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"Long before it's in the papers"
February 06, 2010
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  = EXCLUSIVES = 


    CONTENTS

  • Scientists: docs don’t feel your pain much—and that may be best

  • Baby temperament found to predict adult brain structure

  • Females may suppress biological "inner male"

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

  • Poor, misunderstood testosterone

  • Tattoos, piercings may advertise good health

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

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

  • Huge "hidden" Saturn ring found

  • For freeloader birds, careful counting comes in handy

  • Small "epidemic" may have killed Mozart

  • Scientists report growing new teeth for mice, in place

  • Monkeys live longer after eating less: study

  • Study turns pigeons into "art critics"

  • Do sex cells hold the secret to long life?

  • No enforcement, no trade-not for chimps

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

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

  • Technology seen slashing battery weight, recharge time

  • HIV gene therapy trial results seen as positive

  • How "puppydog eyes" do their trick: chemistry

  • Ancient African exodus mostly involved men: geneticists

  • How unusual cells may hold key to HIV control

  • Photo captures 3 planets in far-off system

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

.


 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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


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

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


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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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


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

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

 

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

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






 

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

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

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

 

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

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






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

 = MORE NEWS = 


    CONTENTS

* * * LATEST * * *

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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


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

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

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





 

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

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

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





 

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

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





 

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

"Golden ratio" hints at hidden atomic symmetry
A hith­er­to un­dis­cov­ered order can be found in sol­id mat­ter at very small scales, phys­i­cists are re­port­ing.

 

Hubble reveals "uncharted" cosmic zone
The space tel­e­scope has un­cov­ered a pri­mor­di­al pop­ula­t­ion of small, ultra-blue ga­lax­ies, ac­cord­ing to ast­ro­no­mers.

"Lifeless" molecules found to evolve, adapt
Pri­ons-in­fec­tious mol­e­cules that cause fa­tal brain dis­eases-can evolve in a Dar­win­i­an fash­ion, bio­log­ists say.

 

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

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

 

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

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.

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.

 

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

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.

 

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

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.

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.

 

Do black holes zap galaxies into existence?
Astronomers say they may have solved a long-debated chicken-and-egg problem.

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

 

America's food waste laying "waste" to environment
Food waste con­tri­butes to glob­al warm­ing, re­search­ers warn.

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.

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.

 

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.

World Science Archive
 

Deep-sea hellhole Re­search­ers us­ing the robotic sub­ma­rine "Ja­son" last May recorded the first vi­deo and still im­ages of a deep-sea vol­ca­no ac­tive­ly erupt­ing mol­ten la­va on the seafloor. He­re, the or­ange glow of mag­ma is vis­i­ble to the left of a sulfur-laden plume. The ar­ea shown in this im­age is about six feet (2 m) across in an erup­tive ar­ea about the length of a foot­ball field along the sum­mit. The erup­tions took place near­ly 4,000 feet be­low the sur­face of the Pa­cif­ic Ocean, in an ar­ea bound­ed by Fi­ji, Tonga and Sa­moa. The sub is de­signed and op­er­ated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic In­sti­tu­tion in Woods Hole, Mass. Click he­re for vid­e­os and he­re for an en­larged ver­sion of the above im­age. (Cour­te­sy of NSF, NOAA, and WHOI Ad­vanced Im­ag­ing and Vis­u­al­i­za­tion Lab)

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