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June 06, 2013

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PAST NEWS - 2007

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Science gives beauty some of its mystery back
There may be more to good looks than aver­age­ness, af­ter all.
(Dec. 22, 2007)

Google’s kinship with the mind
Think­ing and us­ing a Web search en­gine might seem to be very dif­fer­ent ac­ti­vi­ties. But a study sug­gests they draw on si­m­i­lar prin­ci­ples. (Dec. 5, 2007)

 

Drastic diet may extend human life: study
Re­search­ers knew it worked in ani­mals, but whe­ther we’d get the be­ne­fits has been un­clear. (Nov. 15, 2007)

Genes affecting generosity may be found
One gene underlying al­t­ru­ism is an evo­lu­tion­ar­ily an­cient strip of DNA also found in ro­dents, a stu­dy in­di­cates. (Oct. 31, 2007)







Probing ancient ship­wrecks with DNA
DNA can help tell what long-sunk­en trans­port jars con­tained, say sci­ent­ists stu­dy­ing a Greek wreck. (Oct. 15, 2007)

Other uni­verses may be de­tect­able, pub­lished stu­dy claims
If there are oth­er un­iverses, then one or more of them might leave a mark on ours, a study sug­gests. (Oct. 11, 2007)

 




Built-in brain “temp­lates” may clue tots to threats
Do babies know some­thing about spi­ders be­fore ever see­ing one? (Sept. 18, 2007)

 

What? Where? When? Some animals may know
New find­ings may bear on de­bates over wheth­er ani­mals are con­scious. (Aug. 12, 2007)

 

Dolphin braininess due to social life, studies suggest
Dol­phins and their kin are widely thought to be among the cle­ver­est crea­tures. But what might have made them so? (May 30, 2007)

What is con­scious­ness? Study aims to settle debate
Re­search­ers al­so pro­pose to sub­ject claims of “out-of-body ex­per­ien­ces” to a strict test. (May 20, 2007)

 

“King” of star explosions seen
Astronomers re­port what could be a new type of su­per­nova, the death blast of a mas­sive star. (May 7, 2007)

 




Distant planet judged possibly habitable
As­tro­no­mers re­port find­ing the most Earth-like plan­et out­side our So­lar Sys­tem to date. (April 23, 2007)




 

Human evolution, radically reappraised
Our ev­o­lu­tion has been speed­ing up tre­men­dous­ly, a study con­tends. (March 26, 2007)

Chimps found using spears
Chimps in Sen­e­gal were re­ported mak­ing sharp­ened sticks to hunt oth­er, small pri­ma­tes. (Feb. 22, 2007)

On African Island, women choose the spouses
Traditionally, once a wo­man pro­poses on Oran­go is­land, the man has no say in the mat­ter. (Feb. 3, 2007)

Additional News






 

“Youth” pills, hawked online, win over top scientists
A com­pa­ny sell­ing pills with “youth-pro­long­ing” mol­e­cules has snagged a lead­ing bio­lo­gist and a No­bel lau­reate as customers. (Feb. 9, 2007)





 

Anthrax may be ally in cancer war
Few peo­ple would con­sid­er an­th­rax help­ful. But its tox­in might some­day be a can­cer ther­a­py, sci­en­tists claim. (Dec. 29, 2007)

Humor tied to male aggression?
A doctor’s hobby of uni­cycl­ing turned into a study of human na­ture that offers a new per­s­pec­tive on why we joke. (Dec. 21, 2007)






Small asteroids may do big damage
A new look at a 1908 event suggests di­s­as­ter from space could be more com­mon than once thought. (Dec. 21, 2007)

Whales evolved from raccoon-sized creature, study finds
The “miss­ing link” for whales and dol­phins was a small hoofed mam­mal, re­search­ers say. (Dec. 20, 2007)

 

Galaxy seen blasting neighbor
A jet from a gal­ax­y’s gi­ant, cen­tral black hole is pum­mel­ing a near­by gal­axy, ac­cord­ing to as­tro­no­mers. (Dec. 17, 2007)

Famed wreck reported found, “untouched”
Re­mains of a ship linked to the scan­dalous 17th cen­tu­ry “pi­rate,” Capt. Kidd, could shed light on a pivo­tal era, arch­ae­o­lo­gists say. (Dec. 14, 2007)

 

Global warming to worsen malnutrition: report
Amid ris­ing con­cern over cli­mate change, three U.N. agen­cies issued a stark new warning. (Dec. 12, 2007)

Why we feel “slow motion” during crisis
Why does “time fly” as you get old­er—or seem slow­er dur­ing ac­ci­dents? Scient­ists say they have an ans­wer. (Dec. 11, 2007)

 

Life’s building blocks formed on Mars: study
Or­gan­ic mo­le­cules might be able to form on any cold, rocky pla­net, re­search­ers claim. (Dec. 11, 2007)

Did “dark stars” reign in early time?
Stars pow­ered by dark mat­ter might still exist, some sci­en­tists pro­pose. (Dec. 6, 2007)

 

Honey may be best for cough, research finds
Some cul­tures have long used honey for cough re­lief. (Dec. 5, 2007)

Fitness predicts longevity better than fat: study
Fat but fit may be OK, re­search­ers say. (Dec. 5, 2007)






Flu mystery may be cracked
Influenza spreads in win­ter because the vi­rus thrives on cold, dry air, re­search­ers have found. (Dec. 5, 2005)

Humans lose to chimps in number memory game
Young chimps have an “ex­tra­or­di­nary” abil­ity to re­mem­ber nu­mer­als, re­search­ers re­port. (Dec. 3, 2007)


Dino “mummy” has fossilized skin
A start­ling­ly well-pre­served dino­saur may have had stripes and the ab­il­ity to out­run T. rex. (Dec. 3, 2007)

First reversal of aging in an organ claimed
A short-term suc­cess in re­juve­n­at­ing the skin of mice points the way to fu­ture pro­gress against ag­ing, sci­ent­ists say. (Nov. 29, 2007)






Ant­arctic image map to “re­vo­lu­tion­ize” re­search
A new map of the fro­zen con­ti­nent, in un­pre­ce­dent­ed de­tail, is free on the Web. (Nov. 27, 2007)

Scientists hope to give artificial limbs “feelings”
New find­ings point to a way am­pu­tees could gain sen­sa­tion in their pros­the­ses, allowing more con­trol, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 26, 2007)





A “Big Bang” of plant evolution
Sci­en­tists are shed­ding light on what Charles Dar­win called an “abom­inable mys­tery”: how flow­ers evolved. (Nov. 26, 2007)

Site tied to Rome’s legendary founding
Ar­chae­o­lo­gists re­vealed a site said to have been ven­er­ated as the cave where, by le­gend, a she-wolf raised Rome’s twin founders. (Nov. 22, 2007)

 

Breakthrough may let scientists make stem cells on demand
Re­searchers say they appear to have turned hu­man cells into pow­er­ful stem cells. (Nov. 22, 2007)

“Noah’s flood” spread farming, researchers say
A prehistoric deluge—con­tro­ver­sially linked to anc­ient flood myths—kick-started Eu­ro­pe­an ag­ri­cul­ture, a stu­dy claims. (Nov. 19, 2007)

 

Robot infiltrators sway roach group decisions
They don’t look like cock­roaches—but they smell and act enough like them. (Nov. 16, 2007)

Monkey embryos reported cloned
The work could lead to a way to pro­duce pa­tient-spe­ci­fic stem cells for cur­ing disease, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 14, 2007)

 

What’s in a name? Studies link initials to success
If you like your name too much, even un­con­scious­ly, you might be in trou­ble, sci­ent­ists sug­gest. (Nov. 14, 2007)

Alzheimer’s “vaccine” seen to aid mice
Immuniza­tion might blunt or even pre­vent the ra­vages of Alz­heim­er’s dis­ease, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 13, 2007)

 

Cosmic mystery “solved” after decades
Ultra-en­er­get­ic cos­mic rays pro­b­ab­ly come from su­per­mas­sive black holes, a study con­cludes. (Nov. 8, 2007)

Why poor kids may make sicker adults
Sci­en­tists believe they’re start­ing to un­der­stand why the poor suf­fer worse health and short­er lives than the rich. (Nov. 7, 2007)

 

Solar system “packed with planets” looks like our own
As­tro­no­mers report finding a so­lar sys­tem that res­em­bles ours more than any other known. (Nov. 6, 2007)

Think food, not nutrients, researchers advise
The key to a healthy di­et may be not so much fo­cus­ing on spe­cif­ic nu­tri­ents as eat­ing var­ied, healthy foods. (Nov. 6, 2007)

Even monkeys rationalize, study finds
Af­ter we make a ques­tion­a­ble choice, we of­ten think up—or make up—new rea­sons to be­lieve it was right af­ter all. (Nov. 6, 2007)

 

Gene tied to lower cognitive function in kids
The research raises new pos­si­bil­i­ties for ther­a­pies tar­get­ing cog­ni­tion, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 5, 2007)

Competition drives forward robo-car technology
A uni­ver­sity team won $2 mil­lion for its ent­ry in a gov­ern­ment-spon­sored com­pe­ti­tion for self-driv­ing cars. (Nov. 5, 2007)








Study suggests how DNA building block might have formed
Re­search­ers say the work could help un­der­stand how DNA ori­gi­nated on ear­ly Earth. (Nov. 2, 2007)

At 400, clam may be longest-lived animal known
A ve­ner­able mol­lusc could shed light on the mys­ter­ies of ag­ing, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 30, 2007)

 

Majority found willing to consider cosmetic surgery
The wide­spread ap­peal of plas­tic sur­gery sur­prises a sci­ent­ist stu­dy­ing the issue. (Oct. 28, 2007)

Humans go into heat after all, strip club study finds
Mam­mals go in­to heat. Ex­cept hu­mans—it’s just for an­i­mals, right? Wrong, a study has found. (Oct. 28, 2007)

 

Watson retires after race flap
Con­tro­ver­sial com­ments brought down No­bel prize-win­ning ge­neti­cist James Wat­son. (Oct. 25, 2007)
* Related: Nobel scientist suspended over race comments
* Take poll

Cosmic anomaly could point to ultimate realities
A new pro­po­sal for the pos­sible cause of a strange “cold spot” sug­gests pro­found im­pli­ca­tions. (Oct. 25, 2007)

 

Scientists report flipping worms’ sex preferences
Research sug­gests hu­man sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion may be ge­ne­tic, as with round­worms, sci­ent­ists say. (Oct. 25, 2007)

Researchers: warming could cause mass extinction
Predicted cli­mate change could kill off more than half of an­i­mal and plant spe­cies, a study warns. (Oct. 24, 2007)

 

A predisposition to pedophilia?
Male pe­do­philes are short­er than av­er­age, hint­ing at bi­o­log­i­cal fac­tors in pe­do­phi­lia, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 23, 2007)

Aspirin against heart disease: just for men?
First it was an ap­ple; now a small as­pi­rin a day is thought to keep the doc­tor away, or at least heart at­tacks. But wo­men might be­ne­fit less. (Oct. 18, 2007)

 

Study: Nean­der­thals had “lan­guage gene”
The only gene known to date to under­lie lang­uage was pre­sent in our stocky cous­ins, sci­ent­ists say. (Oct. 18, 2007)

Elephants tell human friends from foes, study finds
Ele­phants are re­markably per­cep­tive in dis­tin­guish­ing eth­nic groups, re­search sug­gests. (Oct. 18, 2007)

Trip to beach a milestone in human evolution: study
The discovery of coas­tal liv­ing may have put our for­bears on the road to mod­er­nity, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers. (Oct. 17, 2007)

 

Making light bend backwards
An un­us­ual ma­ter­ial could help usher in new elec­tron­ic de­vices and ultra-po­tent mi­cro­scopes, en­gin­eers say. (Oct. 17, 2007)

“Most complete” giant dino, a new species, reported found
A dinosaur with a huge neck is part of a bo­nan­za of newly de­scribed fos­sils. (Oct. 15, 2007)

Feminists are sexy, study finds
Stereo­types of fem­i­nists as sex­u­ally un­ap­peal­ing are wrong: in fact, fem­i­nism may im­prove ro­mance, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 15, 2007)





 

Hormone found to predict mother-child bonding
Lev­els of a hor­mone in a preg­nant wom­an pre­dict how close­ly she’ll bond with her ba­by, sci­en­t­ists re­port. (Oct. 15, 2007)

Genes for overeating?
People driv­en to eat may need to eat more than others do to get the same re­ward­ing feel­ing, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 14, 2007)

 

Oldest wall painting said found
Ar­chae­o­lo­gists re­port find­ing an 11,000-year-old mu­ral in Syr­ia. (Oct. 11, 2007)

When our vices get the better of us
What happens in the brain when we just can’t say no? (Oct. 11, 2007)

“Megadroughts” may have driven human evolution
Extreme droughts parched trop­i­cal Af­ri­ca as ear­ly hu­mans evolved, re­search­ers re­port. (Oct. 8, 2007)





 

Could you eat this? Hunt for better fertilizer leads to human urine
Healthy peo­ple’s urine is nu­tri­ent-rich and vir­tu­ally ster­ile, sci­ent­ists say. (Oct. 7, 2007)

What lies beneath? Possible Mars caves found
A discovery is fu­el­ing in­ter­est in searches for caves that could shel­ter Mar­tian life, or human ex­plor­ers. (Oct. 7, 2007)

Technique lets scientists see brain in full color (Nov. 6, 2007)

 

Pain relief without the numbness
Sci­en­tists say they fi­nally can knock out pain without dis­abl­ing other sen­sa­tions. But there may be a catch. (Oct. 3, 2007)

Craft lifts off to asteroid belt
In a mis­si­on as­tro­no­mers are hail­ing as an his­tor­ic first, a NASA space­craft is on its way to study as­ter­oids. (Sept. 27, 2007)

Arctic ice disappearing
Arc­tic sea ice ex­tent just hit a low that shat­tered pre­vious records, re­search­ers re­port. (Sept. 20, 2007)





 

Age of “personal genomics” coming
The eth­i­cal and clin­i­cal imp­li­ca­tions must be care­fully con­sid­ered, ex­perts say. (Sept. 20, 2007)

A language dies every two weeks, researchers say
With the demise of each ob­s­cure lan­guage some­where on Earth goes cen­tur­ies of tra­di­tion, cul­ture and thought. (Sept. 18, 2007)

Worrisome “quiet” in genes may predict lung cancer
When it’s qui­et—al­most “too qui­et”—in movies, it’s a sign some­thing may be about to go wrong. (Sept. 18, 2007)





 

Good fences make good neighbors, scientists find
Could the cold rea­son­a­ble­ness of math pre­vent the burn­ing irra­t­ional­ity of eth­nic strife? (Sept. 13, 2007)

Tailored virus kills brain cancer cells in mice
A cus­tomized vi­rus killed stem cells that cause a highly ag­gres­sive, te­na­cious brain can­cer, re­search­ers re­port. (Sept. 11, 2007)

Cold probably didn’t end Neanderthals: study
What caused the de­mise of Ne­an­der­thal peo­ple, around 28,000 years ago in Eu­rope? (Sept. 12, 2007)

Sunless but livable planets may be detectable
They drift through deep space alone, stu­dies sug­gest—light­less, but per­haps not life­less.
(Sept. 10, 2007)




 

Report: Most polar bears to die out by 2050
Global warm­ing will kill off two-thirds of po­lar bears by 2050, U.S. gov­ern­ment sci­en­tists fore­cast. (Sept. 8, 2007)

Researchers cracking case of the vanishing bees
A virus may explain a mys­teri­ous syn­drome in which bees ab­an­don their hives, in­vest­i­ga­tors say. (Sept. 6, 2007)


 

Asteroid “crime family” blamed in dino wipeout
Scientists say they’ve learned where the thing that killed the di­no­saurs pro­ba­bly came from. (Sept. 5, 2007)

“Spooky” atomic links could lead to “quantum internet”
Physicists report mak­ing two atoms seem­ingly com­mu­ni­cate across space. (Sept. 5, 2007)

“Lean gene” may help keep you trim
Future weight-control treat­ments may in­volve sti­mu­lat­ing an an­cient gene, re­search­ers say. (Sept. 4, 2007)





 

Rockers really are more likely to die young
The adage “live fast and die young” seems to be true for rock and pop stars, a study finds. (Sept. 4, 2005)

Surge in youth bipolar diagnoses seen
A study notes a 40-fold rise over a dec­ade in the num­ber of vis­its to doc­tors lead­ing to a di­ag­no­sis of bi­po­lar dis­or­der in U.S. youths. (Sept. 4, 2007)





 

Finding said to show “race isn’t real” scrapped
Famed ge­neti­cist Craig Ven­ter with­drew a claim that all people have 99.9 per­cent iden­ti­cal DNA, but he still says race doesn’t exist. (Sept. 3, 2007)

Reports of dolphin’s demise premature
A bu­si­ness­man has spot­ted a Yang­tze Ri­ver dol­phin weeks after it was re­ported pro­bab­ly ex­tinct, sci­ent­ists say. (Aug. 31, 2007)

Some gene damage from smoking is permanent: study
New research may help ex­plain why form­er smok­ers are still more can­cer-prone than those who have nev­er smoked. (Aug. 30, 2007)






 

“Spiderman suit” may be coming
Using tech­no­logy adap­ted from ge­cko and spi­der feet, we could climb walls and ceilings, a study pre­dicts. (Aug. 28, 2007)

Scientists: ancient Mars microbes might still live
Some mi­crobes can live for more than half a mil­lion years by re­pair­ing their DNA, a stu­dy in­di­cates. (Aug. 27, 2007)

“Out of body” research attacks philosophical questions
Re­search­ers say they have in­duced in healthy peo­ple the sen­sa­tion of leav­ing their own bo­dies. (Aug. 24, 2007)






 

Monkeys “baby talk” young
Rhe­sus mon­keys make spe­cial calls to in­fants—but sur­pris­ing­ly, not their own, re­search has found. (Aug. 24, 2007)

Gaping “hole” in universe detected
As­tro­no­mers say they have come across an emp­ty zone of stu­pen­dous size. (Aug. 23, 2007)

Free Google program brings heavens to Earth
It’s like having a pla­ne­ta­rium on your desk­top, an ast­rono­mer says. (Aug. 22, 2007)






 

We’re not just “big-brained apes”: scholar
Con­trary to fash­ion­able ideas, new stu­dies show hu­mans real­ly are un­ique, a psych­o­lo­gist ar­gues. (Aug. 22, 2007)

Behind school shootings, rejection and anger
In a study, psych­o­log­ists offer an assess­ment of why some stu­dents go on kill­ing sprees. (Aug. 20, 2007)

Drug found to erase memories in rats
Mem­o­ry eras­ure is a re­cur­rent theme in sci­ence fic­tion, but un­til re­cently it has stayed in that realm on­ly. (Aug. 16, 2007)


 

Star with vast tail astonishes scientists
The ob­ject is in a sense a real shoot­ing star, un­like most “shoot­ing stars” which are rocks in the sky, as­tro­no­mers say. (Aug. 15, 2007)





 

Alien life… from dust particles?
It’s not what life is sup­posed to be made of. It’s not where life is sup­posed to exist. Yet it looks alive, some sci­ent­ists say (Aug. 14, 2007).

Pollution blamed for four in 10 deaths
Wa­ter, air and soil pol­lu­tion are be­hind some 40 per­cent of deaths glo­bally, a study claims. (Aug. 14, 2007)

Mom’s junk food could put babies at risk
Eating junk food while preg­nant and breast­feed­ing could lead to over­eat­ing, obese kids, a study sug­gests. (Aug. 14, 2007)

Animated fluids getting fancy
Beer pours, and waves roar, in a vid­eo il­lus­trat­ing the latest ef­forts to make com­puter-sim­u­la­ted li­qu­ids better and cheap­er. (Aug. 14, 2007)





 

Facial attraction: how sexual choices shaped the face
Men with large jaws, wide cheeks and big eye­brows are sexy—or at least were to our evo­lu­tion­ary an­ces­tors, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 13, 2007)

Study: ancient microbes may revive as glaciers melt
An­cient or­gan­isms and their DNA have been locked in ice that sci­ent­ists say is melt­ing due to glo­bal warm­ing. (Aug. 12, 2007)


 

Perseid meteor shower enlivens sky
The show­er be­comes vis­i­ble in all its glo­ry to­night for north­ern hem­is­phere sky watch­ers. (Aug. 12, 2007)

First human-caused dolphin extinction reported
China’s Yang­tze Riv­er dol­phin was a vic­tim of fish­ers, and its peri­lous si­tua­tion was long known, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers. (Aug. 11, 2007)

Giant galaxy pileup seen
Four ga­lax­ies are merg­ing in one of the larg­est cos­mic smash-ups ev­er ob­served, as­tro­no­mers say. (Aug. 7, 2007)


 

Dark matter doubters not silenced yet
Grow­ing “proof” that an un­seen, ex­otic sub­s­tance per­vades space still hasn’t won over a core of skep­tics. (Aug. 2, 2007)

Brain stimulation “awakens” near-unconscious patient
A new brain stimula­t­ion treat­ment awak­ened a pa­tient from a near-veg­e­ta­tive state, re­search­ers re­port. (Aug. 1, 2007)

Orangutan communication resembles “charades”
Captive orang­u­tans use ges­tures not un­like hu­mans do in the par­lor game, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 1, 2007)


 

Scientists recreate “Hydra” of myth, in miniature
In the ancient Greek tale, the he­ro Her­cu­les kills a many-headed mon­ster that could re­grow its heads. (Aug. 1, 2007)

Ancestor of the “living fossil” sheds new light
Zo­ol­o­gists called it the find of the cen­tu­ry in 1938: a fish thought to have been ex­tinct since di­no­saurs roamed. A new dis­co­very may help com­p­lete the story. (Aug. 1, 2007)


 

Blacks who kill whites likeliest to be executed, study finds
Bias in the U.S. jus
­tice sys­tem con­tin­ues even af­ter sen­t­enc­ing, a so­ci­o­lo­gist says. (July 30, 2007)

Pot could boost psychosis risk, research suggests
A study finds
a link be­tween ma­ri­jua­na use and even­tual loss of con­tact with real­ity. (July 27, 2007)

Sabotage, drinking reports shake NASA
Amer­i­ca’s space agen­cy was shak­en Thurs­day by two startling and un­re­lat­ed re­ports
. (July 27, 2007)





 

Obesity found to spread socially
Your chances of be­com­ing obese al­most tri­ple if a close friend is that way, re­search sug­gests. (July 25, 2007)

“Itch gene” found
Are you scratching your­self to distraction? Re­lief may come soon, sci­en­t­ists pre­dict. (July 25, 2007)

Renewable energy wrecks environment, scientist claims
“Re­new­able” en­er­gy is­n’t green, says a re­sear­cher who played an early role in pub­liciz­ing the is­sue of glob­al warm­ing. (July 24, 2007)




 

Surprising chemicals found among stars
Dis­cov­eries are add­ing to the known ways in which life’s ing­red­ients could form, as­t­ro­no­mers say. (July 23, 2007)

Climate change behind U.K. floods?
Se­vere flood­ing hit­ting Eng­land may stem from glob­al warm­ing, ac­cord­ing to some sci­en­tists. (July 23, 2007)




 

Computers can play “perfect” checkers game
Com­put­ers have played eve­ry pos­si­ble check­ers move and solved the game once and for all, sci­ent­ists re­port. (July 23, 2007)

Species hiding in plain sight
New spe­cies are evad­ing de­tec­tion us­ing an al­most fool­proof dis­guise—their ident­ical ap­pear­ance to other, known spe­cies. (July 19, 2007)





 

Little protection from cold seen in Vitamin C
Tak­ing extra vit­a­min C daily won’t help most peo­ple avoid com­mon colds, a report says. (July 17, 2007)

How fear memories take hold
Scientists have un­cov­ered a mo­lec­u­lar mech­an­ism that they say gov­erns the forma­t­ion of fears stem­ming from trau­mat­ic events. (July 16, 2007)

“Clear signs” of water on foreign solar system
Re­search­ers say they have the best ev­i­dence to date that plan­ets out­side our so­lar sys­tem have wa­ter. (July 11, 2007)

How Roman farmers left their mark on nature
Recently un­earthed, an­cient set­tle­ments are found to have had sur­p­ris­ing ef­fects on the land­scape above. (July 9, 2007)



 

In a first, probe to focus on Martian ice
Frozen water is at the center of sci­en­tists’ hopes for de­tect­ing the pos­si­bil­ity of Mar­tian life. (July 9, 2007)

~ Focus: genetic cancer therapies ~






 

Gene therapy reported to wipe out pancreatic cancer in mice
Researchers report en­courag­ing signs in the fight against one of the dead­liest can­cers. (July 9, 2007)

Researchers modify herpes virus to fight cancer
A vi­rus de­signed to kill can­cer cells while spar­ing healthy ones shows prom­ise in a pre­lim­i­nar­y stu­dy, sci­en­tists say. (July 7, 2007)



 

Do women really talk more than men?
New re­search chal­lenges the pop­u­lar idea that wom­en are the big chat­ters. (July 5, 2007)

New cancer mutation found
Bi­ol­o­gists say they have found a muta­t­ion im­pli­cat­ed in at least four types of can­cer. (July 4, 2007)

 

Cops racist in shoot­ing? Not as much as many of us
A study has found lit­tle evi­dence that po­lice shoot black peo­ple part­i­cu­larly readily. But it did turn up a sur­prise. (July 3, 2007)

Poor smell sense could signal early Alzheimer’s
Dif­fi­cul­ty iden­ti­fy­ing com­mon smells may be the first sign of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, ac­cord­ing to a study. (July 2, 2007)



 

First baby born from eggs matured in lab, frozen
Expe­ri­ments are lead­ing to novel fert­i­l­ity treat­ments, sci­ent­ists re­port. (July 2, 2007)

Universe “forgets” its past
Another universe may have pre­ceded ours—but its ex­act prop­er­ties may be un­know­able, some phys­i­cists have con­clud­ed. (July 1, 2007)

Warm rock keeps North America from drowning, geologists say
Much of the con­ti­nent would sink were it not for heat that makes rock buoy­ant, re­search has found. (June 28, 2007)





 

Kitty’s family tree analyzed
House­cats trace their an­ces­try back to Near East­ern wild­cats, a study in­di­cates.
(June 28, 2007)

Archaeologists think they have mummy of Queen Hatshepsut
Some researchers be­lieve Hat­shep­sut, the most fa­mous queen to rule an­cient Egypt, has been found. (June 28, 2007)

Human-like altruism claimed in chimps
Sci­en­tists of­ten as­sume that purely un­self­ish be­ha­vior, if it ex­ists, is unique to peo­ple. (June 26, 2007)






 

Ancient giant penguins liked it hot
New finds shed light on the world of an­cient pen­guins, some of which were as tall as many hu­mans.
(June 25, 2007)

Intelligence favors first-borns, study finds
Eld­est sib­lings score slightly high­er on in­tel­li­gence tests than young­er ones, a study has found. (June 21, 2007)

Ancient wolves had bone-crushing teeth, scientists say
A specialized breed of gray wolves once roamed Alas­ka’s icy ex­panses, a study in­di­cates. (June 21, 2007)

Humiliation takes harsh health toll, report says
Past studies have looked at the health ef­fects of so­cial ex­clu­sion or pre­ju­dice, but not those of out­right de­base­ment. (June 20, 2007)

 

The perks and pitfalls of pride
What is the origin and pur­pose of this com­plex em­o­tion? (June 20, 2007)

 

New World’s first gunshot victim identified
An In­ca rebel of the 1500s is the first doc­u­ment­ed gun­shot vic­tim in the Am­eri­cas, arch­aeo­lo­gists say.
(June 20, 2007)

Power goes wireless
Researchers hope to ba­nish the tan­gle of ca­bles that keep alive our cell phones, lap­tops and oth­er small de­vices. (June 19, 2007)

Gigantic, bird-like dinosaur reported
Re­mains of a co­los­sal, sur­pris­ingly bird-like di­no­saur have been found in Chi­na, sci­en­tists say. (June 13, 2007)

 

Rome reborn in virtual glory
Experts have recre­ated an­cient Rome in a three-di­men­sion­al com­put­er sim­ula­t­ion.
(June 12, 2007)

Doctors investigate why man bled green
A report in a med­i­cal journal de­s­c­ribes an un­usu­al case. (June 7, 2007)

First patent claimed on man-made life form, and challenged
A research institute is seek­ing a pat­ent on what could be the first largely ar­ti­fi­cial or­gan­ism. (June 7, 2007)





 

Stem cells from anyone?
Patients could one day get new or­gans and other treat­ments us­ing cells drawn from their own bo­dies.
(June 6, 2007)

Abnormal sex acts linked to array of sleep disorders
Sex­u­al be­hav­iors dur­ing sleep may be more com­mon than was once thought, re­search­ers say. (June 1, 2007)

T. rex, the clumsy giant?
A study chal­lenges the idea that the “ty­rant” di­no­saur Ty­ran­no­saur­us rex could turn quickly and run down nimble prey. (June 5, 2007)






 

Lessons from orangutans: upright walking may have begun in trees
A new the­ory sug­gests our two-legged walk first arose in an­cient, tree-dwel­ling apes.
  (May 31, 2007)

Dump the “ethnic cleansing” jargon, group implores
A team of scho­lars wants doc­tors and sci­en­tists to lead the world in con­sign­ing the phrase “eth­nic cleans­ing” to his­tory. (May 31, 2007)

Deer moms come to the rescue—sometimes
Moth­ers in one deer spe­cies seem quite gen­er­ous in de­fend­ing oth­er par­ents’ kids, a study has found. Not so anoth­er spe­cies. (May 30, 2007)

 

The evolution of animal personalities
Per­son­al­ity dif­fer­ences have been doc­u­mented in doz­ens of spe­cies. What pro­duces the var­ia­tions?  (May 30, 2007)

Radio “screams” portend nasty space weather
Bursts of ra­di­o waves can pro­vide ad­vance warn­ing of haz­ard­ous radia­t­ion storms, ast­ro­no­mers say. (May 30, 2007)






Monster black holes, quietly cruising the cosmos?
Research sug
­gests some ga­la­xy mer­gers can spit giant black holes in­to space, for good.  (May 30, 2007)

Genes may influence our language: researchers
Dif­fer­ences in our genes may affect the type of lan­guage we speak, lin­guists re­port. (May 28, 2007)

Study: stereotypes alone can hurt female performance
A ster­e­o­type that boys out­per­form girls in math causes anx­i­e­ty that un­der­cuts wo­men’s work—in math and oth­er ar­eas, re­search­ers re­port. (May 28, 2007)

 

“Definitive” evidence of dinosaur swimming found
A track­way with 12 claw marks is the best ev­i­dence to date that some di­no­saurs swam, sci­ent­ists say. (May 25, 2007)

Finger length linked to exam scores
Mea­sure­ments of chil­dren’s fin­ger lengths ap­pear to pre­dict their scores on math and lit­er­a­cy tests, re­search­ers have found. (May 24, 2007)

Antibiotic resistance genes in our food?
The food we eat could be fu­el­ing the dis­turb­ing spread of an­ti­bi­ot­ic-re­sis­t­ant in­fec­tions, sci­en­tists warn. (May 23, 2007)





Saturn rings found clumpier, heavier than thought
Sat­urn’s larg­est, most compact ring con­sists of clumps of par­t­i­cles sep­a­rat­ed by gaps, find­ings in­di­cate. (May 23, 2005)

Sex-free shark birth startles scientists, and worries them
A fe­male ham­mer­head shark was found to have given birth with­out hav­ing sex. (May 22, 2007)

Heavy multivitamin use linked to cancer in men
Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans take mul­ti­vi­ta­mins be­cause of a be­lief in their po­ten­tial health ben­e­fits. (May 18, 2007)

 

Morality: where it came from, where it gets us
Moral­ity is an evolved sys­tem, not quite equip­ped to deal with glo­bal-scale clashes of val­ues, a sci­ent­ist says. (May 17, 2007)

Antarctic depths called possible “cradle of life”
Sci­en­tists have found hun­dreds of new sea crea­tures in a vast, dark deep sur­round­ing Ant­arc­ti­ca. (May 16, 2007)

 

Biodiversity good for mental health, sci­ent­ists find
Spe­cies-rich parks may pro­vide more peace of mind than big green spaces alone can, a study sug­gests. (May 16, 2007)

Roots of “free will” seen in flies
In­sects, with their blank eyes and stiff lit­tle frames, often seem to epit­o­mize the idea of lower an­i­mals as ro­bot-like. Not so, re­search­ers say. (May 15, 2007)




 

The galaxy next door—our destined home?
New sim­u­la­tions pre­dict what could hap­pen when our gal­axy, as ex­pected, runs into a neigh­bor­ing one.
(May 10, 2007)


First map of planet outside our system
Astro­nom­ers plan some­day to map con­ti­nents and oceans on dis­tant plan­ets. (May 9, 2007)

Mutation may contribute to human uniqueness
Sci­en­tists have iden­ti­fied a gene that they say could help ac­count for our dis­t­inc­tive cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties. (May 8, 2007)







Herod’s tomb reported found
King Her­od is said in the Bi­ble to have or­dered a slaugh­ter of ba­bies in order to be rid of the new­born Jesus. (May 8, 2007)

Global warming could shorten day, report predicts
Earth’s fa­mil­iar 24-hour cycle may be­come a hair shorter due to hu­man ac­ti­vi­ties, sci­ent­ists say. (May 7, 2007)

Ripples on Sun may be found, after 30-year search
Findings could help un­der­stand the Sun’s core—hub of the ori­gi­nal, spin­ning cloud that be­came our So­lar Sys­tem. (May 3, 2007)

 




New “longevity gene” spurs hopes of long life
Findings could lead to new anti-ag­ing treat­ments, scient­ists say (May 2, 2007).

Female duck anatomy evolves to block “rape”
Male and fe­male ducks are evolv­ing in a sex­ual arms race, ac­cord­ing to a study (May 1, 2007).

 

Clues to language origins seen in ape gestures
Sci­en­tists have found what they call new ev­i­dence for an old the­ory that lan­guage be­gan with ges­tures (April 30, 2007).

Is reality a misunderstanding?
Sev­er­al phys­i­cists say they’ve con­firmed strange pre­dic­tions of mod­ern phys­ics that flout our most bas­ic ideas of real­i­ty. (April 29, 2007)

Internet-controlled robots anyone can build
New re­search is tout­ed as bring­ing ro­bot­ics to an un­pre­ce­dent­ed le­vel of pub­lic usa­bi­l­ity. (April 26, 2007)

 




City-sized fossil forest found
A “spectacular” dis­co­very in a coal mine is said to trans­form our un­der­stand­ing of the first rainfor­ests. (April 23, 2007)

Origin of brain lies in a worm, scientists say
Sur­pris­ing find­ings al­so sug­gest we’ve flipped over during the course of ev­o­lu­tion. (April 23, 2007)

 




Black holes may scatter “seeds of life” through cosmos
Black holes aren’t the all-consuming mon­sters they’re of­ten por­trayed as, new re­search has found. (April 22, 2007)

Ape facial expressions foster group harmony, study finds
Fa­cial ex­pres­sions may have evolved as a sort of so­cial glue in our ape-like an­ces­tors, re­search­ers say. (April 20, 2007)

Robotic arm to conduct brain surgery
The ma­chine will give sur­geons an un­pre­ce­dent­ed de­gree of fine con­trol, the de­sign­ers say. (April 18, 2007)

 

Grow a garden to fire kids’ veggie-ardor
Homes with fruit and ve­ge­ta­ble gar­dens see health­ier eat­ing among youth, a stu­dy finds. (April 18, 2007)

Swarms of dust-sized particles would explore planets
En­gi­neers are work­ing on a new breed of pla­net­ary probes: ti­ny de­vices that ride the wind. (April 18, 2007)

 

Study: ethanol vehicles pose health risks
Eth­a­nol is touted as a clean, eco-friend­ly fuel, but new re­search chal­lenges that view. (April 18, 2007)

Findings uphold “Standard Model” of physics, for now
Researchers pre­sented long-awaited in­i­tial da­ta from tests on ghost­ly par­t­i­cles called neu­tri­nos. (April 13, 2007)

 

Dinosaur molecules decoded
Re­search­ers have an­a­lyzed mo­le­cules from soft tis­sue of a T. rex, a feat once thought im­pos­sible. (April 12, 2007)

Gene study finds “clearest link yet” to obesity
U.K. sci­en­tists say they have iden­ti­fied the clear­est ge­net­ic link yet to obes­i­ty in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. (April 12, 2005)

“Space tsunamis” investigated
New find­ings are shed­ding light on cel­es­tial storms that help cre­ate dra­mat­ic light shows. (April 12, 2007)

Catching suicide bombers
U.S. re­search­ers say they have de­vel­oped a way to de­feat a key edge that su­i­cide bomb­ers pos­sess. (April 10, 2007)

 

Plague as a weapon
Sci­en­tists wor­ry that a dis­ease tied to me­di­e­val epi­dem­ics may re-em­erge as a bio­ter­ror­ism tool. (April 10, 2007)

Climate re­port charts “high­way to extinction”
A new inter­na­tion­al report on glob­al warm­ing makes dire pre­dic­tions. (March 31, 2007)

Even after dino dieoff, our mammal forebears laid low: study
The dino­saurs’ ex­tinc­tion was­n’t the di­rect cause of the great flour­ish­ing of mam­mals, re­search in­di­cates. (March 28, 2007)

 

Hexagon on Saturn mystifies astronomers
An odd, six-sided fea­ture en­cir­cles Sat­urn’s north pole. (March 27, 2007)

The next great quake
A geophysicist warns that seem­ing­ly in­no­cu­ous geo­lo­gi­cal struc­tures may be “locked, load­ed, and dan­ger­ous.” (March 22, 2007)

 

“Emotional eaves­dropping” seen in toddlers
Toddlers eaves­drop on adults’ emo­tion­al com­mun­i­ca­tions, re­search­ers say. (March 26, 2007)

Could self-moving objects explain away “dark matter”?
Each year, four points on Earth could wit­ness a bi­zarre phe­n­o­me­non, a study claims. (March 20, 2007)

 

Brain mishaps lead to “cold” morality
A study at the cross­roads of phil­o­so­phy and neur­o­sci­ence probed the ing­re­di­ents of eth­ics. (March 21, 2007)

Traditional plant knowledge found to give health boost
Globalization can strip in­di­ge­nous peo­ples of va­lu­able bo­ta­n­i­cal know­l­edge, researchers say. (March 19, 2007)




 

Rats can reflect on their knowledge, study finds
New re­search was touted as the first to find this abi­li­ty in an­i­mals other than pri­mates. (March 8, 2007)

~ Focus on Robots ~

 

Robot walks and swims
A new de­vice de­m­on­s­trates that na­ture often of­fers the best so­lu­tions for ro­bot de­sign, re­search­ers say.
(March 8, 2007)


Probe to explore deepest known sinkhole
A ro­bo­tic sub ex­p­lores and maps un­known, sub­ter­ra­nean waters—a pos­sible pre­lude to a probe on a dis­tant moon. (March 8, 2007)





 

Little genomes for big dinosaurs
They might be gi­ants, but many di­no­saurs ap­par­ent­ly had ge­nomes no larg­er than that of a mod­ern hum­ming­bird. (March 7, 2007)

Therapy for traumatized Iraq vets: Iraq again, virtually
An un­u­sual treat­ment has worked for a few troub­led war vet­er­ans, psy­ch­o­l­o­g­ists re­port. (March 6, 2007)




 

Unifying principle said to govern all galaxies
The dis­co­very could say something deep about the cos­mos, ast­ro­nom­ers claim. (March 6, 2007)

“Mafia” behavior noted in birds
Researchers have found a new low in the ways of some pa­ra­si­tic birds, which im­pose their pro­geny on other birds. (March 5, 2007)




 

“Wound” in seafloor to be probed
Sci­en­tists plan to set sail to study a strange geo­lo­gic­al find­ing in the depths of the At­lan­tic. (March 2, 2007)

Seeing red affects achievement
Just a flash of red is enough to im­pair per­for­mance on tests, psy­ch­o­lo­g­ists have found. (March 2, 2007)

Inching closer to regrowing spinal tissue
Re­search­ers have re­grown a tad­pole tail in what they say could be a stride for re­gen­er­a­t­ive med­i­cine. (Feb. 28, 2007)


 

Angry God, angry people
Scrip­tures port­ray­ing a venge­ful Lord may en­cour­age their read­ers to be­have in kind, a study re­ports. (Feb. 28, 2007)

Mystery illness killing honeybees
A mys­te­ri­ous ill­ness is kill­ing many hon­ey­bee col­o­nies across the U.S., threat­en­ing hon­ey pro­duc­tion and pos­si­bly crops. (Feb. 28, 2007)

~ Spotlight: radiation from space ~

 

Death from across the galaxy
Gam­ma-ray bursts could beam le­thal ra­di­a­tion across a ga­laxy, fry­ing life forms in the path, a study finds. (Feb. 27, 2007)

Milky Way’s black hole seen as particle smasher
The cen­ter of our ga­la­xy acts as a juiced-up ver­sion of the par­t­i­cle ac­cel­er­a­tors we build on Earth, phys­i­cists say. (Feb. 27, 2007)





 

Story of first Americans being rewritten
An anthro­po­log­ist says new evi­dence could spell the de­mise of tra­di­tion­al views on Amer­i­ca’s peopl­ing. (Feb. 22, 2007)

Birds found to plan future meals
Western scrub jays seem to be ac­quaint­ed with the con­cept of diet plan­ning, sci­ent­ists re­port. (Feb. 21, 2007)


 

Video games may boost surgical skill, tests find
A small study has linked vi­d­eo game sav­vy to skill in sim­u­lat­ed la­pa­ro­sco­pic sur­geries. (Feb. 19, 2007)

Sun’s “twin” found, as embryo
It’s one of four new­found “pro­to-stars” that are prob­a­bly the youngest im­aged by as­tro­no­mers, re­search­ers said. (Feb. 16, 2007)

Origami technology
Folding a piece of pa­per can yield a vir­tual­ly end­less ar­ray of shapes. Sci­ent­ists are taking ad­van­tage of that. (Feb. 16, 2007)


 

Cleopatra no beauty? Judge for yourself
An Egypt­ian queen’s vaunt­ed looks got an un­kind, Va­l­en­tine’s day re­as­sess­ment from ar­ch­ae­o­lo­gists.  (Feb. 14, 2007)

Study: Naps may cut heart deaths
Naps may do your heart good, re­search­ers have found. (Feb. 12, 2007)





 

Pot found to ease HIV-linked pain
Smoked ma­ri­jua­na re­duced se­vere foot pain as­so­ci­at­ed with HIV by a third, re­search­ers re­port. (Feb. 12, 2007)

Plans for “Noah’s Ark” seed vault unveiled
A “Dooms­day” seed vault would pro­tect today’s seeds for a post-apo­ca­lyp­tic fu­ture. (Feb. 9, 2007)





 

Parents blind to their children’s weight, study finds
Many par­ents don’t no­tice their chil­dren’s ex­cess weight—bad news amid an obes­i­ty boom, re­search­ers warn. (Feb. 9, 2007)

Action video games sharpen vision, researchers say
A shoot-em-up game im­proved students’ vis­u­al acu­i­ty 20 per­cent, ac­cord­ing to sci­en­t­ists. (Feb. 8, 2007)

Cosmic blasts re-evaluated
They spit out as much en­er­gy in sec­onds as our Sun does in 10 bil­lion years, but no one knows quite why. (Feb. 8, 2007)





 

Next-generation particle collider planned
A proposed ac­cel­er­a­tor would re­create con­di­tions in the cos­mos a tril­lionth of a sec­ond af­ter its birth. (Feb. 8, 2007)

For some species, an upside to inbreeding
While not recom­mend­ing it for hu­mans, re­search­ers found in­breed­ing may make for bet­ter pa­rents in some animals. (Courtesy Cell Press)





 

Report spurs backing for global body on warming
Fear of run­away warm­ing pushed over 40 coun­tries to support a bid for a body that could sin­gle out, and per­haps po­lice, pol­lut­ing na­tions. (Feb. 3, 2007)

How drugs cause hallucinations
Sci­en­tists say they have part­ly ex­plained what causes the mind-bending ef­fects of sub­stances such as LSD. (Jan. 31, 2007)




 

Huge settlement unearthed near Stonehenge
The dwel­lings housed those who built the U.K.’s fab­led stone monument, arch­aeo­lo­gists say. (Jan. 30, 2007)

Dig deeper for Mars life, scientists urge
Probes haven’t drilled deep enough to find the liv­ing cells that might lurk with­in the red plan­et, ac­cord­ing to new re­search. (Jan. 29, 2007)




 

Fish logic surprises researchers
A type of fish can rank po­ten­tial ri­vals from strongest to weak­est just by watch­ing fights, sci­ent­ists report. (Jan. 24, 2007)

Most horrible sound: vomiting, study finds
In an on­line ex­per­i­ment, a retch­ing sound won over nails scrap­ing a black­board as the worst sound ever. (Jan. 24, 2007)




 

Family loyalty driving sperm teamwork?
The pro­mis­cuity of rats and mice may lead to part­ner­ships among their sex cells
. (Jan. 23, 2007)

Cancer killed Napoleon, study concludes
Anew in­ves­ti­ga­tion may put to rest near­ly 200 years of lin­ger­ing mys­ter­ies, a sci­ent­ist re­ports. (Jan. 23, 2007)

Dino flew like a “biplane”
The Wright broth­ers weren’t the first to come up with their trade­mark, dou­ble-deck­er de­sign for air­craft wings, if two sci­en­tists are cor­rect. (Jan. 21, 2007)




 

Black diamonds come from space, scientists claim
Rare, dusky gems were once parts of mas­sive as­ter­oids that struck Earth, sci­en­tists say. (Jan. 21, 2007)

Activation of brain area found to predict altruism
A study might help re­veal how the de­sire to help others takes root in the brain. (Jan. 21, 2005)




 

Study: Nobel Prize may add two years to life
Fame alone, in­de­pen­d­ent­ly of wealth, seems to give a life-ex­tend­ing boost, two eco­n­o­m­ists re­port. (Jan. 20, 2007)

Mother ducks cooperate on parenting
For eider ducks, parent­ing is a ne­go­tiated joint ven­ture, re­search­ers say. (Jan.11, 2007)

 

Earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe reported
Mod­ern hu­mans who first arose in Af­ri­ca moved in­to Eu­rope as ear­ly as about 45,000 years ago, a new study in­di­cates. (Jan. 11, 2007)

Homer’s Ithaca possibly found
Brit­ish re­search­ers say they may have solved a cen­turies-old mys­tery. (Jan. 10, 2007)

“Superstrings” could raise cosmic clatter
Physicists are looking for huge, flop­ping loops of energy in space that could point the way to a the­ory of ev­ery­thing. (Jan. 8, 2007)





 

How the body becomes asymmetric
Tiny mo­lecu­lar mo­tors in cells might help de­ter­mine which or­gans go on which side, sci­en­t­ists claim. (Jan. 5, 2007)

Brain’s “shopping circuitry” mapped
Re­search­ers say they can now pre­dict wheth­er some­one will buy a prod­uct by check­ing their brain ac­tiv­i­ty. (Jan. 3, 2007)

First stars may have been supergiants, researchers say
New ob­ser­va­tions are being cited to sup­port a claim that as­tro­no­mers have seen the uni­verse’s first bright ob­jects. (Jan. 3, 2007)




 

Nightmares, suicidal tendencies linked
Astudy has found that night­mares are as­so­ci­at­ed with sui­ci­dal­ity. (Jan. 2, 2007)

Scans pinpoint brain regions that “see the future”
Psychologists say they have found that the brain draws heav­ily on the past to ima­gine the fu­ture. (Jan. 2, 2007)

Genome scan finds new genetic links to autism (Feb. 18, 2007)

 

 

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