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June 06, 2013

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PAST NEWS - 2009

Mosquito lovers "sing" in harmony
The insects re­spon­si­ble for the most ma­lar­ia deaths find mates by us­ing their wing­beats to pro­duce tones that agree, a study re­ports. (Dec. 31, 2009)

 

Power promotes hypocrisy: study
Behind 2009's scan­dal-rid­den head­lines lies a deeper psy­ch­o­lo­gi­cal pat­tern, researchers claim. (Dec. 29, 2009)

Scientists create "memories" in isolated brain slices
Researchers say the effect oc­curred thanks to an ob­scure type of cell de­scribed in 1893 by a Span­iard dubbed the fath­er of neuro­science. (Dec. 27, 2009)

 

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. (Dec. 22, 2009)

Collisions and "vampirism" may make stars look newly young
Two processes can make some stars look much young­er than they really are, as­tro­no­mers have found. (Dec. 26, 2009)

 

Moon like that in "Avatar" could be real
Hab­it­a­ble moons may well ex­ist, perhaps even around the same star that il­lu­mi­nates the fic­tional Pan­do­ra, as­tro­no­mers say. (Dec. 20, 2009)

For some stone-agers, home was where the hearth was
Some of our hu­man an­ces­tors may have or­gan­ized their liv­ing spaces in­to dif­fer­ent ar­eas much ear­li­er than pre­vi­ously thought. (Dec. 17, 2009)

 

Violent conflicts fit into patterns, researchers find
The size and tim­ing of vi­o­lent events in hu­man in­sur­gent con­flicts ex­hib­it many si­m­i­lar­i­ties, a re­port says. (Dec. 16, 2009)

First "super-Earths" found orbiting sun-like stars
As­tro­no­mers have re­ported find­ing as many as six plan­ets, not many times heav­i­er than Earth, or­bit­ing two near­by Sun-like stars. (Dec. 15, 2009)

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. (Dec. 14, 2009)

Personalities judged by appearance alone in study
They say nev­er to judge a book by its cov­er. But some as­pects of a stran­ger's per­son­al­ity may be dis­cern­ible from a pho­to. (Dec. 11, 2009)

 

Fossils said to clarify dinosaur evolution
A new find indi­cates that di­no­saurs split up early into three ba­sic lin­eages, re­search­ers say. (Dec. 10, 2009)

Life on the Red Planet? Methane results boost hopes
A new study leaves mi­crobes as one of just two pos­sible ex­pla­na­tions for how a "marsh gas" is formed on the red plan­et, ac­cord­ing to sci­ent­ists. (Dec. 9, 2009)

 

Poor, misunderstood testosterone
Contrary to pop­u­lar con­cep­tions, the horm­one may some­times pro­mote fair play. (Dec. 8, 2009)

 

"Hammer" heads give sharks super vision: study
A TV "myth" dis
­missed by some sci­ent­ists has turned out to be even truer than any­one thought, some of those very re­search­ers now say. (Dec. 7, 2009)

Feeding birds could change their evolution
Feed­ing birds in win­ter is in­no­cent fun, but it can have pro­found-and rel­a­tively quick-ef­fects on a spe­cies, re­search­ers say. (Dec. 4, 2009)

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. (Dec. 3, 2009)

To keep muscles strong, "garbage" has to go
To main­tain mus­cle strength with age, cells must get rid of trash that ac­cu­mu­lates in them, ac­cord­ing to a stu­dy. (Dec. 3, 2009)

 

Do black holes zap galaxies into existence?
Astronomers say they may have solved a long-debated chicken-and-egg problem. (Dec. 1, 2009)

Particle smasher becomes world's most powerful
Af­ter a year of trou­bles, the Large Had­ron Col­lider is back. (Nov. 30, 2009)

 

America's food waste laying "waste" to environment
Food waste con­tri­butes to glob­al warm­ing, re­search­ers warn. (Nov. 25, 2009)

Video shows Saturn's northern lights
A space­craft has spot­ted the tallest known "north­ern lights" in the so­lar sys­tem, the au­ro­ras flick­er­ing high above Sat­urn. (Nov. 27, 2009)

Scientists make plastic without using fossil fuels
Re­search­ers say they have man­aged to make plas­tics through "bio-en­gin­eer­ing" rath­er than us­ing fu­els that con­trib­ute to glob­al warm­ing. (Nov. 24, 2009)

 



Blame game is "contagious"
The mere sight of some­one in a group being blamed for a prob­lem can lead to a dom­ino ef­fect, re­search­ers say. (Nov. 20, 2009)

Road rage? Gas fumes may heighten aggression
A study has found that rats ex­posed to gas­o­line fumes be­come more ag­gres­sive. (Nov. 24, 2009)

Poop evidence exonerates humans in mammoth mystery
Giant mam­mals died out in North Ame­rica before any well-known hu­man po­pu­la­tions showed up, a study sug­gests.  (Nov. 19, 2009)

 





Our oceans, extra­terrestrial material?
A con­ven­tion­al view that the at­mos­phere and oceans came from va­pors emit­ted during vol­can­ism may be wrong, a a study says. (Nov. 17, 2009)

From chimps, new clues to language origins
Chimps seem to use the left half of the brain to com­mu­ni­cate with ges­tures-just as hu­mans do to talk, re­search­ers have found. (Nov. 16, 2009)

 

Lunar water "confirmed"
Pre­lim­i­nar­y da­ta from a NASA sat­el­lite shows the moon really does have wa­ter, sci­en­tists say. (Nov. 13, 2009)

Stars' chemistry could give away planetary presence
Re­search­ers say the find­ing not only could save mon­ey and time in plan­e­tary searches, it al­so points to a so­lu­tion to a long­stand­ing rid­dle. (Nov. 11, 2009)

 

How could they? Poop-eating apes prompt quest for answers
Na­ture can be beau­ti­ful. El­e­gant. Grace­ful. But not always. (Nov. 10, 2009)

 

Ants could inspire military strategies
A re­search­er has de­signed a sys­tem that uses ant colonies' be­hav­ior to help plan troop move­ments on bat­tle­fields. (Nov. 9, 2009)

Language learning may start in womb
From their first days, babies cry dif­fer­ently de­pend­ing on the lan­guage of their par­ents, ac­cord­ing to a new stu­dy. (Nov. 6, 2009)

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. (Nov. 4, 2009)


Drunken flies could pave way for alcoholism cure
In­tox­i­cated in­sects have helped sci­ent­ists find net­works of genes-al­so pre­sent in hu­mans-impli­cated alco­hol drink­ing. (Nov. 3, 2009)

Inequality, "silver spoon" effect found in ancient societies
Inequality caused by handed-down wealth was well es­tab­lished long ago, a study has found. (Nov. 2, 2009)


Technology could cool the laptop
"Spin" elec­tron­ics may keep de­vices from over­heat­ing and give in­forma­t­ion tech­nol­o­gy a un­ique twist. (Oct. 30, 2009)

Light from a cosmic "dark age"
As­tro­no­mers are re­port­ing the dis­cov­ery of the most dis­tant ob­ject ev­er dis­cov­ered, from a time when the first stars were form­ing. (Oct. 28, 2009)


Being tortured may make people seem guilty
Some wit­nesses to torture see the vic­tims as more guilty the more they suf­fer, a study sug­gests. (Oct. 27, 2009)

No joke: new hope for painful "four-hour erection"
Hours-long erec­tions may seem like a rich source of jests, but to vic­tims, the pain-and possible resulting impotence-is no laugh­ing mat­ter. (Oct. 26, 2009)

 



Near-black hole conditions recreated, study says
Lasers can be used to gen­er­ate ex­treme states of mat­ter. (Oct. 20, 2009)

Obama election changed voter testosterone
Young men who vot­ed for los­ing can­di­dates suf­fered a drop in lev­els of the hor­mone, re­search­ers re­port. (Oct. 22, 2009)

"Superspreader" workers may trigger hospital outbreaks
Certain types of health-care work­ers may play a dis­pro­por­tion­ate role in spread­ing germs, a the­o­ret­i­cal study sug­gests. (Oct. 22, 2009)

 

New space map reveals "mystery ribbon"
Findings don't fit with accepted models of the "solar wind" that helps shield our solar system. (Oct. 15, 2009)

Scientists find out how moon makes own water: report
The moon ab­sorbs par­t­i­cles from the Sun, which in turn com­bine with ox­y­gen in the dust to make wa­ter, re­search­ers say. (Oct. 16, 2009)

Scientists report giving flies false memories
How do you get in­tel­li­gence from parts that are un­in­tel­li­gent? A group of re­search­ers is ex­plor­ing that. (Oct. 15, 2009)







“Loyal” gators said to display bird-like mating habits
Findings may help shed light on the an­ces­tral mat­ing sys­tems of birds and of many di­no­saurs. (Oct. 12, 2009)

Giving among strangers more nurture than nature, study suggests
New research ad­dresses the thorny issue of how al­tru­ism might have evolved. (Oct. 13, 2009)

Distant moon may have oxygen in ocean
The abundant wa­ter in Ju­pi­ter’s moon Eu­ro­pa may have en­ough ox­y­gen to sup­port ani­mal-like life forms, a study sug­gests. (Oct. 9, 2009)


Huge "hidden" Saturn ring found
Astro­nom­ers are re­port­ing the dis­cov­ery of larg­est-known plan­e­tary ring in the So­lar Sys­tem. (Oct. 7, 2009)





Could birth control pills alter mate choices?
Birth con­trol pills may al­ter wom­en’s abil­i­ties to choose, com­pete for and re­tain mates, sci­en­tists say. (Oct. 7, 2009)

Buried coins may reveal population histories
Hidden hoards can help re­veal the popula­t­ion trends of a giv­en time pe­ri­od, a new study sug­gests. (Oct. 5, 2009)

 

Pre-“Lucy” fossils reveal secrets
The last com­mon an­ces­tor of chimps and hu­mans was prob­ably not as chimp-like as widel­y be­lieved, re­searchers re­port. (Oct. 1, 2009)

Color plays “musical chairs” in brain
A col­or divorced from the shape to which it “be­longs” seems to go in­to an­oth­er one, sci­en­tists have found. (Oct. 4, 2009)

Hyenas cooperate better than chimps, study finds
The much-maligned, dog-like creat­ures may beat out our ape rel­a­tives in co­op­er­a­tive prob­lem-solv­ing tests. (Sept. 30, 2009)

 

Key to subliminal messaging: keep it negative, study suggests
Sub­lim­i­nal mes­sag­ing is most ef­fec­tive when the mes­sage be­ing con­veyed is neg­a­tive, ac­cord­ing to new re­search. (Sept. 28, 2009)

Rough day at work? You might not feel like exercising
If you use your will­pow­er to do one task, it may de­plete your will­pow­er for a to­tally dif­fer­ent task, scient­ists say. (Sept. 29, 2009)

Lower IQ’s measured in spanked children
Only part of the ef­fect is due to spank­ing it­self, but still, laws should be passed against spank­ing, some re­search­ers say. (Sept. 24, 2009)

 

Exotic life forms: looking for life as we don’t know it
A new re­search group is de­voted to find­ing out how life might evolve us­ing chem­i­cals not found in Earth-based life forms. (Sept. 23, 2009)

Moon may have water
Our moon is po­ten­tial­ly not quite as dry as it is tra­dit­ional­ly thought to be, re­search­ers say. (Sept. 23, 2009)

Study: torture produces unreliable information
Extreme stress appears to warp mem­ories while mot­iv­ating sus­pects to say any­thing to stop the tor­ture, new re­search claims. (Sept. 21, 2009)

 

Tiny “T. rex” found
An an­ces­tor of the gi­ant pre­da­tor re­sembles a mi­ni­ature rep­li­ca of it, at 1/90 the weight, sci­ent­ists say. (Sept. 17, 2009)

Negative public opinion seen as warning signal for terrorism
Ter­ror­ism is more likely when one coun­try’s peo­ple dis­like the lead­ers and poli­cies of an­oth­er, a study has found. (Sept. 17, 2009)

Fungus-treated violin beats Strad in blind test
A newly de­vel­oped type of vi­o­lin won in a blind con­test against one made by the most famed vi­o­lin mak­er of his­to­ry. (Sept. 15, 2009)







Shower­heads may spray germs at you
Your morn­ing scrub­down may give you more than you bar­gained for. (Sept. 14, 2009)

Brain activity might predict schizo­phrenia
A small ar­ea in our heads is linked to the ear­li­est stages of a ser­ious men­tal ill­ness, re­search­ers say. (Sept. 12, 2009)


Memories may persist even when forgotten
Scientists have found that a per­son’s brain ac­tiv­ity while re­mem­bering an event is si­m­i­lar to when it was first ex­pe­ri­enced, even if spe­cif­ics can’t be re­called. (Sept. 9, 2009)

Graffiti “shield” may offer hope for paint-threatened landmarks
Graf­fiti mars many his­to­ric monu­ments, and can be hard to erase with­out dam­ag­ing the un­der­ly­ing sur­face. But help may be com­ing. (Sept. 11, 2009)

Cities work much like brains, study finds
High­way inter­con­nect­ions in cit­ies are or­gan­ized and evolve much like brain con­nect­ions, re­search sug­gests. (Sept. 5, 2009)


Artificial steps against global warming may be dangerous, necessary
Human­ity is box­ing it­self into a cor­ner when it comes to cli­mate change, sci­ent­ists say. (Sept. 2, 2009)

Oldest known black hole reported found
New research could shed light on the ori­gins of the most mas­sive black holes. (Sept. 3, 2009)

Tiny “nanolaser” could change face of computing, telecom
Re­search­ers say they have cre­at­ed a de­vice that can gen­er­ate vis­i­ble light in a space smaller than a pro­tein mol­e­cule. (Aug. 31, 2009)


Signs of recent Ice Age noted on Mars
The dis­tri­bu­tion of ground ice hints at a cold­er time in the Red Plan­et’s past, re­search­ers claim. (Aug. 28, 2009)

Brain region linked to sense of personal space
A new find­ing may shed light on the brain mech­a­nisms in­volved in so­cial be­hav­ior. (Aug. 30, 2009)

Last great forest under threat, study finds
Scientists are cal­ling for ur­gent pre­serv­a­tion of the bo­real for­est across large stretches of Rus­sia, Can­a­da and oth­er north­ern coun­tries. (Aug. 26, 2009)

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. (Aug. 24, 2009)






Unguided, we really do go in circles, study finds
The popular wis­dom about lost tra­vel­ers is correct, re­search indi­cates. (Aug. 20, 2009)

Technique reveals buried paintings in new way
A new X-ray method shows never-seen de­tails of a paint­ing hid­den under an­oth­er paint­ing by il­lus­tra­tor N.C. Wy­eth, re­search­ers re­port. (Aug. 19, 2009)

 




“Dance restaurant” theory of water takes shape
New studies suggest the mo­lec­u­lar struc­ture of wa­ter can be com­pared to a crowd­ed res­tau­rant with a dance floor. (Aug. 14, 2009)

Building block of life reported found in comet
The finding supports a claim that in­gred­ients for life might have come from space, ac­cord­ing to NA­SA sci­ent­ists. (Aug. 18, 2009)


Small "epidemic" may have killed Mozart
A bacterial out­break spread from a mi­li­tary hosp­ital may have felled the great com­pos­er, sci­ent­ists say. (Aug. 17, 2009)

Cancer stem cells not drug-immune, researchers find
Sci­en­tists say they have found the first chem­i­cal that sel­ec­tively kills cells that spawn dead­ly tum­ors. (Aug. 13, 2009)

 

Crash destroyed little planet, scientists say
A NASA tel­e­scope is thought to have found ev­i­dence of a vio­lent col­li­sion be­tween two plan­ets around a young star. (Aug. 13, 2009)

Chicken-hearted tyrants? Dinos may have sought easy prey
Huge, meat-eating di­no­saurs like T. rex seem to have pre­ferred pick­ing on young­sters, re­search­ers say. (Aug. 10, 2009)

 

Tiny deer, glid­ing frog among 100s of new­found species
A biolog­i­cal trea­sure trove threat­ened by cli­mate change, the east­ern Him­a­la­yas are still giv­ing up se­crets. (Aug. 10, 2009)

Scientists report growing new teeth for mice, in place
The technique may be a step to­ward more ad­vanced or­gan re­place­ment ther­ap­ies, re­search­ers pro­pose. (Aug. 3, 2009)

Sharpest views of a colossal, violent, star
As­tro­no­mers have cap­tured the sharpest views yet of the doomed “su­per­gi­ant” star Be­tel­geuse. (Aug. 3, 2009)

 




“Dream therapy” set for a comeback?
Si­m­i­lar­i­ties in brain ac­ti­vity be­tween a spe­cial dream­ing state and some forms of men­tal de­range­ment are draw­ing in­ter­est from re­search­ers. (July 28, 2009)

Reflection is key to jewel beetle colors, scientists say
New studies could lead to ap­pli­ca­tions in­clud­ing car paints that re­flect dif­fer­ent co­lors from dif­ferent an­gles. (July 24, 2009)

A new way to fix a broken heart?
Scientists have re­ported­ly de­vised a meth­od to to coax ma­ture heart mus­cle cells in­to re­gen­er­at­ing. (July 24, 2009)

 






Astronomers: impact gives Jupiter bruise as wide as Pacific
Some­thing ap­parently slammed in­to the giant plan­et in the last few days, sci­ent­ists re­port. (July 22, 2009)

Origin of raindrop size “revealed”
The sizes of rain­drops result from the break­up of larg­er drop­lets, new high-speed films in­di­cate. (July 20, 2009)

 






Fossil poop balls reveal secrets of lost world
A study has re­vealed an intricate net­work of long-ago in­ter­ac­tions in “mega-dung” from gi­ant mam­mals. (July 19, 2009)

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. (July 19, 2009)

Ocean current changes predicted to be gradual
Scientists have re­leased a rare bit of hope­ful news linked to glob­al warm­ing. (July 18, 2009)

 

Cats are crafty manipulators, study finds
An­y­one who has had cats knows how hard it can be to get them to do an­y­thing they don't want to do. (July 13, 2009)

%#$!? Swearing may actually reduce pain
Unleashing ver­bal bombs might not show great self-control, but it sure seems to help peo­ple take pain bet­ter, sci­ent­ists have found. (July 12, 2009) (July 12, 2009)

 

Monkeys live longer after eating lighter, research finds
Cutting ca­lo­ries by 30 per­cent seems to have re­mark­able effects, sci­en­tists say.
(July 9, 2009)

A “theory of everything” is said to solve its first real-world problem
String the­ory, which pos­tu­lates extra di­men­sions, has long been cri­ti­cized for mak­ing prom­ises that it failed to live up to. (July 8, 2009)

 




People only sometimes seek out opposing views, research finds
Peo­ple tend to avoid ideas they dis­agree with—but some fac­tors can prompt them to seek out such points of view, sci­en­tists say. (July 8, 2009)

Could coffee reverse Alzheimer’s?
Studies with mice are sug­gest­ing sur­pris­ing new poss­i­bil­ities for treat­ing the mem­ory dis­order, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers. (July 6, 2009)

Finding may help explain giant black holes
As­tro­no­mers are re­port­ing that they have dis­cov­ered a new class of black hole, the mid-sized one. (July 1, 2009)

 

Scientists look to bat caves for “fountains of youth”
Sci­en­tists are bat­ty over a find­ing they say could lead to a break­through—sig­ni­fi­cant­ly long­er life­spans. (July 1, 2009)

Researchers report capturing first image of memories being made
Re­search­ers say they have cap­tured the first im­age of a mech­an­ism un­der­ly­ing long-term mem­o­ry forma­t­ion. (June 28, 2009)

Flute said to be oldest hand­crafted musical instru­ment
Early mod­ern hu­mans may have been danc­ing to bird-bone flutes as early as 35,000 years ago, sci­en­tists say. (June 28, 2009)



Oceans in Enceladus? Scientists can’t decide
Two con­trast­ing find­ings are leav­ing re­search­ers un­sure whe­ther a dis­tant moon has under­ground oceans. (June 24, 2009)

Need something? Talk to my right ear!
Most of us pre­fer to be ad­dressed in our right ear, and are more likely grant a re­quest when we hear it from the right, re­search­ers have found. (June 23, 2009)

Researchers find “a touch of glass” in metal
Met­als and ce­ram­ics have more in com­mon with glass than has been pre­vi­ously rec­og­nized, a new study in­di­cates. (June 18, 2009)

 

“Guilty look” in dogs mostly owners’ fantasy, study finds
Peo­ple may see “guilt” in a dog’s body lan­guage when they think the dog did some­thing wrong – even if it did­n’t. (June 15, 2009)

Brain energy use proposed as key to understanding consciousness
Some re­search­ers are pro­pos­ing a new way to un­der­stand a mys­ter­ious state of being. (June 15, 2009)

Lion tamers step aside: beasts could be tamed through genes
Recent research raises the pros­pect that hu­mans could tame “un­tame­a­ble” spe­cies in new ways. (June 17, 2009)

 

Birds didn’t come from dinosaurs, study suggests
New findings about bird breath­ing abil­i­ties chal­lenge en­trenched ideas, some sci­ent­ists say. (June 12, 2009)

Giant black holes even heavier than thought: study
New find­ings may af­fect the way astro­no­mers theo­rize about ga­lac­tic evolution. (June 8, 2009)

“Warrior gene” found rife among young thugs
Boys with a par­tic­u­lar var­i­ant of a gene are more likely to join gangs—and to be among their most vi­o­lent mem­bers, re­search­ers say. (June 8, 2009)

 

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.
(June 7, 2009)

 

Sandcastle secrets could help revive ancient building technique
The se­cret of a suc­cess­ful sand­cas­tle could aid the re­viv­al of an an­cient, eco-friendly build­ing method, ac­cord­ing to some en­gi­neers. (June 5, 2009)

When evolution isn’t so slow and gradual
Gup­pies in­tro­duced in­to new habi­tats de­vel­oped new and ad­van­ta­geous traits in just a few years, a study has found. (June 2, 2009) (June 5, 2009)






Ocean acidification to trigger job losses, scientists warn
Ocean acidifica­t­ion, a con­se­quence of hu­man ac­ti­vity, is set to change marine eco­sys­tems for­ev­er, re­search­ers say. (June 1, 2009)

Scientists follow the poop to track penguins from space
Noth­ing goes to waste for breed­ing col­o­nies of em­per­or pen­guins in Ant­arc­ti­ca. (June 1, 2009)


“Language gene” alters mouse squeaks
Mice car­ry­ing a “hu­man­ized” gene can’t talk, but might tell us some­thing about our ev­o­lu­tion­ary past. (May 28, 2009)

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. (May 28, 2009)

Technique would detect watery worlds
An Earth-like plan­et would ap­pear in tele­scopes as lit­tle more than a “pale blue dot.” What could we make of that? (May 27, 2009)






Green tea extract reported to show promise against leukemia
Sci­en­tists are re­port­ing pos­i­tive re­sults in early clin­i­cal tri­als us­ing a sub­stance in green tea. (May 27, 2009)

“Swine Flu” was circulating undetected, scientists say
All seg­ments of the virus orig­i­nat­ed in avi­an hosts and be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing in pigs at var­i­ous times in the 1900s, according to in­vest­i­gat­ors. (May 23, 2009)

Earliest cells might have thrived amid asteroid pummeling
The so-called Late Heavy Bom­bard­ment wasn’t ne­ces­sar­ily the end of the world for an­cient mi­crobes, sci­en­tists say. (May 20, 2009)


Monkeys found to wonder what might have been
Record­ings of brain cells show that mon­keys take note of missed op­por­tun­i­ties and learn from their mis­takes, sci­en­tists say. (May 15, 2009)

“Missing link” ancestor reported found
A 47-mil­lion-year-old fos­sil con­nects hu­mans, apes and mon­keys to other mam­mals, re­search­ers an­nounced. (May 19, 2009)

Race is on to preserve “oldest submerged town”
An ancient site as­socia­ted with a le­gen­dary Greek “age of he­roes” may be about to give up its se­crets. (May 14, 2009)

Study links daydreaming to problem-solving
Our brains are much more ac­tive when we day­dream than pre­vi­ously thought, a study has found. (May 13, 2009)

 

Warriors don’t always get the girl
Violence isn’t the tick­et to hav­ing more wives and chil­dren among all tri­bal peo­ples, sci­ent­ists say. (May 12 , 2009)

Acupuncture found to beat “usual” care for back pain
A study is reviving ques­tions for some about how the trad­it­ion­al Chin­ese treat­ment might really work. (May 11, 2009)

 

Expedition to bursting, undersea volcano yields marvels
The mount­ain sup­ports un­ique crea­tures thriv­ing de­spite constant eruptions, scientists say. (May 5, 2009)

Memories stolen by Alzheimer’s may be retrievable: study
Scientists have found a gene said to have en­abled mice with an Alz­heim­er’s dis­ease-like con­di­tion to re­cover lost mem­o­ries. (May 7, 2009)

Tiny “invisibility cloak” is like a magic carpet
Re­search­ers have cre­at­ed a “car­pet cloak” that con­ceals ob­jects un­der it from de­tec­tion us­ing light near the hu­man-vis­i­ble part of the spec­trum. (May 4, 2009)

 




Parrots have got rhythm, studies find
New re­search may help shed light on the evo­lu­tion­ary puz­zle of mu­sic. (April 30, 2009)

“Rogue” black holes out there, but fear not: astronomers
It sounds like a sci-fi mov­ie plot: rogue black holes roam­ing our gal­axy, threat­en­ing to swal­low an­y­thing that gets too close. (April 29, 2009)

 





A seat of wisdom in the brain?
Two sci­ent­ists have com­piled what they say is the first schol­arly re­view of the ba­sis in the brain of wis­dom. (April 24, 2009)

Detection of “furthest object” could pave way for probing early cosmos
An ex­plo­sion de­tected last Thurs­day marks the most dis­tant, longest-a­go event and ob­ject known, as­tro­no­mers say. (April 28, 2009)

A warm TV may drive away feelings of loneliness, rejection
For those feeling unloved, illu­sionary rela­t­ion­ships with TV char­ac­ters some­times help fill the gap, re­search­ers say. (April 23, 2009)

 



Study: personalized drugs may lengthen cancer survival
Re­searchers used a com­pa­ny’s “ge­netic pro­files” of in­di­vid­ual pa­tients to create cus­tom treat­ments. (April 20, 2009)

“Complex” organic molecules detected in space
Com­put­er mod­els al­so suggest larg­er mol­e­cules may be out there, in­clud­ing ami­no ac­ids, es­sen­tial for life as we know it. (April 22, 2009)

Keeping slim is good for the planet, say scientists
A study finds that main­tain­ing a healthy body weight is good news for the en­vi­ron­ment. (April 20, 2009)

 

Physicists see the cosmos in a coffee cup
A pro­fes­sor and a grad­u­ate stu­dent say they have found a new “u­ni­ver­sal prin­ci­ple.” (April 16, 2009)

Digital media may under-stimulate moral senses
It’s snappy and con­ve­nient—but the dig­it­al me­dia pre­va­l­ent in our time may move too fast to evoke our mor­al feel­ings, a stu­dy suggests. (April 13, 2009)

 




Bright feathers found to get color from foamy structure
Some of na­ture’s bright­est col­ors come from ti­ny struc­tures with a struc­ture si­m­i­lar to beer foam or a sponge, ac­cord­ing to re­search­ers. (April 11, 2009)

Researchers wanted: humans need not apply?
Sci­en­tists are cre­at­ing au­to­mat­ed sys­tems that can ge­ner­ate new hy­pothe­ses and ap­proaches to re­search. (April 7, 2009)

 

Aerosols may drive much Arctic warming, scientists find
New NASA re­search sug­gests around half the at­mos­pher­ic warm­ing meas­ured in the Arc­tic is due to par­t­i­cles called aer­o­sols. (April 9, 2009)

Straw bale house survives quake test
An earth­quake simu­la­t­ion with a force re­port­ed as 82 tons could­n’t take down a straw home de­signed by civ­il en­gi­neer Dar­cey Do­no­van. (April 6, 2009)

 

Bird can “read” our gaze
A bird whose eyes look rather like hu­man eyes pays good at­tention to where our glan­ces fall, re­search­ers say. (April 2, 2009)


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. (April 1, 2009)

Vindictiveness doesn’t pay, study suggests
A study of Germans found that peo­ple in­clined to deal with in­equ­ity on a tit-for-tat ba­sis tend to suf­fer high­er un­em­ploy­ment. (March 30, 2009)

 

Crabs suffer, remember pain, study finds
Re­search is cal­ling in­to ques­tion the view that when small an­i­mals re­coil from un­pleas­ant­ness, it’s only a re­flex. (March 27, 2009)

Astronomers catch a “shooting star”
As­ter­oid 2008 TC3 has a hum­drum name but an un­us­ual dis­tinc­tion. (March 25, 2009)

 




Language of music may really be universal
Af­ri­cans who have nev­er lis­tened to ra­dio can pick up on emo­tions in West­ern mu­sic, ac­cord­ing to a new re­port. (March 20, 2009)

Brain cell type found to differ between man and mouse
An often over­looked cell em­bod­ies one of the very few ba­sic dif­fer­ences that set apart the hu­man brain, sci­en­tists pro­pose. (March 24, 2009)

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. (March 23, 2009)

Brain lives at “edge of chaos”
Scientists are of­fer­ing new ev­i­dence that our brains func­tion at a crit­i­cal point be­tween ran­dom­ness and or­der. (March 18, 2009)

 

Tiny space engine to push back against sunshine
Re­search­ers are pre­par­ing to test what they call the small­est, most pre­cisely con­trol­la­ble en­gine built for space. (March 18, 2009)

Gruesome group death of young dinos analyzed
A mud­dy lake­side some 90 mil­lion years ago drew a herd of young, bird­like di­no­saurs to a ter­ri­fy­ing end, say pa­le­on­tol­ogists. (March 16, 2009)

 

“Mind-reading” experi­ment high­lights how brain records mem­ories
New re­search adds to mount­ing ev­i­dence that it’s pos­si­ble to “read” mem­o­ries by look­ing at brain ac­ti­vity. (March 13, 2009)

 

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. (March 11, 2009)

Rock-hurling zoo chimp stocked ammo in advance: study
Re­search­ers have found what they say is some of the first clear ev­i­dence that a non-hu­man an­i­mal can spon­ta­ne­ously plan ahead. (March 10, 2009)

 

Faith found to reduce errors on psychological test
Dis­tinct brain ac­ti­vity pat­terns in be­liev­ers may dove­tail with per­form­ance dif­fer­ences, sci­en­tists said. (March 6, 2009)

Warning: warning labels may enhance lure of raunchy video games
A study claims to have con­firmed what many sus­pected. (March 5, 2009)

Martian mountain may answer big question
One Mar­tian vol­ca­no is about three times Mount Ever­est’s height. But it’s the small de­tails that two ge­ol­o­gists are look­ing at. (March 5, 2009)

 

Odd, bouncing, lollipop-faced fish dubbed new species
“Psyche­del­i­ca” seemed the per­fect mon­i­ker, to a sci­ent­ist who named this crea­ture. (March 3, 2009)

Doodling gets its due: tiny artworks may aid memory
Drawing while lis­ten­ing does­n’t nec­es­sarily imply a wan­der­ing mind, a study sug­gests. (March 2, 2009)

From oral to moral? Dirty deeds may prompt “bad taste” reaction
Mor­al dis­gust may be an out­growth of old­er forms of re­vul­sion, psych­o­lo­gists pro­pose. (Feb. 27, 2009)

 

Missing asteroids explained?
Sci­en­tists have re­ported a case of mis­sing as­ter­oids—and a pos­si­ble ex­plana­t­ion. (Feb. 26, 2009)

People walked like us 1.5 million years ago, study finds
Newfound foot­prints are the old­est evi­d­ence of hu­mans walk­ing on an­a­tom­ic­ally mod­ern feet, sci­en­tists re­port. (Feb. 27, 2009)

Black hole “baldness” reflected in ordinary objects: physicist
A mysterious num­ber re­mains fixed dur­ing a small ob­ject’s wild or­bit about a spin­ning black hole, theor­ists say. (Feb. 24, 2009)

 

“Green Comet” visits neighborhood
As­tro­no­mers are keep­ing a close eye on a green­ish com­et fast ap­proach­ing Earth’s vicin­ity.
(Feb. 21, 2009)

Richest biological zones found to suffer most wars
More than four in five wars in re­cent times arose in areas iden­ti­fied as the most bi­o­log­ic­ally di­verse, a study indi­cates. (Feb. 21, 2009)

Collective rituals spur support for suicide attacks: researchers
A new study pro­poses that acts of war by self-dest­ruc­tion are part of a lar­ger psy­cho­lo­gi­cal phe­no­me­non. (Feb. 19, 2009)

 

Running hamsters, tapping fingers tapped for energy
A rodent may be do­ing its own small part to pro­vide a re­new­able elec­tricity source. (Feb. 17, 2009)

Cosmologists aim to reveal time’s first moments
Researchers want to test whether ran­dom, mi­cro­scop­ic fluctua­t­ions in the fab­ric of space and time spawned the uni­verse. (Feb. 16, 2009)

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. (Feb. 15, 2009)

Researchers cracking code of the common cold
Sci­en­tists say they have put to­geth­er the pieces of the ge­net­ic codes for all known strains of the vi­rus be­hind the snif­fles. (Feb. 12, 2009)

 

In early humans, “jaws of steel”
Nut-crack­ing abil­i­ties in our dis­tant an­ces­tors let them adapt to chang­ing cir­cum­stances, a study sug­gests. (Feb. 11, 2009)

“Longevity gene” may boost lifespan
A varia­t­ion in a gene called FOX­O3A seems to in­crease hu­man life ex­pect­an­cy in popula­t­ions world­wide, sci­en­tists re­port. (Feb. 10, 2009)







Wolf in dog’s clo­th­ing? Study points to twist in fur color
Although dogs de­s­cend from wolves, dogs may have passed a help­ful gene­tic mu­ta­tion back to some wolves. (Feb. 6, 2009)

Evidence mounts for hill as “birth­place” of Zeus: scholars
A le­gend link­ing the king of Greek gods to Mt. Lyka­ion in Greece may have some merit, arch­aeo­lo­gists re­port. (Feb. 9, 2009)

Stem cell recipe gets even simpler
One chem­i­cal can con­vert cells from adult mice in­to the power­ful em­bry­o­nic-like stem cells needed in med­i­cine, bio­lo­gists re­port. (Feb. 5, 2009)


Like Earth, if you overlook the lava everywhere?
A Eu­ro­pe­an sat­el­lite has revealed a plan­et only twice as large as Earth or­bit­ing a dis­tant star, as­tro­no­mers say. (Feb. 4 , 2009)

Fossil snake said to break length record
A sixty-mil­lion-year-old South Amer­i­can snake might make to­day’s ana­con­das seem almost cud­dly. (Feb. 4, 2009)

Insulin may help treat Alzheimer’s
Sci­en­tists are re­port­ing that a sub­stance com­monly used to treat di­a­be­tes may al­so pro­tect against Alz­heim­er’s dis­ease. (Feb. 2, 2009)


Chemical found to trigger locust swarming
A com­mon brain chem­i­cal in hu­mans al­so sparks the Jekyll-and-Hyde trans­forma­t­ion of des­ert lo­custs, sci­ent­ists re­port. (Jan. 30, 2009)

When a stone lands in water
Physicists are clari­fy­ing how one of na­ture’s most beau­ti­ful spec­ta­cles un­folds: the dance of a wa­tery sur­face hit by a fall­ing stone. (Jan. 29, 2009)


Ill-fated ice man may have suffered two assaults
Scientists say they’ve re­vealed a new chap­ter in a mur­der case some 5,300 years old. (Jan. 28, 2009)

“Alarming” bone deterioration after long space flights
Months spent in space may raise as­tro­nauts’ risk for frac­tures lat­er in life, a study sug­gests. (Jan. 27, 2009)


Mightier sperm in “cuckolded” species
Where in­fi­del­ity pre­vails, sperm evolve to be faster and big­ger to cope with the com­pe­ti­tion, re­search­ers claim. (Jan. 26, 2009)

Schizophrenia reassessed as fixation on self
The mental illness may over­ac­ti­vate a brain sys­tem in­volved in self-re­flec­tion, sci­ent­ists say. (Jan. 23, 2009)


Makings of a deadly brown cloud
Burn­ing or­gan­ic ma­ter­ial for home use is large­ly res­pon­sible for a haze over south Asia, re­search­ers re­port. (Jan. 22, 2009)

Micro-motors would fit to swim human arteries
Many com­plex sur­geries for stroke, hard­ened ar­ter­ies or blood ves­sel block­ages are about to be­come safer, sci­ent­ists say. (Jan. 20, 2009)

 




“Cannibalism” creates huge stars
Oddly bloat­ed stars known as blue strag­glers grow by feast­ing on com­pan­ions, as­tro­no­mers claim. (Jan. 19, 2009)

Evidence of ancient chemical warfare reported
A poison-gas as­sault on Ro­man sol­diers may be the old­est ar­chae­o­log­i­cal ev­i­dence for chem­i­cal war­fare, a re­search­er says. (
Jan. 16, 2009)

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. (Jan. 13, 2009)

 

Through DNA, breathing new life into museum pieces
From mar­su­pials to ma­nu­scripts, re­search­ers are dust­ing off old speci­mens to learn their se­crets us­ing ge­ne­tics. (Jan. 13, 2009)

Enforcer of conformity: our own brains
Although a grammatically chal­lenged ad­vert­ise­ment ex­horts us to “think dif­fer­ent,” group op­in­ion af­fects us pow­er­fully. (Jan. 14, 2009)

Climate-induced food crisis seen by 2100
Barring drastic action, glob­al warm­ing could cripple agri­cult­ure in hot­ter areas, a study pre­dicts. (Jan. 10, 2009)






Black holes came first, astronomers conclude
Scientists may have solved a cos­mic chick­en-and-egg prob­lem. (Jan. 6, 2009)

Old drug may slow aging, researchers say
A drug once used for in­tes­ti­nal trou­ble is called prom­is­ing, but was also once linked to a di­sease out­break in a murky ep­i­sode. (Jan. 7, 2009)

Our galaxy no longer “little sister”
Fas­ten your seat belts: our gal­axy spins faster, weighs more, and is more likely to col­lide than we thought, re­search­ers claim. (Jan. 6, 2009)


Materials for “Earths” may be common in universe
New find­ings add to evi­dence that rocky plan­ets are a nor­mal oc­cur­rence, as­tro­nom­ers say. (Jan. 6, 2009)

Using light beams to grab molecules
Re­search­ers say they’ve cre­at­ed a trap that can cap­ture DNA mo­le­cules and other tiny ob­jects. (Jan. 1, 2009)

 

 

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