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June 06, 2013

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PAST NEWS - 2008

Competition, not climate, killed Neanderthals: study
The stocky breed of ear­ly hu­mans could­n't hold its own against more mod­ern po­pu­la­tions, sci­en­tists claim. (Dec. 29, 2008)

 




Life grew in two, mil­lion­fold leaps, re­search­ers say
Earth's crea­tures come in all sizes, yet sci­en­tists be­lieve they all de­scend from the same single-celled or­gan­isms. (Dec. 26, 2008)






 

"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. (Dec. 21, 2008)

Still today, most will torture if ordered: study
Sci­en­tists say they have rep­li­cat­ed an ex­pe­ri­ment in which peo­ple would obe­di­ently give pain­ful shocks to oth­ers when prom­pted. (Dec. 19, 2008)

 

Is global warming preventing an Ice Age?
While hu­man-caused ef­fects are po­ten­tially lead­ing Earth to dis­as­ter, they may al­so be pre­vent­ing a cold spell, some re­search­ers say. (Dec. 19, 2008)

Odd bird fathering styles may come from dinos
Males in some flight­less bird species are de­vot­ed fa­thers-and poly­gam­ists. (Dec. 18, 2008)

At least 8 genes tied to obesity, all in brain
Variants of at least eight genes con­tri­bute to de­ter­min­ing bo­dy weight, sci­en­tists have found. (Dec. 16, 2008)

 

Wobbly planets could reveal Earth-like moons
Moons out­side our So­lar Sys­tem ca­pa­ble of sup­port­ing life may have just be­come eas­i­er to find. (Dec. 12, 2008)

God, science no easy mix for many
In many or most peo­ple's minds, religion and sci­ence con­flict funda­ment­ally, a study sug­gests. (Dec. 15, 2008)

Distant moons may have liquid oceans
Tidal mo­tions may gen­er­ate enough heat to main­tain liq­uid oceans with­in the out­er plan­ets' icy moons, a sci­ent­ist says. (Dec. 10, 2008)






Chemistry of other stars' planets coming to light
Astro­no­mers have iden­ti­fied car­bon di­ox­ide around a plan­et out­side our so­lar sys­tem. (Dec. 9, 2008)

Brain drugs for healthy people OK: scientists
Healthy people should be al­lowed to take brain­pow­er-boost­ing drugs, if the risks are prop­erly man­aged, some re­search­ers say. (Dec. 7, 2008)


Poverty may reduce kids' brain function
Scientists are cal­ling new find­ings an alarm­ing "wake-up call." (Dec. 6, 2008)

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. (Dec. 4, 2008)

Happiness spreads socially, study finds
Your hap­pi­ness may de­pend on many peo­ple you don't know-friends of friends of friends. (Dec. 4, 2008)


Did a modern-day scourge save ancient Earth?
A gas blamed for glo­bal warm­ing may once have helped Earth es­cape a deep freeze, some sci­en­tists pro­pose. (Nov. 30, 2008)

Scientists produce illusion of body-swapping
Neu­ro­sci­en­tists say they have got­ten peo­ple to per­ceive the bod­ies of man­nequins and oth­er peo­ple as their own. (Dec. 2, 2008)

Canada skyburst attributed to 10-ton rock
Researchers have been col­lect­ing wit­ness re­ports and data on a giant flash in the skies over west­ern Ca­na­da Nov. 20. (Nov. 28, 2008)


Oceans acidifying much faster than was thought: study
The pro­cess could pose a threat to some ocean life, scientists argue. (Nov. 26, 2008)

Needy amoebae reach out to "family"
When in dis­tress, some sing­le-celled crea­tures seek the sup­port of kin, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 24, 2008)


Microbes may help fossilize ancient embryos
Bac­te­ri­al de­cay was once viewed as the mor­tal en­e­my of fos­sil­iz­a­tion, but a new study sug­gests otherwise. (Nov. 24, 2008)

Vast under­ground glaciers reported on Mars
The find­ings could pre­s­ent new av­enues for the search for life or pro­vide wa­ter to sup­port fu­ture ex­plora­t­ion, sci­ent­ists claim. (Nov. 20, 2008)


Woolly-mammoth genome decoded
Bi­ol­o­gists re­port that they have for the first time un­rav­eled nearly the whole ge­net­ic code of an ex­tinct an­i­mal. (Nov. 19, 2008)

Signs of dark matter found?
Tell­tale resi­due may have turned up from a mys­te­ri­ous and in­vis­ible sub­stance that per­vades the uni­verse, as­tro­no­mers say. (Nov. 19, 2008)






"Super-aged" brains reveal secrets of sharp old-age memory
Tiny tan­gles may make the dif­fer­ence be­tween a de­clin­ing brain and last­ing men­tal acui­ty. (Nov. 17, 2008)

Earliest known family reportedly unearthed
Four an­cient skele­tons un­earthed in Ger­ma­ny in 2005 seem to have been uni­ted in death as they were in life, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 17, 2008)

 

Photo captures 3 planets by distant sun
The tech­nol­o­gy for imag­ing worlds in far-off so­lar sys­tems is mak­ing strides, as­tro­no­mers say. (Nov. 13, 2008)

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. (Nov. 11, 2008)







Mouth microbes helping the chef make magic?
Bac­te­ria play a role in cre­at­ing the dis­tinc­tive fla­vors of cer­tain foods, sci­en­tists re­port. (Nov. 11, 2008)

Forgotten but not gone: leprosy lives on in America
Long seen as a dis­ease of bib­li­cal times, lep­ro­sy still lurks but is often mis­diag­nosed, re­search­ers warn. (Nov. 9, 2008)

Bullies may enjoy others' pain
Brain scans suggest un­u­su­ally ag­gres­sive youth find plea­sure in others' suf­fer­ing, sci­en­tists say. (Nov. 7, 2008)






Scientists: cancer genome de­coded
Re­searchers re­port suc­cess with a new stra­te­gy for ident­ify­ing mu­ta­tions in­volved in can­cer. (Nov. 6, 2008)

Giant simulation could help solve "dark matter" mystery
A search for the mys­ter­ious sub­stance mak­ing up most of the mat­er­ial in the uni­verse may be over be­fore long, cos­mol­o­gists claim. (Nov. 5, 2008)


Kids' music practice may pay off in other skills
Chil­dren who study an in­stru­ment out­per­form oth­ers even in non-mu­si­cal skills, a study has found. (Nov. 5, 2008)

Same gene, different results
Sci­en­tists are learn­ing to their sur­prise that a sin­gle gene very of­ten func­tions dif­fer­ently in dif­fer­ent parts of the body. (Nov. 2, 2008)


Study: red enhances men's attraction to women
Something many play­ers of the love and dat­ing game have long sus­pected, now has sci­en­ti­fic con­fir­ma­tion. (Oct. 29, 2008)

"Real" Crusoe's isle said to yield clues to sojourn
The tale of the marooned Robin­son Cru­soe is thought to be based on the real story of sail­or Al­ex­an­der Sel­kirk. (Oct. 30, 2008)

Thin line between love, hate? Science explains why
Brain scans sug­gest a cer­tain over­lap be­tween hate and ro­man­tic love, ex­peri­ment­ers say. (Oct. 29, 2008)


Two asteroid belts found in solar system's young "twin"
A near­by star has two rocky belts, an out­er icy ring and prob­ably un­seen plan­ets, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 27, 2008)

Green space better for kids' waist­lines, health
In an era of ram­pant obe­sity, re­search­ers see a bright­er out­look for chil­d­ren in leafy neigh­bor­hoods. (Oct. 28, 2008)

World's smallest storage space: an atomic nucleus
A study de­scribes yet a new step to­ward quan­tum com­put­ing. (Oct. 24, 2008)






Warm hands, warm hearts
Just hold­ing a hot cup of cof­fee can im­prove one's at­ti­tude to­ward a strang­er, sci­en­tists have found. (Oct. 23, 2008)

Dancing molecules "trapped"
New technology aims to better show how mol­e­cules move, rather than just how they're made. (Oct. 22, 2008)


Dino crests may have had com­mun­i­ca­tion role
Scient­ists are tak­ing a new look at strange, bony crests on the heads of some di­no­saurs. (Oct. 16, 2008)

Key to fighting poverty: toilets
More toi­lets and safer wa­ter would do more to im­prove world health than any oth­er pos­sible meas­ure, a re­port says. (Oct. 19, 2008)

Scientists: one brain cell may reverse muscle paralysis
Ac­tiva­t­ion of a sin­gle brain cell may help re­store mus­cle ac­ti­vity, re­search­ers re­port. (Oct. 15, 2008)






"Peacenik" chimps not always so nice
A study on bono­bo hunt­ing ha­b­its chal­lenges tra­d­i­tion­al ideas of how ag­gres­sion ori­gi­nates. (Oct. 14, 2008)






"Other half" of Dar­win's theory passes test
Some flir­ta­tious mi­crobes have con­firmed Dar­win's view of how sex­ual ad­vert­is­ing evolves, bio­lo­g­ists say. (Oct. 13, 2008)

Study: narcissists tend to lead, but not better
Self-cen­tered, over­con­fi­dent types often take con­trol-and oth­ers tend to accept it, sci­en­t­ists claim. (Oct. 8, 2008)

Why some kids suffer chronic bullying
Researchers say fac­tors iden­ti­fi­able in in­fan­cy pre­dict later vic­tim­i­z­a­tion. (Oct. 8, 2008)


 




Craft "ready" to map outer solar system
A NASA sat­el­lite is to im­age and map the zone where a hot wind from the Sun hits cold out­er space. (Oct. 7, 2008)

Found: earliest known animal tracks?
Scientists claim to have found pos­sibly the ear­l­iest ani­mal foot­prints, but ad­mit the report will stir skep­ti­cism.   (Oct. 5, 2008)


 

Religion can spur good­ness-but it depends
Be­lief in God has fos­tered coo­p­er­ation that aided the rise of some large, stable societies, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 2, 2008)

NASA: snow found in Martian skies
It's not cer­tain wheth­er the flakes ever reach ground, sci­ent­ists add.  (Sept. 29, 2008)


 

"Nanoparticles" may seep through skin
The health im­plica­t­ions of tiny, art­i­fi­cial part­i­cles in the body are un­cer­tain, in­vest­i­ga­t­ors note. (Sept. 30, 2008)

Researchers explore amnesia, sex link
Investigators are puzzled by reports sug­gesting sex­u­al in­ter­course may oc­cas­ional­ly lead to tem­po­rary am­ne­sia. (Sept. 29, 2008)

One more terror for ancient fish: monster ducks
Duck-like birds al­most the size of small air­planes, armed with tooth-like spikes, once skimmed ocean wa­ters, re­search­ers say.  (Sept. 26, 2008)






 

Temporary collider shutdown a "blow"
Tech­ni­cal prob­lems have struck a gi­ant par­t­i­cle-smash­er whose re­cent launch sci­en­tists hailed as his­tor­ic. (Sept. 24, 2008)

Possible oldest-known rocks found
A sec­tion of Ca­na­di­an bed­rock more than four bil­lion years old may help shed light on Earth's early evo­lu­tion, geo­lo­gists say. (Sept. 25, 2008)

Something beyond visible universe detected?
Sci­en­tists have meas­ured an un­ex­pected mo­tion in dis­tant clus­ters of ga­lax­ies. (Sept. 23, 2008)







Fingers originated in fish ancestors: study
Pre­vious find­ings on the sub­ject were mis­taken, a report claims. (Sept. 21, 2008)

"Smoothest" mirror could lead to new microscopes
Phys­i­cists say they have cre­at­ed un­us­ual sur­faces that could help image bio­log­ical samp­les more pre­cise­ly with­out de­s­troy­ing them. (Sept. 22, 2008)

Sensitivity to sudden noises may predict your politics
Our political views come from places deep­er in­side of us than many had sus­pected, a study sug­gests. (Sept. 18, 2008)



Spider sex cannibalism: it may come down to size
There's no deep, com­plex rea­son why fem­ales eat the males-they're just hung­ry, two re­search­ers say. (Sept. 15, 2008)

"Relic" ant said to hail from lost past
A bi­zarre pred­a­to­ry, blind, un­der­ground ant probably de­scends al­most straight from the first ants, scient­ists say. (Sept. 16, 2008)

World's largest study of near-death experiences to start
New research is aimed at es­tab­lish­ing wheth­er peo­ple may have thoughts for a time while clin­ic­ally "dead." (Sept. 11, 2008)







On-and-off floods formed Mars valleys, study finds
Floods that created dis­t­inc­t­ive fea­tures of Mars were not of a ca­tas­tro­phic sort, sci­ent­ists claim. (Sept. 8, 2008)

"Historic" collider operation begins
The first beam in the world's new­est and larg­est par­t­i­cle col­lider was switched on this morn­ing, phys­i­cists an­nounced. (Sept. 10, 2008)






 

Report: cells "from space" have unusual makeup
A line­age of mys­ter­ious mi­crobes found in some rain give off colors in a strange way, two sci­en­tists are re­port­ing. (Sept. 8, 2008)

"Junk DNA" key to human evolution?
Genetic material once dis­missed as use­less might have con­tri­buted to our up­right walk­ing, re­search­ers say. (Sept. 4, 2008)







Robotic helicopters teach themselves stunts
The research is a prelude to de­sign­ing chop­pers that search for land mines or fight fires, sci­ent­ists pre­dict. (Sept. 2, 2008)

Cancer cells may "prepare" earlier than thought
New re­search on mice sug­gests dis­turb­ing conclusions but also could in­spire new the­ra­peutic stra­te­gies, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 29, 2008)



Why are flies so hard to swat? Chalk it up to good planning
Fast, high-resolution vi­deo im­ag­ing is revealing se­crets of the wily in­sects. (Aug. 28, 2008)

Scientists report converting cells to new type directly
Research de­scribed as a ma­jor advance side­steps pre­vious com­pli­cations with the pro­duct­ion of stem cells for med­i­cal treat­ment. (Aug. 27, 2008)



New collider promises to transform physics
A mas­sive par­t­i­cle smash­er to start oper­a­tion next month will re­veal deeper laws, phys­i­cists say. (Aug. 21, 2008)

A surprising new way to discourage risky behaviors?
Linking an un­healthy be­hav­ior with groups of "other" people is an ef­fec­tive way to dis­cour­age it, re­search­ers claim. (Aug. 25, 2008)

Scientists: century-old drug might cure Parkinson's, more
A study with mice sug­gests a century-old drug could slow or even cure Alz­heim­er's and Park­in­son's dis­eases, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 18, 2008)

Washington's doctors absolved
The states­man was bey­ond help when his much-mal­igned doc­tors found him one fate­ful morn­ing, a study con­cludes. (Aug. 19, 2008)







Computer helps reassemble a lost past
Re­build­ing shat­tered arti­facts can be like solving jig­saw puz­zles of be­wild­er­ing pro­por­tions. (Aug. 15, 2008)

Stone-Age graveyard reveals life in a "green Sahara"
Sci­en­tists in Ni­ger re­port hav­ing found the Sa­hara De­sert's larg­est known Stone-Age grave­yard. (Aug. 14, 2008)







A bit of dazzle to throw off predators
Bright pat­terns may real­ly work to pro­tect ani­mals from be­com­ing a meal, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 13, 2008)

Mass extinction going on, researchers say
Great die-offs of am­phib­ians are one sign that a ca­tas­tro­phe is un­der­way on Earth-brought on by us, some sci­en­tists ar­gue. (Aug. 12, 2008)

Pride and shame displays "universal"
In both vic­to­ry and de­feat, ath­letes blind from birth be­have much like their sight­ed coun­t­er­parts, psy­ch­o­log­ists have found. (Aug. 11, 2008)


"Extreme" rain follows global warming
Heavy rain is com­ing un­ex­pect­edly more of­ten as glob­al warm­ing con­tin­ues, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 7, 2008)

Dolphins and the evolution of teaching
Some dolphins seem to teach their young to forage, by re­peat­ing act­ions many times and "point­ing" at things, sci­ent­ists re­port. (Aug. 7, 2008)


Mars salts not bad for life: scientists
A finding of per­ch­lor­ate salts is lead­ing re­search­ers to "re­as­sess" the plan­et's ha­bit­a­bil­ity. (Aug. 6, 2008)

Nature's mightiest bites calculated
The great white shark's bite-the hard­est of any liv­ing spe­cies known-is a nibble com­pared to that of an ex­tinct shark, a study finds. (Aug. 4, 2008)





U.S. understated HIV infection rate
Many more Amer­i­cans pick up the AIDS vi­rus yearly than past of­fi­cial es­ti­mates showed, au­th­or­i­ties said. (Aug. 2, 2008)

Drug may trick body into "thinking" you exercised
A new study is creating both hope, and wor­ries that a re­mark­able sub­stance could be ripe for abuse. (July 31, 2008)

Road to obesity may begin by age two
Chil­dren of­ten be­come over­weight by their sec­ond birth­day-thereby hit­ting a "tip­ping point," sci­ent­ists re­port. (July 31, 2001)

 

Revealing a world of hidden paintings
Researchers un­veiled a new tech­nique for see­ing what lies be­neath vi­si­ble lay­ers of paint. (July 30, 2008)

NASA confirms water on Mars
The agency's robotic Phoe­nix Land­er "touched and tast­ed" the Red Plan­et's fro­zen wa­ter, a mis­sion sci­ent­ist says. (July 31, 2008)

Diamonds may have best friend to earliest life
The sur­faces of gems may have pro­vid­ed the con­di­tions for life to evolve, sci­ent­ists say. (July 29, 2008)

 



Earth filmed as "alien" world
The first space­craft from Earth to have stud­ied a com­et up-close has tak­en on a new proj­ect. (July 25, 2008)

Single atoms viewed thanks to super-material
A recently dis­covered subs­tance may be both the strongest known, and the first to al­low the im­ag­ing of small atoms. (July 21, 2008)

 

Robo­tic mini-snow­mobiles ply the Arctic
Re­search­ers are de­ve­lop­ing the de­vices in a bid to bet­ter un­der­stand ef­fects blamed on glo­bal warm­ing. (July 18, 2008)

Baby penguins found dead by the hundreds
The news comes weeks af­ter a re­port claimed pen­guin popula­t­ions are be­ing dev­as­tat­ed glo­bally. (July 20, 2008)

Tweaking quantum force lowers barrier to tiny devices
Cym­bals don't clash on their own-in our world, any­way. (July 14, 2008)







Smog may boost storms, NASA finds
Pollution is be­ing called a like­ly reason why sum­mer storms in the south­east­ern U.S. are worst at mid­week. (July 8, 2008)






Tit-for-tat: birds found to re­pay war­time help
Pied fly­catch­ers and red-winged black­birds share two traits, studies suggest: they're feisty de­fend­ers and shrewd ac­count keep­ers. (July 6, 2008)

In mice, "youth" drug seen pro­long­ing vigor but not life
A red wine in­gre­di­ent can ward off many ill ef­fects of ag­ing in mice who start tak­ing it at midlife, re­search­ers have found. (July 3, 2008)







Atoms found to interact unexpectedly
A surprising process may change our un­der­stand­ing of chem­i­cal re­ac­tions in the at­mos­phere and our bod­ies. (July 2, 2008)

Study finds lasting benefit in banned mushroom drug
The compound psil­o­cy­bin may bring psych­o­lo­gi­cal be­ne­fits, but also harm if ta­ken with­out pro­per supervision, re­search­ers say. (July 1, 2008)







Secret of the great vio­lins? The wood, study sug­gests
The elu­s­ive key to the un­matched sound of Strad­i­va­ri may lie in uni­form­ity of den­si­ty, a sci­ent­ist claims. (July 1, 2008)

Penguin populations falling steeply: biologist
Like the pro­ver­bi­al ca­nary in the coal mine, pen­guins are sound­ing the alarm for pos­sible en­vi­ron­ment­al dis­as­ter, an ex­pert warns. (July 1, 2008)







Red wine may miti­gate red meat's dangers
Chemicals in wine may thwart forma­t­ion of harm­ful sub­stances dur­ing di­gest­ion of fat in meat, sci­ent­ists say. (June 28, 2008)

Most "primitive" four-legged animal described
New find­ings may fur­ther close the al­ready shrink­ing gaps in in the fos­sil rec­ord of the ep­och­al shift to life on land. (June 26, 2008)


Epic crash may explain two faces of Mars
Sci­en­tists have been hard-pressed to ex­plain why the red planet's two halves look very dif­fer­ent. (June 25, 2008)

Brain area for ad­ven­tur­ous­ness re­ported found
Lo­cat­ed in a prim­i­tive part of the brain, it's ac­ti­vat­ed when we choose un­fa­mil­iar op­tions, re­search­ers say. (June 25, 2008)






At brink of col­lapse, Nean­der­thals may have flour­ished
New­found stone tools offer a snap­shot of anc­ient tech­no­lo­gi­cal change, ex­perts say. (June 24, 2008)

The Odyssey astronomically accurate?
The ancient Greek ep­ic of ad­ven­ture at sea and long-await­ed home­coming may have more truth than sus­pected, sci­ent­ists claim. (June 23, 2008)


From the egg, baby crocs call out
Pre-hatch­ing calls ac­tu­ally mean some­thing to the sib­lings and moth­ers, re­search­ers have found. (June 23, 2008)

Planes with glass wings?
A new insight into the na­ture of glass might make it pos­sible, some sci­en­tists say. (June 22, 2008)

 

Far off in cosmos, the same laws
Na­ture's laws ap­pear un­changed in the dis­tant uni­verse, help­ing to re­solve a sci­en­tific debate, sci­ent­ists re­port. (June 21, 2008)

Faked research data common, survey suggests
Sci­en­tif­ic mis­con­d­uct may be much more wide­spread than hi­th­er­to sus­pect­ed, U.S. gov­ern­ment re­search­ers say. (June 19, 2008)

Eat the parents
In a prac­tice thought to be over 100 mil­lion years old, some crea­tures feed on their moth­ers' skin.
(June 13, 2008)

Study: gays' brain symmetry resembles other sex
Re­search­ers have found that gay peo­ple's brains re­sem­ble those of the op­po­site sex in some ways. (June 16, 2008)

 

Just-launched tele­scope scans gam­ma-ray sky
The cosmos looks much dif­fer­ent out­side the nar­row range of col­ors our eyes see. (June 11, 2008)

Some "dwarf planets" are now "plutoids"
New term­i­no­logy further com­pli­cates the once sim­ple con­cept of "plan­et." (June 12, 2008)

Drug found to cure alcoholic rats
Sci­en­tists say the re­search sug­gests a po­ten­tial treat­ment for hu­man booz­ers. (June 10, 2008)


Taming volcanoes
Chunks of lime­stone might be key to stop­ping la­va in its tracks, a stu­dy pro­poses. (June 8, 2008)

Parasite turns host into bodyguard
Among those nasty crea­tures that live as un­wanted guests in­side oth­ers, some are part­i­cu­larly si­nis­ter. (June 5, 2008)






From cracks to ca­tas­t­ro­phes
A field called sin­gu­lar­ity the­ory ex­plores hid­den com­plex­ities unit­ing events both ev­ery­day and ex­tra­or­di­n­ary. (June 5, 2008)

Obesity may not be directly due to eating
A study of worms sug­gests the nerv­ous sys­tem con­trols eat­ing and fat sep­a­rate­ly, re­search­ers say. (June 3, 2008)

Brain abnormalities seen in heavy pot smokers
Two im­por­tant brain struc­tures ap­pear small­er in long-time, heavy pot smok­ers, a study has found. (June 2, 2008)


Almost "uncontacted" tribe revealed
Rare pho­tos were re­leased to high­light the per­ils fac­ing peo­ples living re­mote from the mod­ern world. (May 30, 2008)

Gender math gap erasable, studies suggest
New research may shed light on a long, bit­ter debate: are boys bet­ter at math than girls? (May 30, 2008)







Monkey controls robotic arm with thoughts
Sci­ent­ists re­port­ed what they said is a smooth­ly work­ing sys­tem that might help para­lyzed peo­ple. (May 28, 2008)

Big quakes found to spark jolts worldwide
Bumps even on the op­po­site side of the globe can fol­low a large earth­quake, re­search­ers say. (May 27, 2008)







Crystal skulls are fake: study
As In­di­ana Jones rac­es to find an an­cient arti­fact in his new film, he might want to take a mo­ment to check its au­then­ticity. (May 23, 2008)

Mars craft lands in search of ice
NASA's Phoenix land­er snapped its first im­ages as it be­gan a ro­bo­tic ex­p­lo­r­a­t­ion of fro­zen wa­ter-and life?-on Mars. (May 26, 2008)

Tests back up theory of hot springs on Mars
Mars may have ex­pe­ri­enced life-giv­ing pro­cesses si­m­i­lar to those that oc­cur at Yel­low­stone Na­tion­al Park, re­search­ers say. (May 22, 2008)

Robot follows in cricket's footleaps
A tiny new ro­bot weighs little more than a me­di­um-sized coin and can jump 27 times its body size. (May 21, 2008)


For once, a supernova is seen at birth
A stroke of luck may pro­vide va­lu­able in­sight into mass­ive stel­lar ex­plo­sions. (May 21, 2008)

Spray said to turn people to push­overs
Re­search­ers have iden­ti­fied brain cen­ters acti­vat­ed by be­tray­al of trust-and a way to keep them quiet. (May 21, 2008)

 




Extinct gene resurrected
Sci­en­tists say they have got­ten a gene from the now-lost Tas­ma­ni­an ti­ger to work in a mouse. (May 19, 2008)

Erectile woes may portend heart disease
Erec­tile dys­func­tion is al­ways a mat­ter of the heart, but new re­search sug­gests more than ro­mance is at stake. (May 19, 2008)

 




A brighter universe found: ours
Dust has tricked sci­ent­ists in­to think­ing the cos­mos is half as bright as it really is, as­tro­no­mers say. (May 16, 2008)

 




Dip in brainpower may follow drop in real power
Researchers say lack of sta­tus seems to erode men­tal func­tion-with comp­li­cated im­pli­ca­tions for so­ciety. (May 10, 2008)

U.S. to list polar bears as threatened
But be­cause cli­mate change is thought to be in­volved, there are big ques­tions as to whe­ther the rul­ing will spark de­ci­sive act­ion. (May 14, 2008)

 




Designer isotopes push frontiers
Creating rare va­riants of chem­i­cal ele­ments may be the next big thing in nuclear phys­ics. (May 9, 2008)

Brain molecules may tell of child abuse
A study has found distinct chemical mark­ings on the DNA of peo­ple who took their own lives af­ter suf­fer­ing mal­treat­ment. (May 6, 2008)

 




Dinos' doom-and maybe ours-linked to galaxy
Our move­ment through the Milky Way may lead to co­met showers, re­search­ers claim. (May 3, 2008)

Probe to reach near sun
An un­manned NASA craft would plunge into an in­fer­no more than hot enough to li­que­fy stone. (May 1, 2008)

 




"Nanotrees" might help miniaturize gadgetry
Beautiful and pos­sibly use­ful, tiny struc­tures shed light on strange as­pects of crys­tal growth, sci­ent­ists say. (May 1, 2008)

Musical genes may be coming to light
Mu­si­cal abil­ity seems to share ge­net­ic roots with lan­guage, sci­ent­ists re­port. (April 30, 2008)

Mega-storm continues on Saturn
Sat­urn­ian elec­tri­cal storms re­sem­ble Earth thun­der­storms, but much larg­er, with light­ning 10,000 times stronger. (April 30, 2008)

Training may boost type of intelligence
General prob­lem-solv­ing ab­il­ity may be im­proved through a se­ries of ex­er­cises, re­search­ers say. (April 29, 2008)

 





Gene therapy success reported in blindness cases
Clin­i­cal tri­al re­sults are being called one of the first clear suc­cesses for gene ther­a­py. (April 28, 2008)

Fateful signature may haunt un­suspect­ing patients
When you tell your doc­tors to cut life sup­port-then for­get you did and change your mind-there may be a prob­lem. (April 28, 2008)

 





The inbred-betrayed by scent?
Fe­male mice can sniff out in­bred males, and the same might be true of oth­er spe­cies, re­search­ers say. (April 17, 2008)

 




Brain may prepare decisions in advance
New re­search casts fresh doubt on wheth­er free will exists. (April 15, 2008)

Step toward man-made lightning reported
Sci­en­tists say they have touched off elec­tric dis­charges in thun­der­clouds by shoot­ing pow­er­ful la­sers. (April 14, 2008)

 

Dinosaurs along the Grand Canyon?
Arizona's gi­ant gorge may be 55 mil­lion years old or more, res­earch­ers say. (April 10, 2008)

Understanding of super­conduct­ivity may be nearing
A strange effect called su­per­con­duc­tiv­ity of­fers hopes of a new elec­tri­cal gold­en age. But sci­ent­ists don't quite know how to get there. (April 10, 2008)

Drug may limit radiation damage
A newly de­vel­oped drug is re­ported to pro­tect an­i­mals' bone mar­row and gas­t­ro­in­tes­ti­nal cells from des­truct­ive radia­t­ion. (April 10, 2008)

 





Unproven genetic tests called health threat
Little is done to shield U.S. con­su­mers from un­re­liable tests or mis­lead­ing claims, a re­port warns. (April 9, 2008)

Nuke exchange would shred ozone layer: study
The at­mos­phere's ozone lay­er blocks can­cer-caus­ing ul­tra­vio­let rays from the sun. (April 7, 2008)

 

Strange animal finds: Lungless frogs, crawling fish
Bi­ol­o­gists are still get­ting over their sur­prise from two un­re­lat­ed find­ings of weird spe­cies in the past week. (April 7, 2008)

Meteorites left "seeds" of Earth's left-handed life
New research could ex­plain why Earthly life forms pre­fer only one ori­en­tation of mo­le­cules called ami­no acids. (April 6, 2008)

 

Hunting was just final straw for mammoth, study finds
Does the hu­man spe­cies have mam­moth blood on its hands? Sci­en­tists have long de­bat­ed it. (March 31, 2008)

Scientist: "superbugs" resist all drugs, portend pandemic
Doc­tors are re­sort­ing to drugs once aban­doned due to harsh side effects-and even that has stopped work­ing in some cases. (March 31, 2008)

 

Paranoia rife among us, researchers say
Exaggerated fears of others af­flict as many as one in three peo­ple, sci­ent­ists claim. (March 31, 2008)

Organic chemicals detected at Saturn moon
A sur­pris­ing "brew" is erupt­ing like a gey­ser from Sat­urn's moon En­cel­a­dus, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers. (March 26, 2008)

 





Preterm birth tied to lifelong problems
Prem­a­ture birth leads to health is­sues more var­ied and last­ing than was known, sci­en­t­ists re­port. (March 25, 2008)

Uniqueness in human brain's language zone
Hu­man cells have more com­plex in­ter­con­nec­tions in and around lan­guage-linked brain ar­eas, re­search­ers say. (March 24, 2008)

The evolution of drug abuse
New research chal­lenges tradi­tional ex­plan­a­tions of why we wal­low in chem­ical grat­i­fi­ca­tion. (March 21, 2008)

 

Distant moon may have hidden ocean
Scient­ists are re­port­ing ev­i­dence of a vast body of wa­ter and am­mo­nia in­side Sat­urn's moon Ti­tan. (March 20, 2008)

Blast called furthest thing visible to naked eye
Halfway across the known cos­mos, sci­ent­ists say, a mass­ive stel­lar ex­plo­sion was briefly vi­si­ble to un­aided eyes on March 19. (March 20, 2008)

Money might buy happiness-when you spend on others
Peo­ple re­port great­er hap­pi­ness if they spend mon­ey on gifts or char­ity, re­search­ers say. (March 20, 2008)






Drive to complexity seen in animal evolution
A study claims to clar­i­fy a long­time de­bate: does ev­o­lu­tion have long-term trends? (March 17, 2008)

Estimates for peopling of Americas getting earlier
Humans appear to have first en­tered the Amer­i­cas some 22,000 years ago, according to some arch­aeo­lo­gists. (March 13, 2008)

 

More "little people" fossils found
A find­ing may re­new and com­pli­cate a de­bate over whether mi­ni­ature, island-dwel­ling peo­ple once evolved. (March 11, 2008)

That habitable planet might not be so far off
We might have neigh­bors am­ong the clos­est stars to our sun, sci­ent­ists say. (March 10, 2008)

Butterflies may keep memories of caterpillar youth
Scientists have won­dered for over a cen­tury whe­ther mem­ory sur­vives met­a­mor­pho­sis. (March 6, 2008)

 

Grand Canyon 20 million years old, study says
The can­yon's "in­ci­sion his­to­ry" has been dis­put­ed for more than a cen­t­ury. (March 6, 2008)

Study: media misconstrues blues as "chemical imbalance"
An an­cient, but un­sup­ported notion about de­pres­sion still finds its way in­to many news re­ports, a study has found. (March 4, 2008)

 

After jeers, some recognition for "reverse evolution" theorist
A leading sci­en­tif­ic journal is set to pub­lish genetic find­ings by a re­search­er of people who walk on all fours. (March 3, 2008)

Dark energy, or just dust? Findings raise questions
Ti­ny whiskers of car­bon in space may ex­plain puzzl­ing ob­serv­a­tions usu­ally at­tri­bu­ted to a mys­ter­ious force, re­search­ers say. (March 1, 2008)






Brain workings linked to parental instinct
Infant faces spark a flurry of ac­tiv­ity in a key brain re­gion, re­search­ers have found. (Feb. 28, 2008)

Pollution may make birds change their tune
Nothing like a bird­song to re­mind you of na­ture's glo­ry, right? May­be not quite, ac­cord­ing to rather creepy new find­ings. (Feb. 28, 2008)

Robot arms race seen underway
Pro­po­nents of ro­bot weapons say they could keep sold­iers out of harm's way. Crit­ics say the ma­chines raise troub­l­ing ques­tions. (Feb. 26, 2008)


"Noah's Ark" seed vault opens
A re­mote cham­ber de­signed to pro­tect seeds for post­er­ity took in its first ship­ments. (Feb. 26, 2008)

Expert: obesity, global warming could be fought together
Re­designing cities to curb ex­cess driv­ing could re­duce both warm­ing and waist­lines, a phys­i­cian claims. (Feb. 26, 2008)

Pirates had "democratic" ways
A small but grow­ing body of re­search focuses on how cri­mi­nal or­gan­i­za­tions gov­ern them­selves. (Feb. 22, 2008)

 



Computers learn "regret"
New pro­grams imi­tate hu­man de­ci­sion-mak­ing in stra­tegy games by looking backwards. (Feb. 21, 2008)

Moon systems, not planets, may be place to find life
Alien life might be both ea­sier and more in­ter­est­ing to dis­cover through a new stra­te­gy, a study sug­gests. (Feb. 19, 2008)

Music may aid stroke recovery
A study sug­gests music helps stim­u­late re­pair of brain wir­ing, re­search­ers re­port. (Feb. 19, 2008)

 

Brain cells tied to con­scious­ness reported found
Try­ing to un­der­stand what causes con­sciousness is one of the most ex­as­per­at­ing prob­lems in all sci­ence. (Feb. 19, 2008)

Study links heavy cell phone use to cancer
Increased risk of sali­vary gland tu­mors might be avoid­able by using hands-free de­vices, re­search­ers say. (Feb. 15, 2005)

 

Salt might have thwarted Martian life
New findings may nar­row the poss­i­bi­li­ties for where and when mi­crobes could have lived on the red planet. (Feb. 15, 2008)

People feeling powerful don't listen, study finds
Don't both­er try­ing to feed your boss a new idea while he's feel­ing im­port­ant, new re­search sug­gests. (Feb. 15, 2008)

Two strange dinos, one dark hunger
Newfound fos­sil reports high­light the un­usu­al dino­saurs that prowled south­ern lands in search of fresh meat. (Feb. 14, 2008)






Simple recipe for ad success: art
See­ing al­most any paint­ing on a pro­duct or pro­duct pitch makes peo­ple rate the item more high­ly, stu­dies sug­gest. (Feb. 13, 2008)

Why anyone can make a sand­castle
The exact amount of wa­ter in the sand doesn't mat­ter much. Re­search­ers now think they know why. (Feb. 13, 2008)






Probe would swim into alien seas
Sci­en­tists hope to send a ro­botic sub­ma­rine in­to oceans that may lurk with­in a moon of Ju­pi­ter. (Feb. 9, 2008)






A function for "gay genes" after all?
Stud­ies of some un­usu­al men in the re­mote Pa­cif­ic have led sci­en­tists to sur­pris­ing con­clu­sions. (Feb. 8, 2008)

A machine with a taste-for espresso
Can a ma­chine taste cof­fee? The ques­tion has plagued sci­en­tists who study the brac­ing be­ver­age. (Feb. 7, 2008)






"Sounds" of individual molecules captured
Physicists claim to have made tiny atom­ic vi­b­ra­tions, des­cri­bable as sound by some de­fi­ni­tions, au­di­ble. (Feb. 6, 2008)

Severe stress in pregnancy may be tied to kids' schizophrenia
The popular no­tion that a moth­er's state of mind can affect her un­born baby seems to have some truth, scientists say. (Feb. 4, 2008)






Communing with nature less and less
Peo­ple are los­ing in­ter­est in the out­doors, and it bodes ill for health and the en­vi­ron­ment, re­search­ers warn. (Feb. 4, 2008)

Particle smasher may reveal extra dimensions
Physicists have big hopes for the world's most pow­er­ful par­t­i­cle accelerator, to start up this sum­mer. (Feb. 1, 2008)





A common ancestor for all blue-eyed people
Every­one with blue eyes can trace their line­age to one per­son who lived around the late Stone Age, re­search­ers say. (Jan. 31, 2008)






Surprises from smallest planet
A space­craft has given scient­ists a to­tal­ly new look at Mer­cury, NA­SA re­ports. (Jan. 30, 2008) (Jan. 30, 2008)

Get lazy, age faster
Peo­ple who are phys­ic­ally ac­tive in their spare time seem bi­o­log­ic­ally young­er than their couch-bound peers, re­search­ers say. (Jan. 28, 2008) (Jan. 28, 2008)

 

A new geologic age-started by us
A rad­i­cal pro­pos­al is gain­ing ground among ge­ol­o­gists. (Jan. 25, 2008)

Girl changes blood type, immune system
Doc­tors are des­crib­ing a teen­age Aus­tra­lian as some­thing of a med­i­cal mir­acle. (Jan. 25, 2008)

Researchers report blackest black yet made
A new material could one day im­prove so­lar en­er­gy technology by in­creas­ing light ab­sorp­tion, sci­en­t­ists say. (Jan. 23, 2008)

Study revisits bizarre theory of alien cells in rain
A con­tro­ver­sial claim con­cern­ing re­cent strange, red rains may fit with some his­tori­cal ac­counts, a study con­cludes.
(Jan. 22, 2008)






Do rich nations "owe" poor ones for eco-abuse?
It would seem they do-more than $1.8 tril­lion, if a new ap­prai­sal is to be be­lieved. (Jan. 22, 2008)

"Largest" ever fossil rodent found
A ro­dent as big as a bull once roamed South Amer­ica, re­search­ers re­port.  (Jan. 17, 2008)

 

Death by flowers: giant, suicidal palm has botanists stumped
Scient­ists are won­der­ing how a self-des­truct­ing plant got to Ma­da­gascar and elu­ded dis­cov­ery before now. (Jan. 16, 2008)

Clone food safe, FDA says; no sales foreseen yet
U.S. regu­lators say and milk from cloned an­i­mals are safe to eat.  (Jan. 16, 2008)

 

Did Columbus lead syphilis to Europe?
A study sug­gests as much, but some re­search­ers say it's far from the last word. (Jan. 14, 2008)

Researchers recreate rat heart
The work may be a step to­ward ar­t­i­fi­cial­ly build­ing life­like, fun­c­t­ion­ing hu­man hearts, sci­ent­ists say. (Jan. 13, 2008)

 

Mystery world a merged planet?
A strange object "needs a strange ex­plana­t­ion," an as­tro­no­mer says. (Jan. 10, 2008)

"Unprecedented" results after new Alzheimer's treatment
Re­search­ers say an al­ready ap­proved drug re­verses symp­toms of a de­vas­tat­ing ill­ness. (Jan. 9, 2008)






Pollution found to shrink fetuses
New find­ings bode ill for the life­long health of af­fect­ed chil­dren, sci­en­tists warn. (Jan. 8, 2008)

Four healthy habits may give 14 more years: study
Research­ers see a re­mark­able com­bined be­ne­fit in fol­low­ing four ba­sic healthy prac­tices.  (Jan. 8, 2008)






"Micro-needle" would spare patients the sting
A tiny nee­dle made partly of ce­ram­ic may al­low painless in­jec­tions, re­search­ers claim. (Jan. 7, 2008)

Shrinking helium reserves may threaten more than kids' play
The element that lifts bal­loons, spir­its and voice ranges also plays key roles in tech­no­logy-but it may run out. (Jan. 5, 2008)

 

Did insects take down T. rex?
A new book fin­gers a sur­prise sus­pect as con­tri­bu­tor to the di­no­saurs' de­mise. (Jan. 4, 2008)

Search for ET beefed up-with your help
A search for ra­di­o sig­nals from al­ien civ­il­iz­a­tions is set to be­come 500 times more po­wer­ful, in­vest­i­ga­tors say. (Jan. 2, 2008)

 

 

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