February 25

February 23

  • Study Finds Brain Hub That Links Music, Memory and Emotion. We all know the feeling: a golden oldie comes blaring over the radio and suddenly we’re transported back — to a memorable high-school dance, or to that perfect afternoon on the beach with friends. But what is it about music that can evoke such vivid memories? (UC Davis)
  • 2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000. Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. The GISS analysis also showed that 2008 is the ninth warmest year since continuous instrumental records were started in 1880. (GSFC)

February 22

  • Childhood Trauma has Life-long Effect on Genes and the Brain. McGill University and Douglas Institute scientists have discovered that childhood trauma can actually alter your DNA and shape the way your genes work. This confirms in humans earlier findings in rats, that maternal care plays a significant role in influencing the genes that control our stress response. (McGill U.)

February 20

  • Diamond No Longer Nature's Hardest Material. Diamond lost its title of the "world's hardest material" by 58% to a rare natural substance, according to a new research by Chinese scientists. Pan Zicheng at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and colleagues simulated how atoms in two substances believed to have promise as very hard materials would respond to the stress of a finely tipped probe pushing down on them. (CAS)

February 19

  • Powering the Future – Solar Cells by the Metre. World leading research from CSIRO’s Future Manufacturing Flagship as part of the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) aims to develop flexible, large area, cost-effective, reel-to-reel printable plastic solar cells. (CSIRO)

February 18

  • New Stars from Old Gas Surprise Astronomers. Evidence of star birth within a cloud of primordial gas has given astronomers a glimpse of a previously unknown mode of galaxy formation. The cloud, known as the Leo Ring, appears to lack the dark matter and heavy elements normally found in galaxies today. The unexpected discovery comes thanks to instruments aboard NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft which are sensitive to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by newly formed stars. (Carnegie I.)
  • Sophisticated Structures Assembled with Magnets. What do Saturn and flowers have in common? As shapes, both possess certain symmetries that are easily recognizable in the natural world. Now, at an extremely small level, researchers from Duke University and the University of Massachusetts have created a unique set of conditions in which tiny particles within a solution will consistently assemble themselves into these and other complex shapes. (Duke U.)

February 17

  • If You’re Aggressive, Your Dog Will Be, Too. In a new, year-long University of Pennsylvania survey of dog owners who use confrontational or aversive methods to train aggressive pets, veterinary researchers have found that most of these animals will continue to be aggressive unless training techniques are modified. (U. Penn)
  • Enlisting Microbes to Solve Global Problems. In the search for answers to the planet's biggest challenges, some MIT researchers are turning to its tiniest organisms: bacteria. (MIT)

February 13

February 12

February 11

February 10

  • Unexpected Discovery Could Impact on Future Climate Models. Astronomers have made an unexpected find using a polarimeter (an instrument used to measure the wave properties of light) funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), that has the potential to affect future climate models. (STFC)

February 9

  • Revolutionary Microchip Uses 30 times Less Power. In the first real-world test of a revolutionary type of computing that thrives on random errors, scientists have created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today's best technology. The U.S.-Singapore team developing the technology, dubbed PCMOS [pronounced "pee-cee-moss"], revealed the results here today at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the world's premier forum for engineers working at the cutting edge of integrated-circuit design. (Rice U.)
  • Vigorous Exercise May Help Prevent Vision Loss. There’s another reason to dust off those running shoes. Vigorous exercise may help prevent vision loss, according to a pair of studies from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The studies tracked approximately 41,000 runners for more than seven years, and found that running reduced the risk of both cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. (LBNL)

February 5

  • Isolating Creativity in the Brain. How — exactly — does improvisation happen? What’s involved when a musician sits down at the piano and plays flurries of notes in a free fall, without a score, without knowing much about what will happen moment to moment? Is it possible to find the sources of a creative process? (Harvard U.)

February 4

  • Signs Point to Sponges as Earliest Animal Life. Even Charles Darwin was puzzled by the apparently sudden appearance in the fossil record of a great variety of multicellular creatures -- a rapid blossoming known as the Cambrian explosion. Since then, the origin of animals was found to extend back earlier, through a period known as the Ediacarian. Now, evidence found by researchers at MIT, UC Riverside and other institutions shows that the first complex life forms may in fact have appeared much earlier still. (MIT)
  • Study Finds Oldest Trees Grow Slowest – Even as Youngsters. A newly published study has found that the oldest trees in the forest also grow the slowest – and they likely aren’t the prettiest. (Oregon S. U.)

February 3

February 2

  • Researchers See Complex Atomic Choreography as Crystals Melt. Conga lines of atoms wend their way through a crystal, their numbers growing as more and more atoms join the migration. The worm-like lines of atoms randomly converge, forming tangles that evolve into droplets of liquid that signal the beginning of the complicated process known as melting. (GIT)

January 28

  • Names Give Cows a Lotta Bottle. A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, scientists at Newcastle University have found. Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have shown that by giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual, farmers can increase their annual milk yield by almost 500 pints. (Newcastle U.)
  • Sociability Traced to Particular Region of Brain by Stanford Scientists. People with a genetic condition called Williams syndrome are famously gregarious. Scientists, looking carefully at brain function in individuals with Williams syndrome, think they may know why this is so. The researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine showed that parts of a particular brain region known as the amygdala react more powerfully in Williams syndrome patients than in developmentally normal subjects—or subjects with delays in development not caused by Williams syndrome —when exposed to facial expressions conveying positive emotions. (Stanford U.)

January 27

January 26

  • New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible. A new scientific study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches a powerful conclusion about the climate change caused by future increases of carbon dioxide: to a large extent, there’s no going back. (NOAA)

January 23

  • The Path to History is Through the Stomach. Helicobacter pylori can cause stomach ulcers and cancers. Over half of the world’s inhabitants carrys this bacterium, but different variants are present on different continents. Up to now, biologists have differentiated between five populations of these bacteria. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and at the University of Cork in Ireland have now discovered a new population of Helicobacter pylori bacteria that attests to the shared origin of the earliest inhabitants of Australia and New Guinea. (MPG)

January 21

  • Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming. The Antarctic Peninsula juts into the Southern Ocean, reaching farther north than any other part of the continent. The southernmost reach of global warming was believed to be limited to this narrow strip of land, while the rest of the continent was presumed to be cooling or stable. (GSFC)
  • Cosmic Rays Detected Deep Underground Reveal Secrets of the Upper Atmosphere. Cosmic-rays detected half a mile underground in a disused U.S. iron-mine can be used to detect major weather events occurring 20 miles up in the Earth's upper atmosphere, a new study has revealed. (STFC)
  • Microbes in Gut May Hold Key to Obesity Cause. In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth. Numbering in the tens of trillions and representing many thousands of distinct genetic families, this microbiome, as it’s called, helps the body perform a variety of regulatory and digestive functions, many still poorly understood. (ASU)

January 19

  • Earthquakes, El Niños Fatal to Earliest Civilization in Americas. First came the earthquakes, then the torrential rains. But the relentless march of sand across once fertile fields and bays, a process set in motion by the quakes and flooding, is probably what did in America’s earliest civilization. (U. Florida)
  • Probing Question: Could the Large Hadron Collider swallow the Earth? Nestled 570 feet beneath the Alps on the Swiss-French border is the world’s largest physics experiment — the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Constructed for $8.8 billion by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland in collaboration with hundreds of universities and labs worldwide, the LHC was built to test various key predictions of high-energy physics by smashing proton beams together at high speeds. (PSU)

January 15

  • Clash of Civilisations. In a globalised post 9/11 world, riddled with fears of a clash of cultures and civilisations, religious fanaticism and killing in the name of religion, there are echoes through history for Leicester academic Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock. (U. Leicester)

January 14

January 12

  • As Super-predators, Humans Reshape Their Prey at Super-natural Speeds. Fishing and hunting are having broad, swift impacts on the body size and reproductive abilities of fish and other commercially harvested species, potentially jeopardizing the ability of entire populations to recover, according to the results of a new study. (UCSC)
  • Mice Without Key Enzyme Eat Without Becoming Obese. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a new enzyme that plays a far more important role than expected in controlling the breakdown of fat. In a new study to be published Jan. 11 in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers report that mice that have had this enzyme disabled remained lean despite eating a high-fat diet and losing a hormone that suppresses appetite. (UC Berkeley)

January 7

January 5

  • Team Finds Breast Cancer Gene Linked to Disease Spread. A team of researchers at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. (Princeton U.)

January 1

  • U of T Physicists are First to 'Squeeze' Light to Quantum Limit. A team of University of Toronto physicists has demonstrated a new technique to squeeze light to the fundamental quantum limit, a finding that has potential applications for high-precision measurement, next generation atomic clocks, novel quantum computing and our most fundamental understanding of the universe. (U. Toronto)

December 30

December 26

  • Bacteria in Ice May Record Climate Change. To many people, bacteria and climate change are like chalk and cheese: the smallest creature versus one of the biggest phenomena on earth. Not really. Scientists with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences and coworkers recently reported that small bugs deposited in ice and snow might tell how our climate has been changing. (CAS)

December 24

  • New Insight into Alzheimer’s Disease. A new molecule important in a part of the memory that allows recognition of people has been identified by researchers at the University of Bristol. This type of memory is impaired at an early stage during Alzheimer’s disease and so it is hoped that understanding the function of this molecule may lead to better cures and treatments for this devastating disease. (U. Bristol)
  • Mothers Pass on Disease Clues. When there is a threat of disease during pregnancy, mothers produce less aggressive sons with more efficient immune systems, researchers at the University of Nottingham have discovered. (BBSRC)

December 22

December 18

  • Water in the Early Universe. A research group led by graduate student Violette Impellizzeri from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has used the 100 m Effelsberg radio telescope to detect water at the greatest distance from Earth so far. (MPG)
  • Study Indicates How We Make Proper Movements. When you first notice a door handle, your brain has already been hard at work. Your visual system first sees the handle, then it sends information to various parts of the brain, which go on to decipher out the details, such as color and the direction the handle is pointing. As the information about an object is sent further along the various brain pathways, more and more details are noticed—in that way, a simple door handle turns into a silver-plated-antique-style-door-handle-facing-right. Information about the handle also reaches the part of your brain responsible for planning movements (known as the pre-motor area), and it comes up with a set of motions, allowing you to turn the handle with your right hand and open the door. (APS)

December 17

December 16

  • Caltech Researchers Interpret Asymmetry in Early Universe. The Big Bang is widely considered to have obliterated any trace of what came before. Now, astrophysicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) think that their new theoretical interpretation of an imprint from the earliest stages of the universe may also shed light on what came before. (Caltech)

December 15

  • Breathing Cycles in Earth's Upper Atmosphere Linked to Solar Wind Disturbances. A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows the periodic "breathing" of Earth's upper atmosphere that has long puzzled scientists is due in part to cyclic solar wind disturbances, a finding that should help engineers track satellites more accurately and improve forecasts for electronic communication disruptions. (UCB)

December 11

  • Bacteria Detoxify Deadly Seawater. Some marine bacteria produce hydrogen sulphide, which is toxic to animals. Scientists have now discovered that bacteria also protect marine animals from this toxic gas. A bacterial bloom detoxified a vast expanse of hydrogen sulphide-containing water off the coast of Namibia, before it could unfold its full deadly impact. (MPG
  • Boy or Girl? It’s in the Father's Genes. A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. (Newcastle U.)
  • Of Neanderthals and Dairy Farmers. Harvard Archaeology Professor Noreen Tuross sought to rehabilitate the image of Neanderthals as meat-eating brutes last week, presenting evidence that, though they almost certainly ate red meat, Neanderthal diets also consisted of other foods — like escargot. (Harvard U.)

December 8

December 4

  • An Achilles Heel in Cancer Cells. A protein that shields tumor cells from cell death and exerts resistance to chemotherapy has an Achilles heel, a vulnerability that can be exploited to target and kill the very tumor cells it usually protects. (UIC)

December 3

  • Apple or Pear Shape is not Main Culprit to Heart Woes — it's Liver Fat. For years, pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But new findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest body-shape comparisons don't completely explain risk. (MPG)

December 2

  • Rivers are Carbon Processors, not Inert Pipelines. Microorganisms in rivers and streams play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle that has not previously been considered. Freshwater ecologist Dr Tom Battin, of the University of Vienna, told a COST ESF Frontiers of Science conference in October that our understanding of how rivers and streams deal with organic carbon has changed radically. (ESF)
  • Ship in a Bottle Kit on a Microchip. Sometimes physicists resort to tried and trusted model-making tricks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and the Colorado School of Mines have constructed micromachines using the same trick that model makers use to get ships into a bottle where the masts and rigging of the sailing ship are not erected until it is in the bottle. In the same way, the scientists link the valves, pumps and stirrers of a microlaboratory to create a micro device on a chip. To do this, they introduce colloidal particles - tiny magnetizable plastic spheres - as components into the channels on the chip. A rotating magnetic field is used to link the components into larger aggregates and set them into motion as micromachines. (MPG)

December 1

  • Scientists Study Cracks in Brittle Materials. The Naval Research Laboratory is part of an international team of scientists that is learning more about how cracks form in brittle materials. The team used both computer modeling and experimentation to investigate how cracks grow at low speeds in silicon. This information has potential applications in the development of a variety of materials ranging from armor to machine parts. (NRL)
  • Disappearing Superconductivity Reappears -- in 2-D. Scientists studying a material that appeared to lose its ability to carry current with no resistance say new measurements reveal that the material is indeed a superconductor — but only in two dimensions. Equally surprising, this new form of 2-D superconductivity emerges at a higher temperature than ordinary 3-D superconductivity in other compositions of the same material. The research, conducted in part at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, will appear in the November 2008 issue of Physical Review B, and is now available online. (BNL)
  • Stanford Scientists' Discovery of Virus in Lemur Could Shed Light On AIDS. The genome of a squirrel-sized, saucer-eyed lemur from Madagascar may help scientists understand how HIV-like viruses coevolved with primates, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The discovery, published online on Dec. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide insight into why non-human primates don’t get AIDS and lead to treatments for humans. (Stanford SM)

November 26

November 25

  • Strong and Lightweight Material Provides New Use for Coal Ash. Each year, coal-burning power plants, steel factories and similar facilities in the United States produce more than 125 million tons of waste, much of it fly ash and bottom ash left over from combustion. Mulalo Doyoyo has plans for that material. (GIT)

November 24

November 21

  • The Strangulation of Spiral Galaxies. Astronomers in two UK-led international collaborations have separately uncovered a type of galaxy that represents a missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution. Galaxy Zoo, which uses volunteers from the general public to classify galaxies and the Space Telescope A901/902 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES) projects have used their vast datasets to disentangle the roles of "nature" and "nurture" in changing galaxies from one variety to another. (RAS)

November 19

  • Scientists Sequence Woolly-mammoth Genome. Scientists at Penn State are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, according to Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and one of the project's two leaders. The scientists sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant that was adapted to living in the cold environment of the northern hemisphere. They sequenced 4 billion DNA bases using next-generation DNA-sequencing instruments and a novel approach that reads ancient DNA highly efficiently. (PSU)
  • Rational or Random? Model Shows How People Send E-Mail. In the last 10 years, e-mail has gone from a novelty to a necessity. What was once a pastime is now an essential form of communication, with many people opening their inboxes to find dozens of e-mails waiting. (Northwestern U.)

November 18

  • Funerary Monument Reveals Iron Age Belief that the Soul Lived in the stone. Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have discovered an Iron Age chiseled stone slab that provides the first written evidence in the region that people believed the soul was separate from the body. (U. Chicago)
  • Scientists Find Facial Scars Increase Attractiveness. Men with facial scars are more attractive to women seeking short-term relationships, scientists at the University of Liverpool have found. (U. Liverpool)
  • Building Lead-Free Electronics for a Better World. Researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering have discovered a new lead-free material, bismuth samarium ferrite (BSFO), for use in products ranging from biomedical imaging devices to airbag sensors to inkjet printers. If implemented commercially, it could replace a common lead-based material found in these and other electronic devices, keeping lead out of landfills and the ecosystem. (U. Maryland)

November 17

  • Gaps in Adhesion. Chemists can learn from some shellfish. Mussels, for example, produce an adhesive that sticks strongly to metal and stone, even under water. Chemists have reproduced the protein responsible for this in a synthetic material that contains the same adhesive elements. (MPG)

November 14

  • Agent-based Computer Models Could Anticipate Future Economic Crisis. As the stock market continues its dive, economists and business columnists have spilled a lot of ink assigning responsibility for the ongoing financial calamity. While hindsight might be clear as day, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are trying to create new economic models that will provide policymakers with more realistic pictures of different types of markets so they can better avert future economic catastrophe. (ANL)

November 13

  • Taking on Fat: ‘The Epidemic of Our Time’. The U.S. population of adults and children is rapidly becoming so obese that, for the first time, the life expectancy of the next generation may be lower than the current one. (Northwestern U.)

November 12

  • How Our Senses Combine to Give Us a Better View of the World. From a young age we are taught about the five senses and how they help us to explore our world. Although each sense seems to be its own entity, recent studies have indicated that there is actually a lot of overlap and blending of the senses occurring in the brain to help us better perceive our environment. (APS)

November 11

November 10

  • Forced Evolution: Can We Mutate Viruses to Death? It sounds like a science fiction movie: A killer contagion threatens the Earth, but scientists save the day with a designer drug that forces the virus to mutate itself out of existence. The killer disease? Still a fiction. The drug? It could become a reality thanks to a new study by Rice University bioengineers. (Rice U.)
  • Shedding Light on Ancient Oceans. There's a powerful source of energy humming away inside a laboratory at the University of Alberta. The energy is ultra-violet light, and it packs the same spectrum of rays that kept this planet lifeless for billions of years. (U. Alberta)

November 6

  • Revised Theory Suggests Carbon Dioxide Levels Already in Danger Zone. If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of 10 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. (Yale U.)

November 5

  • Rocks Could Be Harnessed To Sponge Vast Amounts Of Carbon Dioxide From Air. Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide. Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals—and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. (LDEO)

November 4

November 3

  • Without Glial Cells, Animals Lose their Senses. Sensory neurons have always put on a good show. But now it turns out they’ll be sharing the credit. In groundbreaking research to appear in the October 31 issue of Science, Rockefeller University scientists show that while neurons play the lead role in detecting sensory information, a second type of cell, the glial cell, pulls the strings behind the scenes. The findings point to a mechanism that may explain not only how glia are required for bringing sensory information into the brain but also how glia may influence connections between neurons deep within it. (Rockefeller U.)
  • Immunity, from the Cell's Point of View. MIT engineers have painted the most detailed portrait yet of how single cells from the immune system respond to vaccination. (MIT)

October 31

  • In, Out or a Visual Illusion? Great news for those who always question a referee's call during a tennis match. You might not be so crazy after all. (UC Davis)
  • A Dinosaur with Long Display ''Feathers'' on its Tail. A "bizarre" bird-like dinosaur recently discovered by paleontologists with the CAS Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) has fueled renewed interest in the origin and early evolution of birds. This newly described species, which slightly preceded Archaeopteryx in geological time, surprises its discoverers with an unexpected combination of characteristics from different clades of theropod dinosaurs and some primitive birds. Most strikingly, it also sports two pairs of long primitive feathers on the tail. (CAS)

October 30

October 28

  • New Process Promises Bigger, Better Diamond Crystals. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution have developed a new technique for improving the properties of diamonds—not only adding sparkle to gemstones, but also simplifying the process of making high-quality diamond for scalpel blades, electronic components, even quantum computers. (Carnegie I.)

October 27

  • Inland Ants Prefer Salty Snacks to Sweet. Ants prefer salty snacks to sugary ones, at least in inland areas that tend to be salt-poor, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (UC Berkeley.)

October 23

  • Providing Pain Relief With Computers. Providing relief from pain is what every doctor wants for their patients and people have sought ways of doing this ever since they first encountered the stinging nettle – we have all tried rubbing a dock leaf on the sting in an attempt to alleviate the pain. Today pain relief comes from drugs, but the problem with many drugs is their side effects. (Bristol U.)
  • Explorers to Probe Hidden Antarctic Mountains. Scientists from six nations will combine efforts over the next three months to try and penetrate one of earth’s last unexplored places: Antarctica’s vast Gamburtsev Mountains, never seen by humans because they lie under up to 4 kilometers of ice, in the continent’s remotest regions. In the process of mapping the subglacial range with airborne radar and other cutting-edge techniques, the researchers hope to search for ancient ice and hidden lakes, and to find insights into climates past and future. (LDEO)

October 21

October 20

  • Current Mass Extinction Spurs Major Study of Which Plants to Save. The Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing, scientists say. (UCSB)
  • Cosmic Lens Reveals Distant Galactic Violence. By cleverly unraveling the workings of a natural cosmic lens, astronomers have gained a rare glimpse of the violent assembly of a young galaxy in the early Universe. Their new picture suggests that the galaxy has collided with another, feeding a supermassive black hole and triggering a tremendous burst of star formation. (NRAO)
  • Shoe Scanner Set to Make Travel Safer. An engineer at the University has developed a prototype scanner that could be used to detect explosives and weapons hidden in the shoes of travellers. (U. Manchester)
  • Caltech Geobiologists Discover Unique "Magnetic Death Star" Fossil. An international team of scientists has discovered microscopic, magnetic fossils resembling spears and spindles, unlike anything previously seen, among sediment layers deposited during an ancient global-warming event along the Atlantic coastal plain of the United States. (Caltech)

October 16

October 15

  • Scientists Propose the Creation of a New Type of Seed Bank, Will Help Understanding of Evolution and Climate Change. While an international seed bank in a Norwegian island has been gathering news about its agricultural collection, a group of U.S. scientists has just published an article outlining a different kind of seed bank, one that proposes the gathering of wild species –– at intervals in the future –– effectively capturing evolution in action. (UCSB)
  • "Fishapod" Reveals Origins of Head and Neck Structures of First Land Animals. Newly exposed parts of Tiktaalik roseae--the intermediate fossil between fish and the first animals to walk out of water onto land 375 million years ago--are revealing how this major evolutionary event happened. A new study, published this week in Nature, provides a detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae and reveals a key intermediate step in the transformation of the skull that accompanied the shift to life on land by our distant ancestors. (U. Chicago)

October 14

  • More Flexible Method Floated to Produce Biofuels, Electricity. Researchers are proposing a new "flexible" approach to producing alternative fuels, hydrogen and electricity from municipal solid wastes, agricultural wastes, forest residues and sewage sludge that could supply up to 20 percent of transportation fuels in the United States annually. (Purdue U.)
  • Young Planets Stay Hotter Longer. Young planets around other stars may be easier to spot because they stay hotter way longer than astronomers have thought, according to new work by MIT planetary scientist Linda Elkins-Tanton. (MIT)

October 13

  • Caltech Biologists Spy on the Secret Inner Life of a Cell. The transportation of antibodies from a mother to her newborn child is vital for the development of that child's nascent immune system. Those antibodies, donated by transfer across the placenta before birth or via breast milk after birth, help shape a baby's response to foreign pathogens and may influence the later occurrence of autoimmune diseases. Images from biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have revealed for the first time the complicated process by which these antibodies are shuttled from mother's milk, through her baby's gut, and into the bloodstream, and offer new insight into the mammalian immune system. (Caltech)

October 8

  • Diversity of Plant-Eating Fish May be Key to Coral Reef Recovery. For endangered coral reefs, not all plant-eating fish are created equal. A report scheduled to be published this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maintaining the proper balance of herbivorous fishes may be critical to restoring coral reefs, which are declining dramatically worldwide. The conclusion results from a long-term study that found significant recovery in sections of coral reefs on which fish of two complementary species were caged. (GIT)
  • World First for Sending Data Using Quantum Cryptography. For the first time the transmission of data secured by quantum cryptography is demonstrated within a commercial telecommunications network. 41 partners from 12 European countries, including academics from the University of Bristol, have worked on realising this quantum cryptographic network since April 2004. (Bristol U.)

October 7

  • "Cosmic Eye" Sheds Light on Early Galaxy Formation. A Cosmic Eye has given scientists a unique insight into galaxy formation in the very early Universe. Using gravity from a foreground galaxy as a zoom lens the team was able to see a young star-forming galaxy in the distant Universe as it appeared only two billion years after the Big Bang. (RAS)

October 6

October 3

  • Researchers Moving Closer to Creating Viable Energy From Sewage. When a newly developed technology for producing hydrogen gas from biowaste is brought to commercial use – as researchers believe it can be – then it appears the world will have plenty of energy if it can just solve the stubborn shortage of sewage. (Oregon SU)

October 1

  • Young Galaxy's Magnetism Surprises Astronomers. Astronomers have made the first direct measurement of the magnetic field in a young, distant galaxy, and the result is a big surprise. Looking at a faraway protogalaxy seen as it was 6.5 billion years ago, the scientists measured a magnetic field at least 10 times stronger than that of our own Milky Way. They had expected just the opposite. (NRAO)

September 30

September 29

  • New Formula Predicts How People Will Migrate in Coming Decades. Nearly 200 million people now live outside their country of birth. But the patterns of migration that got them there have proven difficult to project. Now scientists at Rockefeller University, with assistance from the United Nations, have developed a predictive model of worldwide population shifts that they say will provide better estimates of migration across international boundaries. Because countries use population projections to estimate local needs for jobs, schools, housing and health care, a more precise formula to describe how people move could lead to better use of resources and improved economic conditions. (Rockefeller U.)
  • Scientists Identify New Bone Protecting Protein. Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford have identified a naturally occurring protein molecule that not only protects against inflammation but also actively inhibits bone erosion in those affected by disease. (U. Manchester)
  • Sniffing Out Success. MIT biological engineers have found a way to mass-produce smell receptors in the laboratory, an advance that paves the way for "artificial noses" to be created and used in a variety of settings. (MIT)

September 25

September 23

  • Wolves Show Scientists Are Barking Up the Wrong Tree. The common notion is that dogs evolved a special sensitivity to their human masters during domestication. But new research, reported this week in a paper in the online edition of Animal Behavior, reveals that wolves raised by people are at least as good as — and perhaps better than — dogs at following human signals. (U. Florida)
  • Neurons in Zebrafish May Reveal Clues to the Wiring of the Human Ear. Developing neurons tend to play the field, making more connections than they will ever need. Then the weakest are cut. But Rockefeller University scientists now show that neurons in young zebrafish — vertebrates, like humans — behave differently: They immediately find a cluster of specialized cells and make the right match. The findings may help reveal the mechanism by which analogous cells are wired in the human ear and eventually help those who are deaf or hard of hearing. (Rockefeller U.)
  • Step Right Up, Let the Computer Look at Your Face and Tell You Your Age. People who hope to keep their age a secret won’t want to go near a computer running this software. Like an age-guesser at a carnival, computer software being developed at the University of Illinois can fairly accurately estimate a person’s age. But, unlike age-guessers, who can view a person’s body, the software works by examining only the person’s face. (UIUC)

September 22

  • Getting Lost – A Newly Discovered Developmental Brain Disorder. Feeling lost every time you leave your home? You may not be as alone as you think. Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute recently documented the first case of a patient who, without apparent brain damage or cognitive impairment, is unable to orient within any environment. Researchers also believe that there are many others in the general population who may be affected by this developmental topographical disorder. (U. British Columbia)
  • NC State Researchers Get to Root of Nematode Genome. North Carolina State University scientists and colleagues have completed the genome sequence and genetic map of one of the world's most common and destructive plant parasites – Meloidogyne hapla, a microscopic, soil-dwelling worm known more commonly as the northern root-knot nematode. (NCSU)

September 19

  • Robot Wheelchair Finds Its Own Way. MIT researchers are developing a new kind of autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in response to a verbal command. (MIT)

September 17

September 16

  • I Can't Believe It's Not Fried: New Oven Fries Food Without Oil. A new type of oven quickly produces foods that appear and taste identical to those that were fried, but, unlike traditional fryers, uses no additional oil. (Purdue U.)
  • Unusual Iron Discovered Deep Inside the Earth. Research performed at the ESRF on the Earth’s most abundant mineral has revealed a dramatic change in iron deep inside the Earth, explaining controversial observations that have puzzled scientists for several years. Iron changes to an unusual electron structure that is apparently stable throughout most of the deep Earth. These new findings challenge current models of the Earth’s interior, because they probably change what is known about the physical and chemical properties of the Earth’s most abundant mineral, and hence the characteristics of the lower mantle. (ESRF)
  • NC State Engineers Discover Nanoparticles Can Break On Through. In a finding that could speed the use of sensors or barcodes at the nanoscale, North Carolina State University engineers have shown that certain types of tiny organic particles, when heated to the proper temperature, bob to the surface of a layer of a thin polymer film and then can reversibly recede below the surface when heated a second time. (NCSU)

September 12

September 11

  • MIT Quantum Insights Could Lead to Better Detectors. A bizarre but well-established aspect of quantum physics could open up a new era of electronic detectors and imaging systems that would be far more efficient than any now in existence, according to new insights by an MIT leader in the field. (MIT)
  • World’s Water Ecosystems Under Threat. Human activities such as fishing and water use are over-riding the effects of global warming on the ecosystems that support the world’s water and fish supplies, experts have revealed. (Newcastle U.)

September 10

  • Gap Junction Protein Vital to Successful Pregnancy. Researchers studying a critical stage of pregnancy – implantation of the embryo in the uterus – have found a protein that is vital to the growth of new blood vessels that sustain the embryo. Without this protein, which is produced in higher quantities in the presence of estrogen, the embryo is unlikely to survive. (UIUC)

September 8

  • Safety Study Indicates Gene Therapy for Blindness Improves Vision. All three people who received gene therapy at the University of Florida to treat a rare, incurable form of blindness have regained some of their vision, according to a paper published online today in Human Gene Therapy. (U. Florida)
  • Scientists Point To Forests For Carbon Storage Solutions. Scientists who have determined how much carbon is stored annually in upper Midwest forests hope their findings will be used to accelerate global discussion about the strategy of managing forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions. (OSU)
  • MIT Researchers Find Memory Capacity Much Bigger than Previously Thought. In recent years, demonstrations of memory's failures have convinced many scientists that human memory does not store the details of our experiences. However, a new study from MIT cognitive neuroscientists may overturn this widespread belief: They have shown that given the right setting, the human brain can record an amazing amount of information. (MIT)

September 5

  • 'Omnivorous Engine' Hopes to Run on Many Fuels. The “omnivorous engine” is no picky eater. Gasoline? Down the hatch. Ethanol? Butanol? It'll slurp those up too. The creators of the omnivorous engine, engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, seek to fashion an engine that can run on just about any type of spark-ignited fuel. (ANL)

September 4

  • Climate Computer Modeling Heats Up. New "petascale" computer models depicting detailed climate dynamics, and building the foundation for the next generation of complex climate models, are in the offing. (NSF)

September 3

September 2

  • Scientists Test “Artificial Upwelling” to Learn More About Complex Ocean Ecosystem Behavior. A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature – pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biological production. (Oregon SU)
  • MIT Tests Self-propelled Cage for Fish Farming. A self-propelling underwater cage developed and recently tested by an MIT researcher could not only cut costs for offshore ocean-based fish farms but also aid the movement of such operations into the high seas, avoiding the user conflicts and compromised water quality of coastal zones. (MIT)

August 29

  • Engineers Create Bone that Blends into Tendons. Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully. (GIT)

August 28

  • Scientists Take the Sharpest Image Ever Made with Light. A team of scientists from the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and the ESRF in Grenoble (France) has produced the image of an object at the highest resolution ever achieved with X-ray light. A 100-nanometre gold particle fixed on a substrate was reconstructed with 5 nanometre resolution. Contrary to other techniques, X-ray imaging works also in real-life environments like chemical processing or in the presence of high magnetic fields. (ESRF)

August 27

  • Researchers Discover First Prehistoric Pregnant Turtle and Nest of Eggs. A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilized eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and staff from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology are yielding new ideas on the evolution of egg-laying and reproduction in turtles and tortoises. (U. Calgary)

August 26

  • Genome Sequence Deepens Mystery of Inconspicuous Sea Creature. Resembling a smudge more than an animal, a mysterious life form known as a placozoan has now joined other obscure and primitive creatures whose genomes are providing insight into how animals first arose more than 650 million years ago. (UC Berkeley)
  • Researchers Find Oldest Gecko Fossil Ever Discovered. Scientists from Oregon State University and the Natural History Museum in London have announced the discovery of the oldest known fossil of a gecko, with body parts that are forever preserved in life-like form after 100 million years of being entombed in amber. (Oregon SU)
  • UBC Scientist Unveils Secret of Newborn's First Words. A new study could explain why “daddy” and “mommy” are often a baby’s first words – the human brain may be hard-wired to recognize certain repetition patterns. (U. British Columbia)

August 25

  • MIT Model Helps Computers Sort Data More Like Humans. Humans have a natural tendency to find order in sets of information, a skill that has proven difficult to replicate in computers. Faced with a large set of data, computers don't know where to begin -- unless they're programmed to look for a specific structure, such as a hierarchy, linear order, or a set of clusters. (MIT)

August 22

  • New Process Extracts Pure Hydrogen From Contaminant In Unrefined Oil. A commercial-scale process to extract and reuse pure hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide that naturally contaminates unrefined oil, including oil sands, is one step closer to reality thanks to a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. (KPM) of Kingston, Ontario. (ANL)

August 19

  • True Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Measured. For more than 15 years, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been the flagship material of nanotechnology. Researchers have conceived applications for nanotubes ranging from microelectronic devices to cancer therapy. Their atomic structure should, in theory, give them mechanical and electrical properties far superior to most common materials. (Northwestern U.)
  • Biomarkers Reveal Our Biological Age. Not a day passes when we don’t get a little bit older. However, the exact processes involved in human aging are still puzzling. Scientists working with Lenhard Rudolph and Hong Jiang from the Max Planck Research Group for Stem Cell Aging in Ulm have now identified a group of proteins that reveal the biological age of a person. These biomarkers could be used in medicine to adapt therapies for older people to their individual biological age. (MPG)

August 18

August 15

  • New Insights Into Centre of the Earth. A new observation of the very deepest part of the Earth, the solid inner core, has been reported this week in Nature. The team from the University of Bristol also observed intriguing evidence of a ‘texture’ in the solid iron that may reflect the patterns left as the swirling liquid iron of the outer core freezes to form the inner core. (Bristol U.)

August 11

  • Invisibility Shields One Step Closer With New Metamaterials that Bend Light Backwards. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time engineered 3-D materials that can reverse the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light, a development that could help form the basis for higher resolution optical imaging, nanocircuits for high-powered computers, and, to the delight of science-fiction and fantasy buffs, cloaking devices that could render objects invisible to the human eye. (UC Berkeley)
  • New Research Reveals Why Chili Peppers are Hot. Despite the popularity of spicy cuisine among Homo sapiens, the hotness in chili peppers has always been something of an evolutionary mystery. (U. Florida)

August 7

  • MIT Developing Super-realistic Image System. By producing "6-D" images, an MIT professor and colleagues are creating unusually realistic pictures that not only have a full three-dimensional appearance, but also respond to their environment, producing natural shadows and highlights depending on the direction and intensity of the illumination around them. (MIT)

August 6

August 4

  • Why the Slow Paced World Could Make It Difficult to Catch a Ball... BBSRC researchers at the University of Birmingham have uncovered new information about the way that we perceive fast moving, incoming objects – such as tennis or cricket balls. The new research studies why the human brain has difficulty perceiving fast moving objects coming from straight ahead; something that should be a key survival skill. The research has implications for understanding how top-class sportspeople make decisions about playing a shot but could also be important for improving road safety and for the development of robotic vision systems. (BBSRC)

August 3

  • Researchers Explain Odd Oxygen Bonding Under Pressure. Oxygen, the third most abundant element in the cosmos and essential to life on Earth, changes its forms dramatically under pressure transforming to a solid with spectacular colors. Eventually it becomes metallic and a superconductor. The underlying mechanism for these remarkable phenomena has been fascinating to scientists for decades; especially the origin of the recently discovered molecular cluster (O2)4 in the dense solid, red oxygen phase. (Carnegie I.)

August 1

  • Not Quite a Teen, not Fully an Adult. Fueled by hormone fluctuations, the teenage years can be a time of huge emotional upheaval. But, as an initiative by MIT's Young Adult Development Project finds, the roller coaster may not end at the 18th birthday. (MIT)

July 30

  • Micro RNA Implicated as Molecular Factor in Alcohol Tolerance. In recent years, a class of small molecules known as microRNAs have been found to play an important role in regulating gene products in most animal and plant species. A new study now indicates that microRNA may influence the development of alcohol tolerance, a hallmark of alcohol abuse and dependence. (NIH)
  • Researchers Determine Which Genetic Markers Can Distinguish Plant Species. Scientists are a step closer to differentiating the more than 300,000 species of plants in the world, thanks to new molecular work from a Canadian team of researchers from the Universities of Guelph, British Columbia and Toronto. (U. Toronto)

July 29

  • Caltech Astronomers Describe the Bar Scene at the Beginning of the Universe. Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers, led by Kartik Sheth of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, has found that bars tripled in number over the past seven billion years, indicating that spiral galaxies evolve in shape. (Caltech)
  • The Skull, the Spider and the Aircraft Simulator. Dr Kazem Alemzadeh in the Bio-engineering research group of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has invented a Dental Robotic Testing Simulator called ‘Dento-Munch’ that can replicate human chewing, in order to test dental materials. The design inspiration was based on a human skull (structure), a spider (general look) and an aircraft simulator (dynamics and control of chewing). (Bristol U.)

July 28

  • Argonne Scientists Discover New Class of Glassy Material. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are dealing with an entirely new type of frustration, but it's not stressing them out. Dynamic frustration has been found to be the cause of glassy behavior in materials that previously had none of the features of a normal glass. (ANL)
  • Students' Device Aims to Protect Electric Utility Workers. Engineering students at Johns Hopkins have invented a tool that would allow utility workers to disconnect power lines from residential transformers at a safe distance, beyond the range of dangerous electrical arcs. (JHU)

July 27

  • Protection Built to Scale--fish Scale, that is. Scientists seeking to protect the soldier of the future can learn a lot from a relic of the past, according to an MIT study of a primitive fish that could point to more effective ways of designing human body armor. (MIT)

July 25

  • Explosion in Marine Biodiversity Explained by Climate Change. A global change in climate could explain the explosion in marine biodiversity that took place 460 million years ago. Researchers from Lyon and Canberra (Australia) have found evidence of a progressive ocean cooling of about 15°C over a period of 40 million years during the Ordovician. Until now, this geologic period had been associated with a “super greenhouse effect” on our planet. (CNRS)

July 24

  • Revolutionary Materials Reflect Ancient Forms. Although order is pleasing to the eye, it can quickly become boring. In Islamic architecture therefore, decoration often follows a strict yet aperiodic pattern. Similar structures also form in certain materials, called quasicrystals. Physicists from the University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute of Metals Research have succeeded in trapping a monolayer of colloidal particles, tiny plastic spheres, in a laser lattice with an aperiodic structure. (MPG)

July 23

  • Unique Fossil Discovery Shows Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer. A new fossil discovery- the first of its kind from the whole of the Antarctic continent- provides scientists with new evidence to support the theory that the polar region was once much warmer. (U. Leicester)
  • Scientists Find New Clues to Explain Amazonian Biodiversity. Ice age climate change and ancient flooding - but not barriers created by rivers - may have promoted the evolution of new insect species in the Amazon region of South America, a new study suggests. (UTA)
  • Dinosaurrific! An international study, led by the University of Bristol, shows that during their last 50 million years of existence, dinosaurs were not expanding as actively as had been previously thought and that the apparent explosion of dinosaur diversity may be largely explained by sampling bias. (Bristol U.)

July 22

July 21

  • Caltech Scientists Offer New Explanation for Monsoon Development. Geoscientists at the California Institute of Technology have come up with a new explanation for the formation of monsoons, proposing an overhaul of a theory about the cause of the seasonal pattern of heavy winds and rainfall that essentially had held firm for more than 300 years. (Caltech)
  • Columbia Engineers Prove Graphene is the Strongest Material. Research scientists at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science have achieved a breakthrough by proving that the carbon material graphene is the strongest material ever measured. (Columbia U.)

July 18

July 17

  • Trees Can Inspire Smart Materials. Nature, in the simple form of a tree canopy, appears to provide keen insights into the best way to design complex systems to move substances from one place to another, an essential ingredient in the development of novel “smart” materials. (Duke U.)

July 16

  • Do Birds Have a Good Sense of Smell? Sight and hearing are the most important senses for birds - this is at least the received wisdom. By studying bird DNA, however, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, along with a colleague at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, have now provided genetic evidence that many bird species have a well-developed sense of smell. (MPG)
  • Using Magnetic Nanoparticles to Combat Cancer. Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a potential new treatment against cancer that attaches magnetic nanoparticles to cancer cells, allowing them to be captured and carried out of the body. The treatment, which has been tested in the laboratory and will now be looked at in survival studies, is detailed online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (GIT)
  • Undersea Volcanoes Triggered Marine Extinction. Undersea volcanic activity triggered a mass extinction of marine life and buried a thick mat of organic matter on the sea floor about 93 million years ago, which became a major source of oil, according to a new study. (U. Alberta)

July 15

  • Newly Described 'Dragon' Protein Could Be Key to Bird Flu Cure. Scientists and researchers have taken a big step closer to a cure for the most common strain of avian influenza, or "bird flu," the potential pandemic that has claimed more than 200 lives and infected nearly 400 people in 14 countries since it was identified in 2003. (ANL)
  • Custom Interfaces Make Computer Clicking Faster, Easier. Insert your key in the ignition of a luxury car and the seat and steering wheel will automatically adjust to preprogrammed body proportions. Stroll through the rooms of Bill Gates' mansion and each room will adjust its lighting, temperature and music to accommodate your personal preference. But open any computer program and you're largely subject to a design team's ideas about button sizes, fonts and layouts. (U. Washington)
  • Scientists Close in On Source of X-rays in Lightning. University of Florida and Florida Institute of Technology engineering researchers have narrowed the search for the source of X-rays emitted by lightning, a feat that could one day help predict where lightning will strike. (U. Florida)
  • Brain Scientists Spot Nature/nurture Gene Link. Neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory found that a previously unsuspected set of genes links nature and nurture during a crucial period of brain development. (MIT)
  • Scientists Find Undersea Volcanic Rocks May Offer Vast Repository for Greenhouse Gas. A group of scientists at Columbia has used deep ocean-floor drilling and experiments to show that volcanic rocks off the West Coast and elsewhere might be used to securely sequester huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, captured from power plants or other sources. (Columbia U.)
  • Was It a Bird or Was It a Plane? Archaeopteryx is famous as the world’s oldest bird, but reptiles were flying about some 50 million years earlier than that (225 million years ago), even before large dinosaurs roamed the Earth. (Bristol U.)

July 14

  • Physicists Tweak Quantum Force, Reducing Barrier to Tiny Devices. Cymbals don’t clash of their own accord – in our world, anyway.But the quantum world is bizarrely different. Two metal plates, placed almost infinitesimally close together, spontaneously attract each other. (U. Florida)
  • Data "Chunks" Are Easier to Remember. Which is easier to remember: 4432879960 or 443-297-9960? The latter, of course. Adults seem to know automatically, in fact, that long strings of numbers are more easily recalled when divided into smaller "bite-sized chunks," which is why we break up our telephone and Social Security numbers in this way. (Johns HU.)
  • Research Reveals Passive Learning Imprints on the Brain Just Like active Learning. It's conventional wisdom that practice makes perfect. But if practicing only consists of watching, rather than doing, does that advance proficiency? Yes, according to a study by Dartmouth researchers. (Darmouth C.)

July 11

July 10

  • Rare 'Star-making Machine' Found in Distant Universe. Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year. (Caltech)
  • Researcher Leads Worldwide Study on Marine Fossil Diversity. It took a decade of painstaking study, the cooperation of hundreds of researchers, and a database of more than 200,000 fossil records, but John Alroy thinks he's disproved much of the conventional wisdom about the diversity of marine fossils and extinction rates. (UCSB)

July 9

  • Icelandic Volcanoes Help Researchers Understand Potential Effects Of Eruptions. For the first time, researchers have taken a detailed look at what lies beneath all of Iceland’s volcanoes – and found a world far more complex than they ever imagined. (OSU)
  • 'Green' Plastic. Take a look around and you might be surprised by how many things are made of plastic. Paints, adhesives, prostheses, brushes and furniture name just a few. Since plastic was created about 150 years ago, it has become one of the most commonly manufactured materials in society. About 200 billion pounds of plastics are produced annually worldwide. (Utah SU)
  • Early Earthquake Warning: New Tools Show Promise. Using remarkably sensitive new instruments, seismologists have detected minute geological changes that preceded small earthquakes along California's famed San Andreas Fault by as much as 10 hours. If follow-up tests show that the preseismic signal is pervasive, researchers say the method could form the basis of a robust early warning system for impending quakes. (Rice U.)
  • Study Puts Solar Spin on Asteroids, their Moons & Earth Impacts. Asteroids with moons, which scientists call binary asteroids, are common in the solar system. A longstanding question has been how the majority of such moons are formed. In this week's issue of the journal Nature, a trio of astronomers from Maryland and France say the surprising answer is sunlight, which can increase or decrease the spin rate of an asteroid. (U. Maryland)
  • Forest Songsters Evolved in an Early Burst of Innovation. Evolution seems to have happened in fits and starts -- at least that's what the fossil record shows. From trilobites to pterodactyls, ammonites to Archaeopteryx, scientists find the same pattern: brief bursts of innovation in which a single species or branch on the tree of life turns into a cluster of new twigs, then lapses into long stretches ruled by the status quo. (Cornell U.)
  • Controlling the Size of Nanoclusters. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have developed a new instrument that allows them to control the size of nanoclusters — groups of 10 to 100 atoms — with atomic precision. They created a model nanocatalyst of molybdenum sulfide, the first step in developing the next generation of materials to be used in hydrodesulfurization, a process that removes sulfur from natural gas and petroleum products to reduce pollution. (BNL)
  • Will Our Future Brains Be Smaller? The speed at which we react to threatening situations can have life or death implications. In the more primitive past, it could have meant escaping a wild animal; today it might mean swerving to avoid a head-on car crash. (Bristol U.)

July 8

  • Fossil Feathers Preserve Evidence of Color. The traces of organic material found in fossil feathers are remnants of pigments that once gave birds their color, according to Yale scientists whose paper in Biology Letters opens up the potential to depict the original coloration of fossilized birds and their ancestors, the dinosaurs. (Yale U.)
  • Superfast Muscles in Songbirds. Certain songbirds can contract their vocal muscles 100 times faster than humans can blink an eye - placing the birds with a handful of animals that have evolved superfast muscles, University of Utah researchers found. (U. Utah)
  • MIT Reports Finer Lines for Microchips. MIT researchers have achieved a significant advance in nanoscale lithographic technology, used in the manufacture of computer chips and other electronic devices, to make finer patterns of lines over larger areas than have been possible with other methods. (MIT)
  • Why Can’t I Learn a New Language? Adults, even the brightest ones, often struggle with learning new languages. Dr Nina Kazanina in the Department of Psychology explains why. (Bristol U.)

July 7

July 6

  • Common Mutations Linked to Common Obesity in Europeans. Scientists have discovered two common genetic mutations in people of European ancestry, which affect the production of several hormones controlling our appetite. The mutations have a significant effect on the risk of common obesity, according to research published in Nature Genetics. (ICL)

July 2

  • Amorphous Materials: Solids that Flow Like Liquids. Scientists at CNRS-affiliated laboratories in Bordeaux, Lyon and Paris have provided the first proof that amorphous materials, also known as soft glasses, deform and flow through a collective movement of their particles. (CNRS)
  • Parasite Vaccines Within Reach. Even though parasites are complex creatures, the mammalian immune response to them is surprisingly simple, leading University of California, Berkeley, researchers to predict that creating vaccines for parasitic diseases such as malaria may be more straightforward than initially thought. (UC Berkeley)
  • Species Extinction Threat Underestimated Due To Math Glitch. Extinction risks for natural populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical "misdiagnosis," according to a new study led by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher. (U. Colorado, Boulder)
  • Ridding meat of E. coli. You may be able to enjoy a rare hamburger soon, thanks to a discovery made by a team of University of Alberta researchers. (U. Alberta)

July 1

  • New Map IDs the Core of the Human Brain. An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain. (Indiana U.)
  • New Titanium Coating Improves Joint Replacements. Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that coating a titanium implant with a new biologically inspired material enhances tissue healing, improves bone growth around the implant and strengthens the attachment and integration of the implant to the bone. (GIT)
  • Crossed (Evolutionary) Signals? What do humans and single-celled choanoflagellates have in common? More than you'd think. New research into the choanoflagellate genome shows these ancient organisms have similar levels of proteins that cells in more complex organisms, including humans, use to communicate with each other. (NSF)
  • Chip-cooling Technology Achieves 'Dramatic' 1,000-watt Capacity. Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technology that uses "microjets" to deposit liquid into tiny channels and remove five times more heat than other experimental high-performance chip-cooling methods for computers and electronics. (Purdue U.)
  • Simple Insulation Could Combat Heat, Cold and Noise. Around the world, an estimated one billion people--mostly in rural villages and the shanty towns surrounding developing-world cities--live in houses whose roofs are nothing more than thin sheets of corrugated metal. These houses become unbearably hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, and deafeningly noisy when heavy rains pound on the bare meta. (MIT)
  • Post-Exercise Caffeine Helps Muscles Refuel. Recipe to recover more quickly from exercise: Finish workout, eat pasta, and wash down with five or six cups of strong coffee. (APS)
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