ohio U.)
  • Synchrotron Light Unveils Oil in Ancient Buddhist Paintings from Bamiyan. The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was “invented” in Europe. (ESRF)
  • Causes of Disease Can Be Revealed By Metabolic Fingerprinting. Your metabolic 'fingerprint' can reveal much about the possible causes of major diseases, according to the first 'metabolome-wide' association study ever carried out, published today in the journal Nature. (ICL)

April 18

April 17

  • Ceramic, Heal Thyself. A new computer simulation has revealed a self-healing behavior in a common ceramic that may lead to development of radiation-resistant materials for nuclear power plants and waste storage. (PNNL)
  • Seeing Clearly Despite the Clouds. Satellites taking atmospheric measurements might now be able to see blue skies as clearly as optimists do. Researchers have found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold in some cases. The result might lead to more accurate estimates of the amount of sunlight penetrating the atmosphere. Because clouds represent one of the largest areas of uncertainty, eventually this could lead to improved climate models. (PNNL)
  • Duke Scientists Deconstruct Process of Bacterial Division. Duke University researchers have made a major advance in understanding how bacteria divide. This could lead to new antibiotic treatments that prevent dangerous bacteria from multiplying. (DUMC)
  • Changing Jet Streams May Alter Paths of Storms and Hurricanes. The Earth’s jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting—possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere has also weakened. These changes fit the predictions of global warming models and have implications for the frequency and intensity of future storms, including hurricanes. (Carnegie I.)
  • Bacteria in Dish Recreate Predator-Prey Interactions. The hunter-versus-hunted phenomenon exemplified by a pack of lionesses chasing down a lonely gazelle has been recreated in a Petri dish with lowly bacteria. (Duke U.)

April 16

  • Black Hole Sheds Light on a Galaxy. A light echo occurs when interstellar gas is heated by radiation and reacts by emission of light. An international team led by Stefanie Komossa from the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, has observed the light echo of an enormous X-ray flare, which was almost certainly produced when a single star was disrupted by a supermassive black hole. For the first time, the light echo of such a rare and highly dramatic event could be observed in great detail. The light echo not only revealed the stellar disruption process, but it also provides a powerful new method for mapping galactic nuclei. (MPG)
  • New Technique Yields More Detailed Picture of Chromatin Structure. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique for imaging cells under an electron microscope that yields a sharper image of the structure of chromatin, the tightly wound bundle of genetic material and proteins that makes up the chromosomes. (UIUC)
  • Are Sacrificial Bacteria Altruistic or Just Unlucky? An investigation of the genes that govern spore formation in the bacteria B. subtilis shows that chance plays a significant role in determining which of the microbes sacrifice themselves for the colony and which go on to form spores. (Rice U.)
  • Saliva Can Help Diagnose Heart Attack, Study Shows. Early diagnosis of a heart attack may now be possible using only a few drops of saliva and a new nano-bio-chip, a multi-institutional team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin reported at a recent meeting of the American Association of Dental Research. (UTA)
  • Bloodless Worm Sheds Light on Human Blood, Iron Deficiency. Using a lowly bloodless worm, University of Maryland researchers have discovered an important clue to how iron carried in human blood is absorbed and transported into the body. The finding could lead to developing new ways to reduce iron deficiency, the world's number one nutritional disorder. (U. Maryland)
  • Discovery by CU Scientist Shows that Shell-breaking Crabs Lived 20 Million Years Earlier than Thought. While waiting for colleagues at a small natural history museum in the state of Chiapas, Mexico last year, Cornell paleontologist Greg Dietl chanced upon a discovery that has helped rewrite the evolutionary history of crabs and the shelled mollusks upon which they preyed. (Cornell U.)

April 15

  • Ancient Dragon Has Space-age Skull. A new international study has revealed how the Komodo dragon can be such an efficient killing machine despite having a wimpy bite and a featherweight skull. (UNSW)
  • Getting Wired for Terahertz. University of Utah engineers took an early step toward building superfast computers that run on far-infrared light instead of electricity: They made the equivalent of wires that carried and bent this form of light, also known as terahertz radiation, which is the last unexploited portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. (U. Utah)
  • Casting for Molecules. Many of the larger molecules have something in common with dolls - movable limbs. Physicists at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin can now sort molecules according to the direction in which their "arms" and "legs" point. (MPG)
  • Argonne Scientists Develop Techniques for Creating Molecular Movies. They may never win an Oscar, but scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed techniques for creating accurate movies of biological and chemical molecules, a feat only theorized up until now. (ANL)
  • Is There Anybody Out There? Probably not, according to a scientist from the University of East Anglia. A mathematical model produced by Prof Andrew Watson suggests that the odds of finding new life on other Earth-like planets are low, given the time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve and the remaining life span of Earth. (UEA)
  • The Tree of Flowering Plants. Over the past 20 years or so, there has been a revolution in the plant world. If you are a gardener you may have noticed that some plants are no longer where they used to be in the guide books because they have been moved into different families. As Professor Simon Hiscock, Director of the Botanic Garden, explains, the reason is ‘molecular phylogenetics’. (U. Bristol)

April 14

  • Unconscious Decisions in the Brain. Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. (MPG)
  • Clues to Ancestral Origin of Placenta Emerge in Stanford Study. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have uncovered the first clues about the ancient origins of a mother’s intricate lifeline to her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients critical to the baby’s health. (Stanford SM)
  • Insects Evolved a Radically Different Strategy to Smell. Darwin’s tree of life represents the path and estimates the time evolution took to get to the current diversity of life. Now, new findings suggest that this tree, an icon of evolution, may need to be redrawn. In research published in the April 13 advance online issue of Nature, researchers at Rockefeller University and the University of Tokyo have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms — an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field. (Rockefeller U.)

April 11

April 10

  • A Grand Canyon as Old as the Dinosaurs? The origin of the Grand Canyon has been a topic of scientific controversy for nearly 140 years. Now, with geochronologic data from the canyon and surrounding plateaus, geologists from the California Institute of Technology present significant evidence that lends new insight into its history of formation. (Caltech)
  • Researchers Mimic Bacteria to Produce Magnetic Nanoparticles. When it comes to designing something, it’s hard to find a better source of inspiration than Mother Nature. Using that principle, a diverse, interdisciplinary group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is mimicking bacteria to synthesize magnetic nanoparticles that could be used for drug targeting and delivery, in magnetic inks and high-density memory devices, or as magnetic seals in motors. (Ames Lab.)
  • Popcorn-ball Design Doubles Efficiency of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells. A new approach is able to create a dramatic improvement in cheap solar cells now being developed in laboratories. (U. Washington)
  • And the First Animal on Earth Was a ... A new study mapping the evolutionary history of animals indicates that Earth's first animal--a mysterious creature whose characteristics can only be inferred from fossils and studies of living animals--was probably significantly more complex than previously believed. (NSF)

April 9

April 8

April 7

April 4

April 3

  • Specially Designed Soils Could Help Combat Climate Change. A team from Newcastle University aims to design soils that can remove carbon from the atmosphere, permanently and cost-effectively. (Newcastle U.)
  • A Little Anxiety Pays Sometimes, Study Shows. Anxiety gets a lot of bad press. Dwelling on the negative can lead to chronic stress and anxiety disorders and phobias, but evolutionarily speaking, anxiety holds some functional value. In humans, learning to avoid harm is necessary not only for surviving in the face of basic threats (such as predators or rotten food), but also for avoiding more complex social or economic threats (such as enemies or questionable investments). (APS)

April 2

  • 'Focused' Solar Explosions Get Hotter. A NASA-funded researcher has discovered that solar flares -- explosions in the atmosphere of the sun -- get much hotter when they stay "focused". (GSFC)
  • New Fish Has a Face Even Dale Chihuly Could Love. A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert. (U. Washington)
  • Working Memory Has Limited 'Slots'. A new study by researchers at UC Davis shows how our very short-term "working memory," which allows the brain to stitch together sensory information, operates. The system retains a limited number of high-resolution images for a few seconds, rather than a wider range of fuzzier impressions. (UC Davis)
  • Penn Researcher Explores a Lost Port City of the Mycenaeans in the Region of the Trojan War. Along an isolated stretch of the eastern shoreline of Greece, a University of Pennsylvania classics professor and his colleagues are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged “lost” harbor town believed to have been built by the Mycenaeans 3,500 years ago. (U. Penn)
  • ESRF X-rays Reveal Clues About Life 100 Million Years Ago Trapped in Opaque Amber. Amber has always been a rich source of fossil evidence. The ESRF X-rays now make it possible for paleontologists to study opaque amber, previously inaccessible using classical microscopy techniques. (ESRF)
  • Laser Precision Added to Search for New Earths. Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring device that they say will provide a critical advance in the resolution of current planet-finding techniques, making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible. (Harvard U.)
  • Brain DNA 'Remodeled' in Alcoholism. Reshaping of the DNA scaffolding that supports and controls the expression of genes in the brain may play a major role in the alcohol withdrawal symptoms, particularly anxiety, that make it so difficult for alcoholics to stop using alcohol. (UIC)
  • Promising New Nanotechnology for Spinal Cord Injury. A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can't regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t because they're blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury. (Northwestern U.)
  • Emission Reduction Assumptions for Carbon Dioxide Overly Optimistic. Reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the coming century will be more challenging than society has been led to believe, according to a new research commentary appearing April 3 in Nature. (UCAR)
  • Nano-sized Technology Has Super-sized Effect on Tumors. Anyone facing chemotherapy would welcome an advance promising to dramatically reduce their dose of these often harsh drugs. Using nanotechnology, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken a step closer to that goal. (WUSTL)

April 1

  • Music File Compressed 1,000 Times Smaller than MP3. Researchers at the University of Rochester have digitally reproduced music in a file nearly 1,000 times smaller than a regular MP3 file. (U. Rochester)
  • Mitosis Gets Harder Thanks to New Gene Discovery. A biological process taught to every pupil studying GCSE science has just become a little more complicated thanks to a new discovery. (U. Bath)
  • Continents Loss to Oceans Boosts Staying Power. New research suggests that the geological staying power of continents comes partly from their losing battle with the Earth's oceans over magnesium. The research finds continents lose more than 20 percent of their initial mass via chemical reactions involving the Earth's crust, water and atmosphere. Because much of the lost mass is dominated by magnesium and calcium, continents ultimately gain because the lighter, silicon-rich rock that's left behind is buoyed up by denser rock beneath the Earth's crust.. (Rice U.)
  • Virtual Smash-ups Show Teenaged Dome-skulled Dinos Could Knock Heads. After half a century of debate, a University of Alberta researcher has confirmed that dome-headed dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs could collide with each other during courtship combat. (U. Alberta)
  • Algae Could One Day Be Major Hydrogen Fuel Source. As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists are crying out for an alternative that won't cramp their pocketbooks. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by working to chemically manipulate algae for production of the next generation of renewable fuels – hydrogen gas. (ANL)
  • Significant Reductions in Mortality and Cardiovascular Events Shown Using Blood Pressure-lowering Treatment in Very Elderly. Lowering the blood pressure of elderly patients could cut their total mortality by a fifth and their rate of cardiovascular events by a third, according to a new study presented today at the American College of Cardiology in Chicago and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine. (ICL)

March 31

March 30

March 28

  • Stem Cells from Hair Follicles May Help "Grow" New Blood Vessels. For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new blood vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look no further than the hair on their patients' heads, according to new research published earlier this month by University at Buffalo engineers. (U. Buffalo)

March 27

March 26

March 25

  • Study Heats Up 'Snowball Earth' Debate. Research by University Professor Richard Peltier of physics reveals that the Earth’s surface 700 million years ago may have been warmer than previously thought. (U. Toronto)
  • Spit Tests May Soon Replace Many Blood Tests. One day soon patients may spit in a cup, instead of bracing for a needle prick, when being tested for cancer, heart disease or diabetes. A major step in that direction is the cataloguing of the “complete” salivary proteome, a set of proteins in human ductal saliva, identified by a consortium of three research teams, according to an article published today in the Journal of Proteome Research. Replacing blood draws with saliva tests promises to make disease diagnosis, as well as the tracking of treatment efficacy, less invasive and costly. (U. Rochester)
  • Buried Treasure: Proceed with Caution. Locked beneath the world’s ocean floors, sealed off by low temperatures and high pressure, lies a frozen reservoir of natural gas that could one day help satisfy the world’s ever-growing demand for energy. (Lehigh U.)
  • Ancient Lemur Bones Present a Puzzle. Initial analysis of recently discovered hand bones belonging to an ancient lemur has revealed a mysterious joint structure that has scientists puzzled. (U. Alberta)
  • Fly Flight Simulators Reveal Secrets of Decision Making. Even flies like video games--and it's not just child's play, say scientists at the California Institute of Technology. With the help of a unique bug-sized flight simulator, Caltech researchers are deciphering the secrets of behavior and decision making in the fly brain, and, ultimately, in our own. (Caltech)
  • Scientists Map Medulla Circuitry in Fruit Flies, Setting Stage for Understanding How Color Vision Is Processed. New York University biologists have mapped the medulla circuitry in fruit flies, setting the stage for subsequent research on how color vision is processed. The work, which appeared in the journal Current Biology, will allow future scholarship to explore how color vision is processed in the optic lobe of the fruit fly Drosophila, providing a paradigm for more complex systems in vertebrates. (NYU)
  • Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegrating As Result Of Climate Change, Scientists Say. Satellite imagery from the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows a portion of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent. (UCB)
  • Columbia Scientists Discover New Way of Selectively Killing Cancer Cells. A Columbia University professor has discovered a chemical mechanism that can selectively kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. Brent R. Stockwell, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences and the department of chemistry at Columbia University, found two new lethal compounds, RSL3 and RSL5, that act through a cellular pathway unique to certain cancers. (Columbia U.)

March 24

  • 'Superdense' Coding Gets Denser. The record for the most amount of information sent by a single photon has been broken by researchers at the University of Illinois. Using the direction of “wiggling” and “twisting” of a pair of hyper-entangled photons, they have beaten a fundamental limit on the channel capacity for dense coding with linear optics. (UIUC)
  • Physicists Show Electrons Can Travel More Than 100 Times Faster in Graphene. University of Maryland physicists have shown that in graphene the intrinsic limit to the mobility, a measure of how well a material conducts electricity, is higher than any other known material at room temperature. Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of semiconductors and metals. (U. Maryland)
  • Cosmologists Probe Mystery of Dark Energy with South Pole Telescope. Something is pulling the universe apart. What is it, and where will it take us from here? Scientists at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, seek answers to those questions with the newly-commissioned South Pole Telescope. (U. Chicago)

March 21

  • First Study Hints at Insights to Come from Genes Unique to Humans. Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA, scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Expand that comparison to include the primate family known as hominoids, and there may be several hundred unique genes. (WUSTL)

March 20

  • New Research Dives into Details of Supernova. Astronomers have made the best determination of the power of a supernova explosion long after it was visible from Earth. This technique, using X-ray and optical observations, may help reveal the details of how some stars come to a cataclysmic deathr. (LLNL)
  • Tiny Buckyballs Squeeze Hydrogen Like Giant Jupiter. Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but it's difficult to store in bulk. In new research, materials scientists at Rice University have made the surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen nearly as dense as those at the center of Jupiter. (Rice U.)
  • New Method Offers Insight into Radiation Damage to DNA. A new technique for assessing the damage radiation causes to DNA indicates that the spatial arrangement of damaged sites, or lesions, is more important than the number of lesions in determining the severity of the damage. The technique, developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Brookhaven National Laboratory, helps reveal why high-energy charged particles such as the heavy ions in outer space are more potentially harmful than lower-energy forms of radiation such as x-rays and gamma rays. The research could help clarify the risks faced by future astronauts flying long-term missions to the moon or Mars. (BNL)
  • Stanford Researchers Unmask Proteins in Telomerase, a Substance that Enables Cancer. One of the more intriguing workhorses of the cell, a protein conglomerate called telomerase, has in its short history been implicated in some critical areas of medicine including cancer, aging and keeping stem cells healthy. With such a resume, telomerase has been the subject of avid interest by basic scientists and pharmaceutical companies alike, so you’d think at the very least people would know what it is. (Stanford SM)
  • Researchers Achieve Dramatic Increase in Thermoelectric Efficiency. Researchers at Boston College and MIT have used nanotechnology to achieve a major increase in thermoelectric efficiency, a milestone that paves the way for a new generation of products - from semiconductors and air conditioners to car exhaust systems and solar power technology - that run cleaner. (MIT)

March 19

  • Robot Fetches Objects With Just a Point and a Click. Robots are fluent in their native language of 1 and 0 absolutes but struggle to grasp the nuances and imprecise nature of human language. While scientists are making slow, incremental progress in their quest to create a robot that responds to speech, gestures and body language, a more straightforward method of communication may help robots find their way into homes sooner.  (GIT)
  • How Iron Gets into the North Pacific. Most oceanographers have assumed that, in the areas of the world's oceans known as High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, the iron needed to fertilize infrequent plankton blooms comes almost entirely from wind-blown dust. Phoebe Lam and James Bishop of the Earth Sciences Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now shown that in the North Pacific, at least, it just ain't so.  (LBNL)
  • Brains Are Hardwired to Act According to the Golden Rule. Wesley Autrey, a black construction worker, a Navy veteran and 55-year-old father of two, didn’t know the young man standing beside him. But when he had a seizure on the subway platform and toppled onto the tracks, Autrey jumped down after him and shielded him with his body as a train bore down on them. Autrey could have died, so why did he put his life on the line — literally — to save this complete stranger? (Rockefeller U.)
  • A Tangled Web: CEE Researchers Unravel the Secrets of Spider Silk's Strength. The strength of a biological material like spider silk lies in the specific geometric configuration of structural proteins, which have small clusters of weak hydrogen bonds that work cooperatively to resist force and dissipate energy, researchers in Civil and Environmental Engineering have revealed. (MIT)
  • Floating a Big Idea. Oceangoing sailing rafts plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried tradegoods for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. (MIT)
  • MIT Tests Unique Approach to Fusion Power. An MIT team has successfully tested a novel reactor that could chart a new path toward nuclear fusion, which could become a safe, reliable and nearly limitless source of energy. (MIT)

March 18

  • Wind Patterns Could Mask Effects of Global Warming in Ocean. Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that natural variability in the earth's atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global warming in the North Atlantic Ocean. (U. Liverpool)
  • Satellites Can Help Arctic Grazers Survive Killer Winter Storms. Rain falling on snow sounds like a relatively harmless weather event, but when it happens in the far north it can mean lingering death for reindeer, musk oxen and other animals that normally graze on the Arctic tundra. (U. Washington)
  • Tell Them Where it Hurts. For statues, stress injuries come from standing in place for hundreds of years. Using a novel technique, researchers have now developed a way to predict such fracturing, applying the procedure to Michelangelo's David in an analysis that proved simpler, faster and more accurate than previous methods. (NSF)
  • Crab-like Robot Could Benefit Undersea Exploration. Underwater exploration may become easier in the future thanks to a new prototype crab-like robot invented by a University of Bath postgraduate student. (Bath U.)
  • Work With Power Grids Leads to Cell Biology Discovery. Gene therapy, in which a working gene is inserted into a cell to replace a faulty or absent gene, is a promising experimental technique for the prevention and treatment of disease. (Northwestern U.)
  • Researchers Find One In Six Women, One In Ten Men At Risk For Alzheimers Disease In Their Lifetime. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have estimated that one in six women are at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in their lifetime, while the risk for men is one in ten. (Boston U.)
  • Tug of War in the Cells. Logistics is a key part of life. Nutrition, tools and information constantly have to be transported from one place to another in cells. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have now discovered how molecular motors transport cargos in cells. Two competing teams of motors pull in opposite directions, like in a tug-of-war contest. The winning team determines the direction of transport after the competition. (MPG)
  • Chemical Engineers Discover New Way To Control Particle Motion. A new way to control the motion of fluid particles through tiny channels, potentially aiding the development of micro- and nano-scale technologies such as drug delivery devices, chemical and biological sensors, and components for miniaturized biological "lab-on-a-chip" applications has been discovered by chemical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin. (UTA)

March 17

  • Researchers Discover Second Depth-Perception Mechanism in Brain. It's common knowledge that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we have two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat. (U. Rochester)
  • Anthropologists Confirm Link Between Diet and Teeth of Chimpanzees and Orangutans. For the first time, anthropologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have measured the mechanical properties of foods eaten in the wild by orangutans and chimpanzees to test assumptions about the link between diet and the teeth of primates. (UCSC)
  • Gecko's Tail Key to Preventing Falls, Aerial Maneuvers. How useful is an animal's tail? For the gecko, unlike most animals, it could be a matter of life or death, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. (UC Berkeley)
  • Fake Diamonds Help Jet Engines Take The Heat. Ohio State University engineers are developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- commonly called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion. (OSU)
  • Fountain of Youth Comes in a Pill? There is no drug that can turn back the hands of time, but a Harvard researcher may have stumbled upon one that slows the onward ticking. (U. Alberta)
  • Nitrogen Controls a Plant's Circadian Rhythms. A group of researchers, which includes faculty from Dartmouth, has determined that organic nitrogen controls a genetic network in plants that regulates both the plant's nitrogen metabolism and its circadian clock. (Darmouth C.)
  • First 'Rule' of Evolution Suggests that Life is Destined to Become More Complex. Scientists funded in part by BBSRC have revealed what may well be the first pervasive 'rule' of evolution. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have found evidence which suggests that evolution drives animals to become increasingly more complex. (Bath U.)

March 14

  • MicroRNAs Help Fins Regenerate in Zebrafish. Biologists have discovered a molecular circuit breaker that controls a zebrafish's remarkable ability to regrow missing fins, according to a new study from Duke University Medical Center. (DUMC)

March 13

  • How Alligators Rock and Roll. Without a ripple in the water, alligators dive, surface or roll sideways, even though they lack flippers or fins. University of Utah biologists discovered gators maneuver silently by using their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal and rib muscles to shift their lungs like internal floatation devices: toward the tail when they dive, toward the head when they surface and sideways when they roll. (U. Utah)
  • Chemical in Bug Spray Works by Masking Human Odors. Fifty years have passed since the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army invented DEET to protect soldiers from disease-transmitting insects (and, in the process, made camping trips and barbecues more pleasant for the rest of us civilians). But despite decades of research, scientists still didn’t know how it worked. Now, by pinpointing DEET’s molecular target in insects, researchers at Rockefeller University have definitively shown that the widely used bug repellent acts like a chemical cloak, masking human odors that blood-feeding insects find attractive. (Rockefeller U.)
  • Nature or Nurture - Why Do Some of Us See Red? University of Manchester researchers are investigating why some people remain calm in the face of life's niggles, while others 'flip' with little provocation. (U. Manchester)
  • Cornell Sets Record for Creating High-frequency Microresonator in Silicon. Many researchers in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have focused on resonators -- tiny devices that vibrate at radio frequencies -- to replace quartz crystals and other oscillators and can be economically integrated directly into a silicon chip. (Cornell U.)

March 12

  • ORNL Study Shows Hybrid Effect on Power Distribution. A growing number of plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks could require major new power generation resources or none at all— depending on when people recharge their automobiles. (ORNL)
  • Unexpected Nutrient Found Key to Ocean Function. Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered what could be a new, limiting nutrient in the world's oceans. (Oregon S. U.)
  • Astronomers Find Grains of Sand around Distant Stars. In a find that sheds light on how Earth-like planets may form, astronomers this week reported finding the first evidence of small, sandy particles orbiting a newborn solar system at about the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun. The report will be published online this week in the journal Nature. (Rice U.)
  • Memory Goes on Trial as Cornell Research Suggests that Children's Testimony May Be More Reliable. The U.S. legal system has long assumed that some witnesses, such as adults, are more reliable than others, such as children. (Cornell U.)
  • A Protein that Triggers Aggressive Breast Cancer. SATB1 is a nuclear protein well known for its crucial role in regulating gene expression during the differentiation and activation of T cells, making it a key player in the immune system. But SATB1 has now revealed a darker side: it is an essential contributing factor in the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. (LBNL)
  • Shell Shock. DNA biologists may have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to explaining the body’s ability to detect errors during the translation of genetic information into proteins. (U. Texas)

March 11

  • Gender Differences in Language Appear Biological. Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys, until now no one has clearly provided a biological basis that may account for their differences. (Northwestern U.)
  • Which Came First, Social Dominance or Big Brains? Wasps May Tell. There's new evidence supporting the idea that bigger brains are better. A study of a tropical wasp suggests that the brainpower required to be dominant drives brain capacity. (U. Washington)
  • Domestication of the Donkey. An international group of researchers, led by Fiona Marshall, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought. (WUSTL)
  • Short-term Stress Can Affect Learning and Memory. Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory, University of California, Irvine researchers have found. (UCI)
  • Shell Shock. An MIT materials scientist's research on sea snails has helped transform battery technology and may end the era when cell phones die if they're dropped and PDAs must be replaced if they get dunked in the tub. (MIT)

March 10

  • Finally, the 'Planet' in Planetary Nebulae? Astronomers at the University of Rochester, home to one of the world's largest groups of planetary nebulae specialists, have announced that low-mass stars and possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking objects in the sky. (U. Rochester)
  • Researchers Confirm Discovery of Earth's Inner, Innermost Core. Geologists at the University of Illinois have confirmed the discovery of Earth’s inner, innermost core, and have created a three-dimensional model that describes the seismic anisotropy and textu