June 30

• Invisible Waves Shape Continental Slope. A class of powerful, invisible waves hidden beneath the surface of the ocean can shape the underwater edges of continents and contribute to ocean mixing and climate, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found. (UTA)
• Tongue-controlled System Assists Individuals with Disabilities. A new assistive technology developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology could help individuals with severe disabilities lead more independent lives. (GIT)
• Penguins Setting Off Sirens Over Health of World's Oceans. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist. (U. Washington)
• When Using Gestures, Rules of Grammar Remain the Same Despite Speakers' Language. The mind appears to have has a consistent way of organizing an event that defies the order in which subjects, verbs, and objects typically appear in languages, according to research at the University of Chicago. (U. Chicago)
• Solution to High Energy Costs Could Lie Underground. Sandia National Laboratories researcher Georgianne Peek thinks a possible solution to high energy costs lies underground. And it’s not coal or oil. It’s compressed air energy storage (CAES). (Sandia Labs.)
• Gold, DNA Combination May Lead To Nano-Sensor. The ability to use genetic material to assemble nanoscopic particles of gold could be an important step toward creating tiny “spies” that will be able to infiltrate individual cells and report back in real time on the cell’s inner workings. (Duke U.)

June 28

• Cancer Cure in Mice to be Tested in Humans. Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice. (WFUB)

June 27

• Metals Shape Up with a Little Help from Friends. For 5,000 years the only way to shape metal has been by the "heat and beat" technique. Even with modern nanotechnology, metalworking involves carving metals with electron beams or etching them with acid. (NSF)
• Newcomer in Early Eurafrican Population? A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led by Jean-Paul Raynal, CNRS senior researcher at the PACEA laboratory (CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1/ Ministry of Culture and Communication). This mandible is the oldest human fossil uncovered from scientific excavations in Morocco. The discovery will help better define northern Africa's possible role in first populating southern Europe. (CNRS)

June 25

• Silicon Photonic Crystals Key to Optical Cloaking. Now you see it, soon you might not, researchers at the University of Illinois say. In computer simulations, the researchers have demonstrated an approximate cloaking effect created by concentric rings of silicon photonic crystals. The mathematical proof brings scientists a step closer to a practical solution for optical cloaking. (UIUC)
• Online Service Lets Blind Surf the Internet from Any Computer, Anywhere. Visions of future technology don't involve being chained to a desktop machine. People move from home computers to work computers to mobile devices; public kiosks pop up in libraries, schools and hotels; and people increasingly store everything from e-mail to spreadsheets on the Web. (U. Washington)
• Martian Air Once Had Moisture, New Soil Analysis Says. A new analysis of Martian soil data led by University of California, Berkeley, geoscientists suggests that there was once enough water in the planet's atmosphere for a light drizzle or dew to hit the ground, leaving tell-tale signs of its interaction with the planet's surface. (UC Berkeley)
• Giant Memory Thanks to Tiny Capacitors. The electronics of the future are becoming increasingly smaller and lighter, as well as faster and more powerful. A method now developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Korea and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) may help to achieve these goals. (MPG)
• Arms Race Against Junk DNA Shapes Genome Evolution. Scientists at Georgia Tech have found supporting evidence for a theory they first created in the 1990s, that many of the components that make up our genes are the result of an arms race between the coding and the non-coding parts of the genome. (GIT)
• Pregnant Women Get Morning Sickness to Protect Fetus. Morning sickness. It's the bane of many of a pregnancy. And many a future mother wonders at the apparently unnecessary suffering. (Cornell U.)

June 24

• Researchers Develop Neural Implant that Learns with the Brain. Devices known as brain-machine interfaces could someday be used routinely to help paralyzed patients and amputees control prosthetic limbs with just their thoughts. Now, University of Florida researchers have taken the concept a step further, devising a way for computerized devices not only to translate brain signals into movement but also to evolve with the brain as it learns. (U. Florida)
• Study Seeks to Understand Link Between Visual Cues, Motor Skills. Because what you see often affects what you do, a University of Illinois at Chicago research team thinks a better understanding of the neurological processes involved could lead to improved treatment for stroke and brain injuries. (UIC)
• Microchip Developed by UCSC Engineer is Helping Restore Vision to the Blind. Last year, Wentai Liu watched as surgeons implanted a microchip he had designed into the eye of a blind patient. For Liu, a professor of electrical engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, it was a major milestone in two decades of work on an artificial retina to restore vision to the blind. (UCSC)
• MIT-led Team Finds Language Without Numbers. An Amazonian language with only 300 speakers has no word to express the concept of "one" or any other specific number, according to a new study from an MIT-led team. (MIT)
• Plastic Surgeons Identify Hidden Facial Cheek Fat Compartments that Are Key to Youthful Appearance. Rejuvenating newly identified fat compartments in the facial cheeks can help reduce the hollowed look of the face as it ages, according to new research by plastic surgeons at UT Southwestern Medical Center. (UTSMC)

June 23

• Newly Identified Role For 'Power Plants' In Human Cells Could Lead To Targeted Therapies. Scientists have determined that human cells are able to shift important gene products into their own mitochondria, considered the power plants of cells. The finding could eventually lead to therapies for dozens of diseases. (OSU)
• Laser Surgery Probe Targets Individual Cancer Cells. Mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Adela Ben-Yakar at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a laser "microscalpel" that destroys a single cell while leaving nearby cells intact, which could improve the precision of surgeries for cancer, epilepsy and other diseases. (UTA)
• Laser Fluorescence Could Find Life on Mars. A team of scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom has developed a technique using ultraviolet light to identify organic matter in soils that they say could be used to document the existence of life on Mars. (Oregon SU)
• Celestial Clues Hint at Eclipse in Homer’s Odyssey. Among countless other debates about Homer’s Odyssey — not the least of which is whether the entire poem can be attributed to Homer himself — is whether Odysseus returns home to experience a total solar eclipse. (Rockefeller U.)
• Plant Survival During Global Warming. The hardiest plants and those most likely to survive the climatic shifts brought about by global warming are now easier to identify, thanks to new research findings by a team from Queen’s University. (Queen's U.)
• University of Pennsylvania Engineers Reveal What Makes Diamonds Slippery at the Nanoscale. They call diamonds “ice,” and not just because they sparkle. Engineers and physicists have long studied diamond because even though the material is as hard as an ice ball to the head, diamond slips and slides with remarkably low friction, making it an ideal material or coating for seals, high performance tools and high-tech moving parts. (U. Penn)
• Radio Telescopes Reveal Unseen Galactic Cannibalism. Radio-telescope images have revealed previously-unseen galactic cannibalism -- a triggering event that leads to feeding frenzies by gigantic black holes at the cores of galaxies. Astronomers have long suspected that the extra-bright cores of spiral galaxies called Seyfert galaxies are powered by supermassive black holes consuming material. However, they could not see how the material is started on its journey toward the black hole. (NRAO)
• CSIRO Scientist Discovers Natural ‘Invisible’ Gold. Nanoparticles of gold too small to be seen with the naked eye have been created in laboratories, but up until now, have never been seen in nature. (CSIRO)

June 22

• A Breakthrough in Glass. Imagine a plane that has wings made out of glass. Thanks to a major breakthrough in understanding the nature of glass by scientists at the University of Bristol, this has just become a possibility. (U. Bristol)

June 18

• Lancelet Genome Shows How Genes Quadrupled During Vertebrate Evolution. The newly sequenced genome of a dainty, quill-like sea creature called a lancelet provides the best evidence yet that vertebrates evolved over the past 550 million years through a four-fold duplication of the genes of more primitive ancestors. (UC Berkeley)
• Ocean Temperatures and Sea Level Increases 50 Percent Higher than Previously Estimated. New research suggests that ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 were 50 percent larger than estimated in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. (LLNL)
• Protons Partner With Neutrons More Often than Other Protons. Fast-moving protons are much more likely to pair up with fast-moving neutrons than with other protons in the nuclei of atoms, according to a recent experiment performed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. (PSU)
• Birds Communicate Reproductive Success In Song. Some migratory songbirds figure out the best place to live by eavesdropping on the singing of others that successfully have had baby birds – a communication and behavioral trait so strong that researchers playing recorded songs induced them to nest in places they otherwise would have avoided. (Oregon SU)
• Sprinters Closest to Starter Pistol Have Advantage Over Those Further Away, Says Study. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton studying the connection between loud sounds and reaction time are reporting findings that may have sprinters thinking twice about lane assignments at the upcoming Olympics. (U. Alberta)

June 17

• Multicellular Stress Response Is ‘All For One’. Real or perceived threats can trigger the well-known “fight or flight response” in humans and other animals. Adrenaline flows, and the stressed individual’s heart pumps faster, the muscles work harder, the brain sharpens and non-essential systems shut down. The whole organism responds in concert in order to survive. (Northwestern U.)
• A Beating Heart Tells its Tales to a Robust Computer Model. Like the artist’s composite sketch that slowly reveals the face of a criminal suspect, the image on Xiaolei Huang’s computer screen is gradually zeroing in on America’s No. 1 killer—heart disease. (Lehigh U.)
• Computer Predicts Anti-Cancer Molecules. A new computer-based method of analyzing cellular activity has correctly predicted the anti-tumour activity of several molecules. Research published today in BioMed Central’s open access journal, Molecular Cancer, describes ‘CoMet’ – a tool that studies the integrated machinery of the cell and predicts those components that will have an effect on cancer. (GIT)
• New Research Shows How the Aging Brain Brings a Healthy Dose of Perspective. A University of Alberta researcher has proven that wisdom really does come with age, at least when it comes to your emotions. (U. Alberta)
• The Mystery of Mass Extinctions Is No Longer Murky. If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits. (NSF)
• Oh Baby! First Photograph of Early Modern Computer. Here is the first known photograph of the great grandfather of modern digital computers – but you couldn’t use it on the train or take it jogging with you. (U. Manchester)

June 16

• Transparent Electronics Key to Solar Energy Breakthrough. Transparent transistors and optoelectronics created by researchers at Oregon State University and HP have found their first key industrial application in a new type of solar energy system that its developers say will be four times more cost-efficient than any existing technology. (Oregon SU)
• Team Finds Key Mechanism of DDT Resistance in Malarial Mosquitoes. University of Illinois researchers have identified a key detoxifying protein in Anopheles mosquitoes that metabolizes DDT, a synthetic insecticide used since World War II to control the mosquitoes that spread malaria. (UIUC)
• Aquatic Insect 'Family Trees' Provide Clues About Sensitivity to Pollution. A North Carolina State University study published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that examining an insect's "family tree" might help predict a "cousin" insect's level of tolerance to pollutants, and therefore could be a reliable way to understand why certain insect species thrive or suffer under specific ecological conditions. (NCSU)
• Fluorescent-Probe in Worm Creates Real-Time "View" of Cellular Stress. Scientists at the University at Buffalo have created a mutant worm that changes color when it move. (U. BUffalo)

June 13

• Secret Ingredient: Nanoparticles Aid Bone Growth. In the first study of its kind, bioengineers and bioscientists at Rice University and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, have shown they can grow denser bone tissue by sprinkling stick-like nanoparticles throughout the porous material used to pattern the bone. (Rice U.)
• Study Examines Link Between Gut Bacteria, Obesity. Obesity is more than a cosmetic concern, because it increases a person’s risk for developing high blood pressure, diabetes and many other serious health problems. It’s well-understood that consuming more calories than you expend through exercise and daily activities causes weight gain. But with about one in every three American adults now considered obese, researchers are attempting to identify additional factors that affect a person’s tendency to gain and retain excess weight. (Arizona SU)
• Scientists Confirm that Parts of Earliest Genetic Material May Have Come from the Stars. Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008. (ICL)

June 12

• Small Suds Make a Big Splash at SEAS. The latest engineering feat to emerge from the laboratories at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been largely accomplished with the aid of kitchen mixers. (Harvard U.)
• Breaking New Boundaries. A team led by female scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge has developed an exciting new technique which may lead to a greater understanding of how drugs get in and out of the cells in our bodies. The method identifies the structures that guard the entrance and exits to cells. (Bristol U.)

June 11

• Get a Little Sun This Summer – It Could Help Save Your Life. As summer comes and people across America get ready to start slathering on the sunscreen, a note of caution is in order – a little sunshine is good for you. (Oregon SU)

June 10

• Permafrost Threatened by Rapid Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice. The rate of climate warming over northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings raise concerns about the thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, and the potential consequences for sensitive ecosystems, human infrastructure, and the release of additional greenhouse gases. (NCAR)
• Researchers Synthesize Molecule that Exhibits Self-control. Plants have an ambivalent relationship with light. They need it to live, but too much light leads to the increased production of high-energy chemical intermediates that can injure or kill the plant. (Arizona SU)
• ‘Cursus’ is older than Stonehenge. A team led by University of Manchester archaeologist Professor Julian Thomas has dated the Greater Stonehenge Cursus at about 3,500 years BC - 500 years older than the circle itself. (U. Manchester)
• Industrial Dye Holds the Key to Advancing Spintronics. Commonly used industrial dyes hold the key to advancing the new science of 'spintronics', say researchers working on a new £2.5 million study. (ICL)

June 9

• Gene Variation Linked to Earlier Onset of Alzheimer's Symptoms. Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a genetic variation associated with an earlier age of onset in Alzheimer's disease. (WUSTL)
• Engineer Develops Detergent to Promote Peripheral Nerve Healing. A detergent solution developed at The University of Texas at Austin that treats donor nerve grafts to circumvent an immune rejection response has been used to create acellular nerve grafts now used successfully in hospitals around the country. Research also shows early promise of the detergent solution having possible applications in spinal cord repair. (UTA)
• Solid Tumor Cells Not Killed by Radiation and Chemotherapy Become Stronger. Because of the way solid tumors adapt the body's machinery to bring themselves more oxygen, chemotherapy and radiation may actually make these tumors stronger. (DUMC)
• Caltech Scientists Decipher the Neurological Basis of Timely Movement. Contrary to what one might imagine, the way in which each of us interacts with the world is not a simple matter of seeing (or touching, or smelling) and then reacting. Even the best baseball hitter eyeing a fastball does not swing at what he sees. The neurons and neural connections that make up our sensory systems are far too slow for this to work. "Everything we sense is a little bit in the past," says Richard A. Andersen of the California Institute of Technology, who has now uncovered the trick the brain uses to get around this puzzling problem. (Caltech)
• Stem Cell Discovery Sheds Light on Placenta Development. Researchers studying embryonic stem cells have explored the first fork in the developmental road, getting a new look at what happens when fertilized eggs differentiate to build either an embryo or a placenta. (U. Florida)
• Getting Wrapped Up in Solar Textiles. Sheila Kennedy, an expert in the integration of solar cell technology in architecture who is now at MIT, creates designs for flexible photovoltaic materials that may change the way buildings receive and distribute energy. (MIT)
• MIT Team Develops Better X-ray Nanomirrors. A new way of bending X-ray beams developed by MIT researchers could lead to greatly improved space telescopes, as well as new tools for biology and for the manufacture of semiconductor chips. (MIT)
• Who Shalt Not Kill? Brain Power Leads to Level-Headedness When Faced with Moral Dilemmas. Should a sergeant sacrifice a wounded private on the battlefield in order to save the rest of his troops? Is euthanasia acceptable if it prevents needless suffering? Many of us will have to face some sort of extreme moral choice such as these at least once in our life. And we are also surrounded by less dramatic moral choices everyday: Do I buy the hybrid? Do I vote for a particular presidential candidate? Unfortunately, very little is known beyond philosophical speculation about how people understand morality and make decisions on moral issues. (APS)
• "Man-made" Water Has Different Chemistry. As population growth, food production and the regional effects of climate change place greater stress on the Earth’s natural water supply, “man-made” water – created by removing salt from seawater and brackish groundwater through reverse osmosis desalination – will become an increasingly important resource for millions of humans, especially those in arid regions such as the Middle East, the western United States, northern Africa and central Asia. (Duke U.)

June 7

• Scientists Find 245 Million-year-old Burrows of Land Vertebrates in Antarctica. For the first time paleontologists have found fossilized burrows of tetrapods -- any land vertebrates with four legs or leglike appendages -- in Antarctica dating from the Early Triassic epoch, about 245 million years ago. (U. Washington)

June 6

• New Research Shows How Marine Organisms Help Oceans Sequester Carbon. As the international search for ways to remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the environment intensifies, a team of scientists has identified a process by which marine organisms influence the amount of atmospheric carbon the sea absorbs. (ANL)
• Circadian Math: One Plus One Doesn’t Always Equal Two. Like a wristwatch that needs to be wound daily for accurate time-telling, the human circadian system — the biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours — requires daily light exposure to the eye’s retina to remain synchronized with the solar day. In a new study published in the June issue of Neuroscience Letters, researchers have demonstrated that when it comes to the circadian system, not all light exposure is created equal. (RPI)

June 5

• Super-sensitive and Small: New MIT Detector Uses Nanotubes to Sense Deadly Gases. Using carbon nanotubes, MIT chemical engineers have built the most sensitive electronic detector yet for sensing deadly gases such as the nerve agent sarin. (MIT)

June 4

• Quake Research to Provide Rare Glimpse of How Structures Collapse. Structural engineers at the University at Buffalo are conducting some of the most comprehensive experiments ever attempted to develop methods of evaluating and designing steel buildings so that they will be less vulnerable to collapse during strong earthquakes. (U. Buffalo)
• New Superconductors Present New Mysteries, Possibilities. Johns Hopkins University researchers and colleagues in China have unlocked some of the secrets of newly discovered iron-based high-temperature superconductors, research that could result in the design of better superconductors for use in industry, medicine, transportation and energy generation. (JHU)
• Data Show Antarctic Ice Streams Stick, Slip Like an Earthquake. A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues at Penn State and Newcastle University, U.K., have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that make California's earthquake problem seem trivial. (PSU)
• A Glass Apart. British scientists are developing a new type of glass that can dissolve and release calcium into the body. This will enable patients to regrow bones and could signal a move away from bone transplants. (STFC)

June 3

• Protons Pair Up with Neutrons. Research performed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has found that protons are about 20 times more likely to pair up with neutrons than with other protons in the nucleus. (BNL)
• Scientists Create New Nanotech Building Blocks. In the fast-growing world of nanotechnology, researchers are constantly on the lookout for new building blocks to push innovation and discovery to scales much smaller than the tiniest speck of dust. (ASU)

June 2

• New Laser Technique Fights Cancer with Light. When Sammie Bush mentioned to his doctor that he sometimes felt something in the back of his throat, he didn't expect to learn that he had cancer or that he would be the first patient at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago to undergo photodynamic therapy -- a new procedure that uses light to destroy cancer. (UIC)
• LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pulsar. The search for gravitational waves has revealed new information about the core of one of the most famous objects in the sky: the Crab Pulsar in the Crab Nebula. An analysis by the international LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration to be submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters has shown that no more than 4 percent of the energy loss of the pulsar is caused by the emission of gravitational waves. (Caltech)
• Small Planet, Small Star. Astronomers have discovered an extrasolar planet only three times more massive than our own, the smallest yet observed orbiting a normal star. The star itself is not large, perhaps as little as one twentieth the mass of our Sun, suggesting to the research team that relatively common low-mass stars may present good candidates for hosting Earth-like planets. (NSF)
• Scientists Edge Closer to Unlocking Secrets of Mysterious Crab Pulsar. Like a celestial top, the spinning neutron star known as the Crab Pulsar is slowing, a phenomenon that astronomers have yet to fully understand. (U. Florida)
• New Computers Change Shape, Respond to Touch. The shape of things to come in the computer world will be anything but flat, predicts Queen’s Computing professor Roel Vertegaal, who is now developing prototypes of these new “non-planar” devices in his Human Media Laboratory. (Queen's U.)
• Mining for Molecules in the Milky Way. Scientists are using the giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to go prospecting in a rich molecular cloud in our Milky Way Galaxy. They seek to discover new, complex molecules in interstellar space that may be precursors to life. (NRAO)
• DNA Reveals Sister Power in Ancient Greece. University of Manchester researchers have revealed how women, as well as men, held positions of power in ancient Greece by right of birth. (U. Manchester)
• Microrobotic Ballet. Microscopic robots crafted to maneuver separately without any obvious guidance are now assembling into self-organized structures after years of continuing research led by a Duke University computer scientist. (Duke U.)

May 30

• A Computer That Can 'Read' Your Mind. For centuries, the concept of mind readers was strictly the domain of folklore and science fiction. But according to new research published today in the journal Science, scientists are closer to knowing how specific thoughts activate our brains. The findings demonstrate the power of computational modeling to improve our understanding of how the brain processes information and thoughts. (NSF)

May 29

• Dates for Stonehenge Burials Signify Long-term Use as Cemetery. New radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge indicate that the monument was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 B.C. until well after the large stones went up around 2500 B.C. (Bristol U.)

May 28

• Mars' Water Appears to Have Been Too Salty to Support Life. A new analysis of the Martian rock that gave hints of water on the Red Planet -- and, therefore, optimism about the prospect of life -- now suggests the water was more likely a thick brine, far too salty to support life as we know it. (Harvard U.)
• Students Explore Environmentally Friendly Way to Extract Oil from Algae. Most of us don't intentionally cultivate algae – that green slime that grows in stagnant ponds, and, if we're unlucky, our swimming pools. (U. Arizona)
• Studying the Mechanics of Microneedles. Steven Henry ’09 is seeking a better understanding of the force required to make microneedles penetrate the skin. The tiny microneedle has a diameter smaller than that of a human hair, but its ability to deliver medication is proving increasingly interesting to physicians. (Lehigh U.)
• All in a Spin - Record Breaking Asteroid Discovered. A British amateur astronomer has discovered the fastest rotating natural object known in our Solar System. (STFC)

May 27

• New Unifying Theory of Lasers Advanced by Physicists. Researchers at Yale and the Institute of Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich have formulated a theory that, allows scientists to better understand and predict the properties of both conventional and non-conventional lasers, according to a recent article in Science. (Yale U.)
• Geoengineering Could Slow Down the Global Water Cycle. As fossil fuel emissions continue to climb, reducing the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth would definitely have a cooling effect on surface temperatures. (LLNL)
• Looking at Methane Sources in the Right Light. Plants store one greenhouse gas, but emit another. Whereas they bind carbon dioxide, they release methane - albeit in small quantities. This has now been confirmed by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, the University of Utrecht and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast. (MPG)
• Robots go Where Scientists Fear to Tread. Scientists are diligently working to understand how and why the world’s ice shelves are melting. While most of the data they need (temperatures, wind speed, humidity, radiation) can be obtained by satellite, it isn’t as accurate as good old-fashioned, on-site measurement and static ground-based weather stations don’t allow scientists to collect info from as many locations as they’d like. (GIT)
• Some Biofuels Might Do More Harm than Good to the Environment, Study Finds. Biofuels based on ethanol, vegetable oil and other renewable sources are increasingly popular with government and environmentalists as a way to reduce fossil fuel dependence and limit greenhouse gas emissions. (U. Washington)
• Organic Milk Is Cream of the Crop. A new study by Newcastle University proves that organic farmers who let their cows graze as nature intended are producing better quality milk. (Newcastle U.)

May 26

• Fish Skin Makes Fish Shiny. Researchers from Israel have unveiled the reason why fish’s skin reflects light so well. It is not only because of the crystals on their skin, but also because of their form. The ESRF helped unveil the structure of biogenic crystals grown by carp showing that it is identical to the crystal structure of anhydrous guanine. (ESRF)

May 25

• Scientists Image a Single HIV Particle Being Born. A mapmaker and a mathematician may seem like an unlikely duo, but together they worked out a way to measure longitude — and kept millions of sailors from getting lost at sea. Now, another unlikely duo, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, is making history of its own. By using a specialized microscope that illuminates only a cell’s surface, they have become the first to see, in real time and in plain view, hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of the virus that has, in less than 25 years, claimed more than 25 million lives: HIV. (Rockefeller U.)

May 23

• New Argonne Algorithm Increases Accuracy of Air-pollution Predictions. When air-quality monitors and environmental regulators inspect the pollution levels of certain cities, the difference of one or two parts per million in the concentration of pollutants like ozone and carbon monoxide can mean the difference between achieving a target and having to implement additional costly provisions to get failing areas back on track. (ANL)
• When Plants "Think" Alike. Biologists have discovered that a fundamental building block in the cells of flowering plants evolved independently, yet almost identically, on a separate branch of the evolutionary tree--in an ancient plant group called lycophytes that originated at least 420 million years ago. (NSF)
• Bright Sparks Make Gains Towards Plastic Lasers of the Future. Imperial researchers have come one step closer to finding the 'holy grail' in the field of plastic semiconductors by demonstrating a class of material that could make electrically-driven plastic laser diodes a reality. (ICL)

May 22

• Yale University Researchers Resolve Global Warming Mystery. Yale University scientists reported Sunday that they may have resolved a controversial glitch in models of global warming: A key part of the atmosphere didn't seem to be warming as expected. (Yale U.)
• Rapid Escalation Characterizes Arms Race Between Virus and Host. The interaction between a virus and its host is often portrayed as an arms race, with each new viral attack parried by the host and each new defense by the host one-upped by the virus. (UC Berkeley)
• Important Plant Enzymes Identified. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified enzymes important in the modification of isoflavonoids, natural plant products that help plants resist fungal infections, and may have beneficial health effects for humans as well. (BNL)
• Preserving Skin Elasticity Could Unlock Secrets for Better Body Health. University of Manchester scientists have begun a study to understand the decline of ‘springiness’ in our bodies' skin and tissues as we get older. (U. Manchester)
• MIT Scientists Fathom Ecological Niches of Ocean Microbes. Marine bacteria in the wild organize into professions or lifestyle groups that partition many resources, rather than competing for them, so that microbes with one lifestyle, such as free-floating cells, flourish in proximity with closely related microbes that may spend life attached to zooplankton or algae. (MIT)
• Sunshade World – A Global Warming Solution? Placing a ‘sunshade’ in space in order to counteract global warming was first proposed in 1989. More recent studies concluded that such a scheme could be developed and deployed in about 25 years time at a cost of several trillion dollars. (Bristol U.)

May 21

• UW Scientists Join Hunt for 'God' Particle to Complete 'Theory of Everything'. When the world's most powerful subatomic particle collider begins gathering data this summer, it will be a major milestone for a number of University of Washington scientists. (U. Washington)
• Halting Methane Squanderlust. The pipes that rise from oil fields, topped with burning flames of natural gas, waste fossil fuels and dump carbon dioxide into the air. In new work, researchers have identified the structure of a catalytic material that can turn methane into a safe and easy-to-transport liquid. The insight lays the foundation for converting excess methane into a variety of useful fuels and chemicals. (PNNL)
• MIT Helps Develop New Image-recognition Software. It takes surprisingly few pixels of information to be able to identify the subject of an image, a team led by an MIT researcher has found. The discovery could lead to great advances in the automated identification of online images and, ultimately, provide a basis for computers to see like humans do. (MIT)
• A Missing Link Settles Debate Over the Origin of Frogs and Salamanders. The description of an ancient amphibian that millions of years ago swam in quiet pools and caught mayflies on the surrounding land in Texas has set to rest one of the greatest current controversies in vertebrate evolution. The discovery was made by a research team led by scientists at the University of Calgary. (U. Calgary)
• Not Living Up to Their Name. In the first experiment to record the electrophysiology of sleep in a wild animal, three-toed sloths carrying miniature electroencephalogram recorders slept 9.63 hours per day - 6 hours less than captive sloths did. (MPG)
• Sleep Deprivation Affects Ability to Make Sense of What We See. Neuroscience researchers at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have shown for the first time what happens to the visual perceptions of healthy but sleep-deprived volunteers who fight to stay awake, like people who try to drive through the night. (DUMC)
• How Can We Measure the Emotional States of Animals? Rats housed in standard conditions show a stronger response to the loss of an expected food reward than those housed in enriched conditions, perhaps indicating a more negative emotional state, according to new research by scientists at Bristol University Veterinary School. (Bristol U.)

May 20

• The Photonic Beetle. Researchers have been unable to build an ideal "photonic crystal" to manipulate visible light, impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers. But now, University of Utah chemists have discovered that nature already has designed photonic crystals with the ideal, diamond-like structure: They are found in the shimmering, iridescent green scales of a beetle from Brazil. (U. Utah)
• Scientists Find First Dinosaur Tracks on Arabian Peninsula. Scientists have discovered the first dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula. In the May 21 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, they report evidence of a large ornithopod dinosaur, as well as a herd of 11 sauropods walking along a Mesozoic coastal mudflat in what is now the Republic of Yemen. (Ohio U.)
• Hubble Space Telescope Survey Finds Missing Matter, Probes Intergalactic Web. Although the universe contains billions of galaxies, only a small amount of its matter is locked up in these behemoths. Most of the universe's matter that was cooked up during and just after the Big Bang must be found elsewhere. (U. Colorado B.)

May 19

• With Age Comes a Sense of Peace and Calm. Aging brings a sense of peace and calm, according to a new study from the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting at about age 60, participants reported more feelings of ease and contentment than their younger counterparts. (UTA)
• Small Star Gets Swift Reaction with Unprecedented Flare. On April 25, one of our nearest stellar neighbors, a small, faint red dwarf known as EV Lacertae, unleashed the brightest flare ever detected from a normal star outside our solar system. The monster blast of radiation was picked up with NASA's Swift satellite, which scans space looking for Gamma-ray bursts coming from the edge of the universe. (U. Maryland)
• Caltech Researchers Reveal the Neuronal Computations Governing Strategic Social Interactions in the Human Brain. In a strategic game, the success of any player depends not just on his or her own actions, but on the behavior of every other player in the game. To be successful, players must not only pay attention to what other players do, but also how they are thinking. (Caltech)
• Self-repairing Aircraft Could Revolutionise Aviation Safety. A new technique that mimics healing processes found in nature could enable damaged aircraft to mend themselves automatically, even during a flight. (Bristol U.)

May 16

• How Did That Chain Letter Get To My Inbox? Everyone who has an e-mail account has probably received a forwarded chain letter promising good luck if the message is forwarded on to others--or terrible misfortune if it isn't. The sheer volume of forwarded messages such as chain letters, online petitions, jokes and other materials leads to a simple question--how do these messages reach so many people so quickly? (NSF)
• Finding Yields Creation of Bacteria-resistant Films. Having found that whether bacteria stick to surfaces depends partly on how stiff those surfaces are, MIT engineers have created ultrathin films made of polymers that could be applied to medical devices and other surfaces to control microbe accumulation. (MIT)
• Strange Star Stumps Astronomers. An obese oddball of a star has left astronomers wondering how it could have formed. (CSIRO)

May 15

• Quirky Pulsar System Discovered at Arecibo Challenges Theories of Binary Formation. An ongoing sky survey using the Cornell-managed Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has turned up a massive, fast-spinning binary pulsar with a mysterious elongated orbit, researchers say. (Cornell U.)
• Sight Recovery After Blindness Offers New Insights on Brain Reorganization. Studies of the brains of blind persons whose sight was partially restored later in life have produced a compelling example of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances and rewire and reconfigure itself. (Caltech)
• Researcher Finds El Nino May Have Been Key Factor in Magellan's Voyage Across the Pacific. A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions – including what we now know as El Niño – which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination. (NCSU)
• Astronomers Find that Universe Shines Twice as Bright. Astronomers from UK Universities working with colleagues from Germany and Australia have calculated that the Universe is actually twice as bright as previously thought. In the latest Astrophysical Journal Letters (10th May), the astronomers describe how dust is obscuring approximately half of the light that the Universe is currently generating. (STFC)

May 14

• Hot Climate Could Shut Down Plate Tectonics. A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place. (Rice U.)
• Fuel Cells: Distant Dream, But Burning With Promise. Some day, fuel cells may power your car and exhaust only water and perhaps carbon dioxide. More efficient and cleaner than an internal combustion engine, their emissions will be much lower. They may also run your home without the energy loss of power lines, or even power your laptop or cell phone. (Cornell U.)

May 13

• TV Commercials Influence What You Want to Do in Life, New Research Shows. If women find their husbands reluctant to fold the laundry or wash the dishes, they may want to hide the television remote. New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that men, in particular, are influenced by television commercials that more often portray them in a career environment than doing domestic duties. (UNH)
• Oldest Known Objects May Be Surprisingly Immature. Some of the oldest objects in the Universe may still have a long way to go, according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. These new results indicate that globular clusters might be surprisingly less mature in their development than previously thought. (Northwestern U.)
• Chemistry of Airborne Particulate--Lung Interactions Revealed. Exactly how airborne particulates harm our lungs still puzzles epidemiologists, physicians, environmental scientists, and policy makers. Now California Institute of Technology researchers have found that they act by impairing the lungs' natural defenses against ozone. (Caltech)
• Argonne Scientists Use Lasers to Align Molecules. Protein crystallographers have only scratched the surface of the human proteins important for drug interactions because of difficulties crystallizing the molecules for synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have devised a way to eliminate the need for crystallization by using lasers to align large groups of molecules. (ANL)
• Astronaut Health on Moon May Depend on Good Dusting. Lunar dust could be more than a housekeeping issue for astronauts who visit the moon. Their good health may depend on the amount of exposure they have to the tiny particles. (NSBRI)
• Research Shines Spotlight on a Key Player in the Dance of Chromosomes. Cell division is essential to life, but the mechanism by which emerging daughter cells organize and divvy up their genetic endowments is little understood. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois and Columbia University report on how a key motor protein orchestrates chromosome movements at a critical stage of cell division. (UIUC)

May 12

• New Clues to How Proteins Dissolve and Crystallize. In the late 19th century the Czech scientist Franz Hofmeister observed that some salts (ionic compounds) aided the solution of proteins in egg white, some caused the proteins to destabilize and precipitate, and others ranged in activity between these poles. (LBNL)
• Study: Kids Think Eyeglasses Make Other Kids Look Smart. Young children tend to think that other kids with glasses look smarter than kids who don’t wear glasses, according to a new study. (OSU)
• Female Concave-eared Frogs Draw Mates with Ultrasonic Calls. Most female frogs don’t call; most lack or have only rudimentary vocal cords. A typical female selects a mate from a chorus of males and then – silently – signals her beau. But the female concave-eared torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, has a more direct method of declaring her interest: She emits a high-pitched chirp that to the human ear sounds like that of a bird. (UIUC)
• Human Ageing Gene Found in Flies. Working at the University of Oxford and The Open University, Dr Lynne Cox and Dr Robert Saunders have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects ageing has on DNA. (BBSRC)

May 11

• Possible Mechanism for Enormous Electromechanical Response. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Stony Brook University, Johns Hopkins University, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have discovered that nanosized regions with local polarizations, or "electric dipoles," in a special class of otherwise disordered materials may underlie these materials' extreme electromechanical response to an external electric field or physical deformation. (BNL)

May 9

• From Coal Dust to Carbon Credits. UNSW scientists have turned the ash waste from coal-fired power stations into a global environmental solution which promises to slash emissions in the carbon-hungry construction sector by at least 20 per cent. (UNSW)
• Biochips Can Detect Cancers Before Symptoms Develop. In their fight against cancer, doctors have just gained an impressive new weapon to add to their arsenal. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed a chip that can save lives by diagnosing certain cancers even before patients become symptomatic. (ANL)

May 8

• Model Successfully Predicts Large River System Fish Diversity. While scientists have developed methods to predict aspects of fish diversity in specific river locations, a model to understand what factors may drive a comprehensive suite of fish biodiversity patterns in a large and complex system of rivers has been elusive. (U. Maryland)
• New Technique Measures Ultrashort Laser Pulses at Focus. Lasers that emit ultrashort pulses of light are used for numerous applications including micromachining, microscopy, laser eye surgery, spectroscopy and controlling chemical reactions. But the quality of the results is limited by distortions caused by lenses and other optical components that are part of the experimental instrumentation. (GIT)
• Computer Game's High Score Could Earn the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Gamers have devoted countless years of collective brainpower to rescuing princesses or protecting the planet against alien invasions. This week researchers at the University of Washington will try to harness those finely honed skills to make medical discoveries, perhaps even finding a cure for HIV. (U. Washington)
• Justice in the Brain: Equity and Efficiency are Encoded Differently. Which is better, giving more food to a few hungry people or letting some food go to waste so that everyone gets a share? A study appearing this week in Science finds that most people choose the latter, and that the brain responds in unique ways to inefficiency and inequity. (UIUC)

May 7

• Researchers Identify Pressure Effects on Nanomaterials. Transistors, lasers and solar-energy conversion devices may be easier to manipulate because of recent research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists. (LLNL)
• 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

• Global Climate Models Both Agree and Disagree With Actual Antarctic Data. Scientists who compared recorded Antarctic temperatures and snowfall accumulation to predictions by major computer models of global climate change offer both good and bad news. (OSU)
• Ponds Found to Take Up Carbon Like World's Oceans. Research led by Iowa State University limnologist, or lake scientist, John Downing finds that ponds around the globe could absorb as much carbon as the world's oceans. (ISU)
• Blocked Brain Enzyme Decreases Appetite and Promotes Weight Loss. Imagine being able to tone down appetite and promote weight loss, while improving the body's ability to handle blood sugar levels. (DUMC)
• Cornell Researchers Study Bacterium Big Enough to See. The secret to an unusual bacterium's massive size -- it's the size of a grain of salt, or a million times bigger than E. coli bacteria, and big enough to see with the naked eye -- may be found in its ability to copy its genome tens of thousands of times. (Cornell U.)
• Researchers Tackling Unsolved Questions About Protein Structures. A University of Arizona research team is exploring the evolutionary origins of protein structures. Their findings will help people better understand how proteins evolved to carry out the instructions encoded in the genes of every living thing. (U. Arizona)
• 'Crispy Noodle' Chemistry Could Reduce Carbon Emissions. A new material developed in Manchester, which has a structure that resembles crispy noodles, could help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped out and drive the next generation of high-performance hydrogen cars. (U. Manchester)
• Harnessing Sunlight on the Cheap. For a project that could be on the very cutting edge of renewable energy, this one is actually decidedly low tech--and that's the point. (MIT)
• Gene Sequence that Can Make Half of Us Fatter is Discovered. A gene sequence linked to an expanding waist line, weight gain and a tendency to develop type 2 diabetes has been discovered as part of a study published in the journal Nature Genetics. (ICL)

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

• New Research Shows Sleight of Hand Is Not So Slight. Typing on a keyboard or scribbling on paper may be similar activities, but there is a significant difference in how the body moves, according to new motor development research. (Purdue U.)
• Pathway Found That Lets Mosquitoes Fatten Up, Slow Down For Winter. Two genes that help insulin regulate mosquitoes’ growth have been identified as key contributors to how the insects enter a dormant state to survive winter’s cold. (OSU)
• First Nanoscale Image of Soil reveals an 'Incredible' Variety. A handful of soil is a lot like a banana, strawberry and apple smoothie: Blended all together, it is hard to tell what's in there, especially if you have never tasted the fruits before. (Cornell U.)

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

• Scientists Discover How the Structure of Plutonium Nanocluster Contaminants Increases Risk of Spreading. For almost half a century, scientists have struggled with plutonium contamination spreading further in groundwater than expected, increasing the risk of sickness in humans and animals. (Argonne NL)
• Purdue Researchers Propose Way to Incorporate Deforestation into Climate Change Treaty. Purdue University researchers have proposed a new option for incorporating deforestation into the international climate change treaty. (Purdue U.)
• Environment Influences When Drinking Begins; Genes' Role Increases in Transition to Alcohol Dependence. The end of the Pleistocene Epoch was marked with steadily warmer temperatures and the great ice age glaciers that covered vast areas of North America were in retreat. (WUSTL)
• Did a Significant Cool Spell Mark the Demise of Megafauna? The end of the Pleistocene Epoch was marked with steadily warmer temperatures and the great ice age glaciers that covered vast areas of North America were in retreat. (U. Arizona)
• Mystery of Ancient Supercontinent Revealed. In a paper published in this month’s ‘Geophysical Journal International’, Dr Graeme Eagles from the Earth Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, reveals how one of the largest continents ever to exist met its demise. (RAS)
• New Hazard Estimates Could Downplay Earthquake Dangers. The dangers posed by a major earthquake in the New Madrid and Charleston, S.C., zones in the Midwestern and Southern parts of the United States may be noticeably lower than current estimates if seismologists adjust one of the major assumptions that go into calculating seismic hazard, according to a study presented by a Northwestern University seismologist April 16 at the Seismological Society of America’s annual meeting. (Northwestern U.)

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

• Female Mice Can Identify Inbred Males By Their Scent. Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that female mice avoid mating with inbred males by 'sensing' the diversity of a protein type in their urine. (U. Liverpool)

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

• Engineering Prof Builds Brains for Robotic Cars. Jonathan Sprinkle wants to build robotic vehicles that pass the Turing Test. The test, proposed by Alan Turing in a 1950 paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” requires a robot’s behavior to be so lifelike that an observer can't tell if he’s dealing with a robot or a person. (U. Arizona)
• Bridging the “Green” LED Gap to Provide Greener Lighting. Concerns over the rising cost of oil and the environmental impact of carbon emissions have prompted a national discussion about solar, biofuels, nuclear, wind and other renewable sources of energy. (Lehigh U.)
• Geologists Discover New Way of Estimating Size and Frequency of Meteorite Impacts. Scientists have developed a new way of determining the size and frequency of meteorites that have collided with Earth. (NSF)
• Hydrogen Storage in Nanoparticles Works. Dutch chemist Kees Baldé has demonstrated that hydrogen can be efficiently stored in nanoparticles. This allows hydrogen storage to be more easily used in mobile applications. (NWO)

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

• Would You Steal a Buck? How About a Can of Soda? It's been a long road from being engulfed in flames in an explosion in Israel to leaving dollar bills in dorm refrigerators at MIT. But in an odd way, it's all connected. (MIT)
• Carbon Nanotubes Made into Conductive, Flexible ‘Stained Glass’. Carbon nanotubes are promising materials for many high-technology applications due to their exceptional mechanical, thermal, chemical, optical and electrical properties. (Northwestern U.)
• Researchers Close in on Origins of Main Ingredient of Alzheimer's Plaques. The ability of brain cells to take in substances from their surface is essential to the production of a key ingredient in Alzheimer's brain plaques, neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have learned. (WUSTL)
• Rocket Mystery Explained With New Imaging Technique. There’s a strange wave phenomenon that’s plagued rocket scientists for years, a lurking threat with the power to destroy an engine at almost any time. For decades, scientists have had a limited understanding of how or why it happens because they could not replicate or investigate the problem under controlled laboratory conditions. (GIT)

April 8

• Hubble Maps the Changing Constellation of Internet 'Black Holes'. You're trying to log on to a Web site and it's not working. You try again and again. But persistence doesn't pay off. The site you want is inexplicably, frustratingly, out of reach. (U. Washington)
• Manufactured Buckyballs Don't Harm Nicrobes that Clean the Environment. Research by two scientists has resulted in an exciting new method for rapidly and safely destroying toxic agents such as chemical weapons and pesticides. (Purdue U.)
• “Green” Method Decontaminates Deadly Nerve Agents. Research by two scientists has resulted in an exciting new method for rapidly and safely destroying toxic agents such as chemical weapons and pesticides. (Queen's U.)
• New Research Shows How Quickly the Brain Recognizes Odors. The way we detect, identify and respond to odors became a bit clearer when a Boston University research team combined measurements of odor perception with optical imaging in awake, behaving rats to shed light on how smells are initially processed and later perceived by the brain. (Boston U.)
• Physicists Saved From Drowning in Complexities of Wetting Theory. The relationship between a thin liquid film or drop of liquid and the shape of the surface that it wets is explained with a new simplified mathematical formula published this week in Physical Review Letters. (ICL)

April 7

• Project Traces the Genetic Roots of the Earth's Most Ancient Plants. Angiosperms, or flowering plants, are the most diverse group of plants on the planet with at least 260,000 species. They are also one of the most mysterious. (PSU)
• Money Doesn't Grow on Trees, But Gasoline Might. Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees. (NSF)
• Regional Nuclear Conflict Would Create Near-Global Ozone Hole. A limited nuclear weapons exchange between Pakistan and India using their current arsenals could create a near-global ozone hole, triggering human health problems and wreaking environmental havoc for at least a decade, according to a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. (UCB)
• Stem Cell Method Treats Parkinson's Symptoms in Rats. A team including MIT researchers has demonstrated for the first time that artificially created stem cells can be used to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats. (MIT)

April 4

• Newly Discovered 'Superinsulators' Promise to Transform Materials Research, Electronics Design. Superinsulation may sound like a marketing gimmick for a drafty attic or winter coat. But it is actually a newly discovered fundamental state of matter created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with several European institutions. This discovery opens new directions of inquiry in condensed matter physics and breaks ground for a new generation of microelectronics. (ANL)
• Graphene Gazing Gives Glimpse of Foundations of Universe. Researchers at The University of Manchester have used graphene to measure an important and mysterious fundamental constant - and glimpse the foundations of the universe. (U. Manchester)
• Antibacterial Toothpaste and Tongue Scraping Eliminate Halitosis. The stigma and embarrassment associated with chronic bad breath, or halitosis, can be sufficient to turn sufferers into near-hermits. (U. Buffalo)
• Synthetic Molecules May Be Less Expensive Alternative to Therapeutic Antibodies. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a simple and inexpensive method to screen small synthetic molecules and pull out a handful that might treat cancer and other diseases less expensively than current methods. (Southwestern MC)

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

• Archaeologist Finds Oldest Known Gold Artifacts in the Americas. Anthropology Professor Mark Aldenderfer led an excavation in the Peruvian Andes that uncovered the earliest gold jewelry dating back 4,000 years. (U. Arizona)
• Researcher's Nanodevice Could Cut Airport Lines. One day soon, a biosensing nanodevice developed by ASU researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases such as anthrax, cancer and antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). (Arizona SU.)
• Sandia Researchers Purposely Damage Batteries to See How Much Abuse They Can Take. Researchers in the Power Sources R&D group at Sandia National Laboratories have been driving nails into batteries, heating them to extreme temperatures, overcharging them, and putting them into some of the most adverse conditions possible to see how much abuse they can take before they blow up. (Sandia Labs.)
• Engineers Make First 'Active Matrix' Display Using Nanowires. Engineers have created the first "active matrix" display using a new class of transparent transistors and circuits, a step toward realizing applications such as e-paper, flexible color monitors and "heads-up" displays in car windshields. (Purdue U.)
• Two New Star Systems Are First Of Their Kind Ever Found. Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so unusual, it was one of a kind -- until its discovery helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to home. (OSU)

March 30

• Researchers Make a Point of Explaining 'the Wallpaper Problem'. Frustrated by tape that won't peel off the roll in a straight line? Angry at wallpaper that refuses to tear neatly off the wall? (MIT)

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

• Foldable and Stretchable, Silicon Circuits Conform to Many Shapes. Scientists have developed a new form of stretchable silicon integrated circuit that can wrap around complex shapes such as spheres, body parts and aircraft wings, and can operate during stretching, compressing, folding and other types of extreme mechanical deformations, without a reduction in electrical performance. (UIUC)
• Researchers Link Genetic Errors to Schizophrenia. A team of researchers at the University of Washington and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories has uncovered genetic errors that may shed light on the causes of schizophrenia. (U. Washington)
• Scientists Uncover the Source of an Almost Two Billion Year Delay in Animal Evolution. A deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly two billion years. (Newcastle U.)

March 26

• Brain Pleasure Pathway Responds to Calorie-Rich Foods, Not Just Sugar Flavor. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered that the brain can respond to the calorie content of food, even in the absence of taste. (DUMC)
• McEuen and Ralph Put New Spin On Quantum Computing in Carbon Nanotubes. Researchers hoping to use carbon nanotubes for quantum computing -- in which the spin of a single electron would represent a bit of data -- may have to change their approaches, according to new Cornell research. (Cornell U.)

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 texturing of iron crystals within the inner core. (UIUC)
• Efficient Catalysts for Making Oxygen for 'Artificial Photosynthesis'. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan are trying to mimic part of the complex natural process of photosynthesis with the goal of making non-polluting fuels such as hydrogen, for example, for use in fuel cells. (BNL)
• Physicists: After 30 Years of Study, Rare Particle Confirms Prediction. High-energy physicists devoted to recreating the conditions at the beginning of the universe have for the first time observed a new way to produce those basic particles of atoms, protons and neutrons. (U. Florida)
• Language of a Fly Proves Surprising. A group of researchers has developed a novel way to view the world through the eyes of a common fly and partially decode the insect's reactions to changes in the world around it. The research fundamentally alters earlier beliefs about how neural networks function and could provide the basis for intelligent computers that mimic biological processes. (LANL)

March 7

• Crop Scientist Discover Gene That Controls Fruit Shape. Crop scientists have cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables, as well as provide new insight into mechanisms of plant development (OSU)
• Nearby Star Should Harbor Detectable, Earth-like Planets. A rocky planet similar to Earth may be orbiting one of our nearest stellar neighbors and could be detected using existing techniques, according to a new study led by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. (UCSC)
• New Crystallization Method to Ease Study of Protein Structures. Researchers at the Midwest Center for Structural Genomics (MCSG), the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and the Structural Biology Center (SBC) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new technique for crystallizing proteins that will ease experimentation into protein structures. (ANL)
• Satellite Reveals Treasure Trove of Data, Including Evidence for Early Universe Neutrinos. A NASA satellite built in partnership with Princeton scientists has uncovered evidence that a sea of neutrinos -- almost weightless elementary particles that zip around at nearly the speed of light -- permeates the universe. (Princeton U.)
• New Study Reveals Profound Impact of Our Unconscious on Reaching Goals. Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever changing, chaotic environment. We are often aware of our conscious decisions that bring us closer to reaching our goals, however to what extent can we count on our unconscious processes to pilot us toward our destined future? (APS)

March 6

• Low-cost Reusable Material Could Facilitate Carbon Dioxide Capture. Researchers have developed a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse gas. Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the new material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times. (GIT)
• Rock: Electrons Run through It. If the Flintstones had electricity, their wires might have been made of rock. New results in Science Express show that a chunk of hematite can conduct electrons under certain chemical conditions. In addition, the current causes some mineral surfaces to build up while others degrade. These results with iron oxide might be important for water quality, soil evolution, and environmental cleanup. (PNNL)

March 5

• Physicists Transcribe Entanglement into and out of a Quantum Memory. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have laid the groundwork for a crucial step in quantum information science. They show how entanglement, an essential property of quantum mechanics, can be generated between beams of light, stored in a quantum memory, and mapped back into light with the push of a button. (Caltech)
• Physics Breakthrough Much Ado About “Nothing”. How do scientists store nothing? It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but the answer is causing a stir in the realm of quantum physics after two research teams, including one from the University of Calgary, have independently proven it’s possible to store a special kind of vacuum in a puff of gas and then retrieve it a split second later. (U. Calgary)
• Key Component of Earth's Crust Formed from Moving, Molten Rock. Earth scientists are in the business of backing into history -- extrapolating what happened millions of years ago based on what they can observe now. Using this method, a team of Cornell researchers has created a mathematical computer model of the formation of granulite, a fine-grained metamorphic rock, in the Earth's crust. (Cornell U.)

March 4

• Moths Remember What They Learned as Caterpillars. Butterflies and moths are well known for their striking metamorphosis from crawling caterpillars to winged adults. In light of this radical change, not just in body form, but also in lifestyle, diet and dependence on particular sensory cues, it would seem unlikely that learned associations or memories formed at the larval or caterpillar stage could be accessible to the adult moth or butterfly. However, scientists at Georgetown University recently discovered that a moth can indeed remember what it learned as a caterpillar. (Georgetown U.)
• Is the Functionning of Tropical Being Modified By Climate Change? More than two million trees belonging to nearly 5000 species, growing in tropical forests spread over 12 sites and three continents, have been monitored since the 1980s. The aims of this major study were to analyze the carbon storage capacity of tropical forests and measure the effects of climate change on how they function. (CNRS)
• New Material Can Find a Needle in a Nuclear Waste Haystack. Nuclear power has advantages, but, if this method of making power is to be viable long term, discovering new solutions to radioactive waste disposal and other problems are critical. Otherwise nuclear power is unlikely to become mainstream. (Northwestern U.)
• Quantity and Frequency of Drinking Influence Mortality Risk. How much and how often people drink — not just the average amount of alcohol they consume over time — independently influence the risk of death from several causes, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (NIH)
• Spring is Aurora Season. What are the signs of spring? They are as familiar as a blooming daffodil, a songbird at dawn, a surprising shaft of warmth from the afternoon sun. And, oh yes, don’t forget the aurora borealis. Spring is aurora season. For reasons not fully understood by scientists, the weeks around the vernal equinox are prone to Northern Lights. (GSFC)
• Tuberculosis Bacterium is Double-protected. The first 3-D images that disclosure a double membrane surrounding mycobacteria were recorded by Martinsried scientists, ending a long scientific debate about the mycobacterial outer membrane and opening new pathways to improve the development of chemotherapeutic substances against tuberculosis. (MPG)
• Genes Hold the Key to How Happy We Are, Scientists Say. Happiness in life is as much down to having the right genetic mix as it is to personal circumstances according to a recent study. (APS)

March 3

• U of M Researchers Discover Key for Converting Waste to Electricity . Researchers at the University of Minnesota studying bacteria capable of generating electricity have discovered that riboflavin (commonly known as vitamin B-2) is responsible for much of the energy produced by these organisms. (U. Minnesota)
• "Power Napping" in Pigeons. Pigeons prevented from taking naps in the afternoon sleep more intensely at night. (MPG)
• Tiny Polyps Need Two Kinds Of Carbon To Survive Coral Bleaching. How well ocean reefs recover from the growing damage caused by warming sea temperatures depends both on how much the tiny coral polyps can eat, and how healthy they can keep the microscopic algae that live inside their bodies. (OSU)
• UB Member of "Salivation Army" Looks at Link Between Saliva and Good and Bad Bacteria in Mouth. An oral biologist working in a field that has dubbed itself the "salivation army," Stefan Ruhl says many of his colleagues prefer more glamorous research topics than his chosen area of investigation. (U. Buffalo)
• Team Probes Mysteries of Oceanic Bacteria. Microbes living in the oceans play a critical role in regulating Earth's environment, but very little is known about their activities and how they work together to help control natural cycles of water, carbon and energy. (MIT)
• Scientists Uncover a Novel Mechanism that Regulates Carbon Dioxide Fixation in Plants. A team of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded scientists at the University of Essex has discovered a new mechanism that slows the process of carbon dioxide fixation in plants. (BBSRC)

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