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"Long before it's in the papers"
March 16, 2010
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  = EXCLUSIVES = 


    CONTENTS

  • It seems we’re all more human than average

  • Scientists learning how monkeys fend off “monkey AIDS”

  • Scientists: docs don't feel your pain much-and that may be best

  • Baby temperament found to predict adult brain structure

  • Females may suppress biological "inner male"

  • Second "Mozart Effect"? Premature babies may grow faster

  • Poor, misunderstood testosterone

  • Tattoos, piercings may advertise good health

  • How could they? Poop-eating apes prompt quest for answers

  • It's not an earthquake-it's an aftershock from long ago

  • Huge "hidden" Saturn ring found

  • For freeloader birds, careful counting comes in handy

  • Small "epidemic" may have killed Mozart

  • Scientists report growing new teeth for mice, in place

  • Monkeys live longer after eating less: study

  • Study turns pigeons into "art critics"

  • Do sex cells hold the secret to long life?

  • No enforcement, no trade-not for chimps

  • It's not just chemical-it's the same chemicals

  • Multiple out-of-Africa migrations seen for early humans

  • Technology seen slashing battery weight, recharge time

  • HIV gene therapy trial results seen as positive

  • How "puppydog eyes" do their trick: chemistry

  • Ancient African exodus mostly involved men: geneticists

  • How unusual cells may hold key to HIV control

  • Photo captures 3 planets in far-off system

  • "Other half" of Dar­win's theory passes test

.

 

It seems we’re all more human than average
A widespread tend­en­cy for people to con­si­der them­selves “better” than the norm is well known. Now sci­ent­ists say another odd hu­man con­ceit may be com­ing to light.

Scientists learning how monkeys fend off “monkey AIDS”
The find­ings could be use­ful in the quest to de­sign a vac­cine for peo­ple, bio­log­ists say.

 

Scientists: docs don't feel your pain much—and that may be best
If you've ev­er felt like you've had a doc­tor who just did­n't care, re­search­ers now have an ex­plan­ation.

Baby temperament found to predict adult brain structure
Four-month-old in­fants' tem­per­a­ment pre­dicts some as­pects of their brain struc­ture at age 18, re­search­ers say.

 

Females may harbor biological "inner male"
In fe­male mice, switch­ing off one gene seems to start turn­ing the ovaries in­to tes­ti­cles that pro­duce male hor­mones, sci­en­tists re­port.

Second "Mozart effect"? Premature babies may grow faster
Hearing classical mu­sic might make prem­a­ture ba­bies grow faster by re­duc­ing their en­er­gy ex­pend­i­ture, a study has found.

 

Poor, misunderstood testosterone
Contrary to pop­u­lar con­cep­tions, the horm­one may some­times pro­mote fair play.

Tattoos, piercings may advertise good health
Body decorations com­mon since an­cient times may ex­ist be­cause they sig­nal "bio­log­ical qual­ity" to po­ten­tial mates, a study pro­poses.

 

How could they? Poop-eating apes prompt quest for answers
Na­ture can be beau­ti­ful. El­e­gant. Grace­ful. But not always.

It's not an earthquake-it's an aftershock from long ago
Some "earth­quakes" that oc­cur in unusual locations may really be af­ter­shocks of quakes cen­turies ago, a new re­port sug­gests.


Huge "hidden" Saturn ring found
Astro­nom­ers are re­port­ing the dis­cov­ery of larg­est-known plan­e­tary ring in the So­lar Sys­tem.

For freeloader birds, careful counting comes in handy
A spe­cies of birds that free­load on oth­er birds by dump­ing their off­spring on them, may em­ploys soph­is­t­icated count­ing skills to car­ry out the ru­se.


Small "epidemic" may have killed Mozart
A bacterial out­break spread from a mi­li­tary hosp­ital may have felled the great com­pos­er, sci­ent­ists say.

Scientists report growing new teeth for mice, in place
The technique may be a step to­ward more ad­vanced or­gan re­place­ment ther­ap­ies, re­search­ers pro­pose.

 

Monkeys live longer after eating lighter, research finds
Cutting ca­lo­ries by 30 per­cent seems to have re­mark­able effects, sci­en­tists say.

Study turns pigeons into "art critics"
A Jap­a­nese re­search­er is re­port­ing that he has trained birds to tell apart "good" and "bad" chil­dren's paint­ings.

 

Do sex cells hold the secret to long life?
The se­cret of lon­ge­vity may lurk with­in the ge­net­ic ac­ti­vity of sperm and eggs, new re­search sug­gests.

No enforcement, no trade-not for chimps
Sci­en­tists have man­aged to teach chimps to trade a prim­i­tive "cur­ren­cy." But the crea­tures never quite ran with the idea.


It's not just chemical-it's the same chemicals, study suggests
Much the same cock­tail of sub­stances may flow in both men and wom­en as a re­sult of their mu­tual at­trac­tion.

Multiple out-of-Africa migrations seen for early humans
Fos­sils sug­gest ear­ly, an­a­tom­ic­ally "mod­ern" hu­mans split in­to many iso­lat­ed groups be­fore leav­ing Af­ri­ca, sci­ent­ists say.

 

Technology predicted to slash battery recharge time, weight
En­gi­neers say they've found a way to move en­er­gy faster through a well-known bat­tery ma­te­ri­al.

HIV gene therapy trial results seen as positive
A new treat­ment appeared to safely boost the num­ber of im­mune sys­tem cells nor­mally at­tacked by HIV, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers.






 

"Out of Africa" came mostly men, geneticists say
An ancient mi­gra­tion from Af­ri­ca is thought to have led to most hu­man popula­t­ions out­side the con­ti­nent.

How "puppydog eyes" do their trick: chemistry
A so-called trust hor­mone may pro­mote bond­ing be­tween mem­bers of dif­fer­ent spe­cies, as well as with­in a spe­cies, re­search­ers say.

How unusual cells may hold key to HIV control
Rare peo­ple who man­age to con­trol HIV on their own are of­fer­ing new in­sights in­to how the im­mune sys­tem kills in­fected cells.

 

Photo captures 3 planets by distant sun
The tech­nol­o­gy for imag­ing worlds in far-off so­lar sys­tems is mak­ing strides, as­tro­no­mers say.

Videogame craving may rev up brain's addiction circuits
When the urge to play a vi­deo game strikes, some play­ers show si­mi­lar brain acti­vity to that of drug ad­dicts, a study sug­gests.






"Other half" of Dar­win's theory passes test
Some flir­ta­tious mi­crobes have con­firmed Dar­win's view of how sex­ual ad­vert­is­ing evolves, bio­lo­g­ists say.

 = MORE NEWS = 


    CONTENTS

* * * LATEST * * *

 

Psychopaths’ brains wired to seek rewards at any cost, researchers say
New re­search is said to clar­i­fy the role of the chem­i­cal do­pa­mine in psy­chop­a­thy.

Repeated anesthesia may affect kids’ learning
A study with ro­dents shows re­peat­ed an­es­the­sia wipes out mem­o­ry-forming cells, but ex­er­cise may help undo the damage, sci­en­tists say.

Repeated anesthesia may affect kids’ learning
A study with ro­dents shows re­peat­ed an­es­the­sia wipes out mem­o­ry-forming cells, but ex­er­cise may help undo the damage, sci­en­tists say.

Exposure to letters A or F may affect test scores
See­ing the letter “A” be­fore a test can im­prove a student's score, while no­tic­ing an “F” may re­duce it, ac­cord­ing to a study.

 

Quake moved whole city
The mas­sive earth­quake that struck Chile last month moved an en­tire city at least 10 feet (3 me­ters) to the west, sci­en­tists say.

At sentencing, some murder victims “matter” more than others
A de­fend­ant is much more likely to get a death sen­tence if he or she kills a “high-sta­tus” vic­tim than if not, a study claims.

 

Darkness promotes dishonesty, researchers find
Lack of light may fos­ter a feel­ing of im­pun­ity even when there is no basis for it, a study sug­gests.

Exotic antimatter detection may clarify cosmic symmetries
Phys­i­cists say they have de­tected the heav­i­est “an­ti-nu­cle­us” to date, a rare spec­i­men of a sort of mirror-image form of or­di­nary mat­ter.

Snakes preyed on dino hatchlings, study concludes
A primitive snake couldn’t eat hard din­o­saur eggs—but it could lie in wait for a treat to emerge from them, sci­ent­ists say.

 

Laser surgery method gets new life in art restoration
A la­ser tech­nique used to re­move un­wanted tat­toos is find­ing new ap­pli­ca­tions.

Gene therapy may reverse deadly muscle wasting: scientists
A deadly mus­cle-wasting dis­or­der that af­flicts chil­dren was re­versed in mice by part­ially rep­lac­ing a miss­ing gene, re­search­ers say.

Can promiscuity save a species?
Pro­mis­cu­ous fe­males may be key to a spe­cies’ sur­viv­al, at least among cer­tain fruit flies, ac­cord­ing to a study.

 

Cricket babies “warned” about spiders before birth
Just be­cause crick­et moms aban­don their eggs be­fore they hatch doesn’t mean they can’t pass wis­dom along to their ba­bies.

The science of Hollywood block­busters
Hollywood films have over time con­verged to­ward a special math­e­mat­ic­al pattern, some re­search­ers main­tain.

Happiness may protect against heart disease
Peo­ple who are usu­ally hap­py, en­thu­si­as­tic and con­tent are less likely than others to de­vel­op heart illness, ac­cord­ing to a new stu­dy.

 

UV color a hidden signal for butterflies
The in­sects may use un­usual hues to tell each oth­er apart while con­fus­ing pred­ators.

Do oil and gas “boomtowns” attract sex offenders?
En­vi­ron­men­tal dam­age and so­cial ills some­times go hand-in-hand where eco­nom­ies de­pend on en­er­gy ex­trac­tion, a study sug­gests.

Physicists report creating hottest temperatures ever in lab
The work is aimed at un­veil­ing the fun­da­men­tal struc­ture of at­oms.

 

"Quantum chemistry" a new window into lives of molecules
Phys­i­cists have de­tected mol­e­cules still in­ter­act­ing when they "should" be too cold to move.

Vitamin cocktail found to extend youthfulness in mice
A com­plex mix of in­gre­di­ents avail­a­ble in many drug stores was noted in a study to help keep mice vig­or­ous in­to old age.

Challenge to dino-bird evolution theory not dead yet
A new study sug­gests birds des­cend from some­thing that lived in trees, not from ground-dwel­ling rep­tiles, some re­search­ers say.

 

How did religion evolve?
Re­li­gion arose as a byprod­uct of pre-existing men­tal ca­pa­ci­ties, two sci­ent­ists conclude.

Child obesity: It's the TV food ads, not the TV, study finds
Steer your kids to­ward pro­gram­ming with­out the junk-food com­merc­ials, re­search­ers sug­gest.

Leap toward quantum computing reported
Re­search­ers say they have passed a ma­jor hur­dle in a quest to cre­ate a new kind of su­per-fast com­put­er.

 

Too much Internet linked to de­pression
Peo­ple who spend a lot of time on the Internet are more likely to show de­pres­sive symp­toms, ac­cord­ing to a large study.

Study maps acupuncture's effects on brain
New re­search may shed light on the com­plex mech­a­nisms of this East­ern heal­ing tech­nique, sci­en­tists say.

Device might allow "spider-man" walk
A palm-sized de­vice that exploits the sticki­ness of plain water might one day let us walk on walls, its de­vel­op­ers claim.

 

White roofs may cool cities
Paint­ing rooftops white might cool off cit­ies and count­er some ef­fects of glob­al warm­ing, a study sug­gests.

Mystery rays probably from burst stars, scientists say
The ori­gins of high-ener­gy part­i­cles that bom­bard Earth from space has been a puz­zle for al­most a cen­tury.

Riddle of the sexless rotifer solved, biologists say
A micro­scopic fresh­water crea­ture has got­ten by with­out sex for mil­lions of years.

 

Some dino feather colors identified
The color of some feath­ers on di­no­saurs and early birds is now known for the first time, some sci­ent­ists say.

Study: recognition of facial expressions not universal
Cau­casians and Asians don't ex­am­ine faces in the same way, ac­cord­ing to new re­search.


"Survival of the cutest" said to back up Darwin
Do­mes­tic dogs have fol­lowed a un­ique ev­o­lu­tion­ary path, ac­cord­ing to a new stu­dy.

Almost never-seen bird resurfaces in Afghanistan
A spe­cies with just a hand­ful of doc­u­mented hu­man sight­ings in its past has turned up in a war-torn land, sci­en­tists say.

Post-traumatic stress diagnosed using magnetism
Post-trau­matic stress dis­or­der, which aff­licts war vet­er­ans and others, was pre­viously de­tect­a­ble only through psy­cho­log­i­cal screen­ing.





 

Report: cancer studies used wrong cells
A study raises questions about over 100 pub­lished stud­ies, two clin­i­cal tri­als and pos­sibly much add­it­ional re­search.

Snail's armor could offer human protection
The robust, efficient shell of a deep-sea snail could pro­vide in­spira­t­ion for ad­vanc­es in hu­man body ar­mor de­sign, re­search­ers say.

Stress may cause cancer, study suggests
The re­search also points to new ways to at­tack the deadly dis­ease, sci­ent­ists say.





 

For healthy mental aging, brain games may fill in for schooling
People with less edu­ca­tion can avoid the in­creased risk of mem­ory loss, a study sug­gests.

Distant solar system forming from mysterious dust, scientists say
A far-off so­lar sys­tem seems to be form­ing from a strange dust whose make­up is un­like that of our and oth­er so­lar sys­tems.





 

"Punisher" of the seas is a little finned janitor
For small fish known as clean­er wrasse, step­ping into the line of fire reaps huge re­wards, ac­cord­ing to a new stu­dy.

World Science Archive
 See larger image

Bright stalactites Most peo­ple know sta­lac­tites as the usu­al­ly whit­ish min­er­al for­ma­tions that hang from cave ceil­ings, though they're of­ten con­fused with sta­lag­mites, which are on cave floors. Less well known is that a va­ri­e­ty of min­er­al pro­cesses can give sta­lac­tites bright col­ors. Above are some en­crusted orange-yellow sta­lac­tites in wa­tery Vall­go­rnera Ca­ve, Spain. Jef­frey Do­rale at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Io­wa and col­leagues stud­ied these and oth­er near­by cave for­ma­tions to draw con­clu­sions a­bout sea lev­els in the past 100,000 years. The stu­dy, pub­lished in the Feb. 12 is­sue of the jour­nal Sci­ence, sug­gest­ed that gla­ciers, whose size is cor­re­lat­ed with sea lev­els, may grow and shrink faster than ex­perts had be­lieved. (Im­age © Bog­dan P. Onac )

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