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"Long before it's in the papers"
September 02, 2010

  = EXCLUSIVES = 


   
CONTENTS

  • World money meltdown can start in surprising places, physicists say

  • From brain science, new questions about free will

  • "Power-hungry" image may hurt female, but not male politicians

  • Diversity within species may be as important as among them: study

  • Study seeks to show how acupuncture really works

  • Scientists explore whether some apes shake heads for "no"

  • Mostly-male book images may reduce girls' science scores

  • New anti -cancer strategy: make tumors age

  • It seems we're all more human than average

  • Scientists learning how monkeys fend off "monkey AIDS"

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

  • Baby temperament found to predict adult brain structure

  • Females may suppress biological "inner male"

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

  • Poor, misunderstood testosterone

  • Tattoos, piercings may advertise good health

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

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

  • Huge "hidden" Saturn ring found

  • For freeloader birds, careful counting comes in handy

  • Small "epidemic" may have killed Mozart

  • Scientists report growing new teeth for mice, in place

  • Monkeys live longer after eating less: study

  • Study turns pigeons into "art critics"

  • Do sex cells hold the secret to long life?

  • No enforcement, no trade-not for chimps

World money meltdown can start in surprising places, physicists say
Research­ers used con­cepts from “statistical phys­ics” to draw up a list of coun­tries that could trig­ger a global eco­no­mic crisis.


From brain science, new questions about free will
Sub­con­scious thoughts are a start­ing point for much of our de­ci­sion­mak­ing, some re­search­ers ar­gue.

"Power-hungry" image may hurt female, but not male politicians
Voters tend to pu­nish fe­male can­di­dates for seem­ing bra­zen­ly ambitious, but let the same qua­li­ty slide in males, a study sug­gests.

 

Study seeks to show how acupuncture really works
A tra­di­tion­al Chin­ese heal­ing tech­nique may work by act­i­vat­ing pain-sup­pres­sing mole­cules in the body, re­search­ers say.

Diversity within species may be as important as among them
Many past stud­ies have fo­cused on di­vers­ity of spe­cies as a key fac­tor in the health and resi­lience of a na­tur­al en­vir­on­ment.

Scientists explore whether some apes shake heads for "no"
Prevent­ing an action by some­one else may be one pur­pose for which bo­no­bos shake their heads, a study sug­gests.


Mostly-male book images may reduce girls' science scores
In a small study, a gen­der gap in school sci­ence scores flipped when stu­dents used a text show­ing only fe­male sci­entists.

New anti-cancer strategy: make tumors age
Re­search­ers have identified a chem­i­cal chain of events that leads can­cer cells to stop re­pro­duc­ing be­cause they get old.

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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


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

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


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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 = MORE NEWS = 


   
CONTENTS

* * * LATEST * * *

Organic farms have better fruit, soil, environment, study finds
A research group com­pared con­ven­tion­al and or­gan­ic straw­berry farms in Cal­i­for­nia.


Evolution rewritten, over and over
Scientists always seem to be say­ing some new fos­sil is about to “rewrite ev­o­lu­tion­ary his­to­ry.” But are these big, fre­quent rev­i­sions hap­pen­ing? Not really, a study finds.

Drug-resistant germs found to help their brethren through the attack
Confronting assault by an­ti­bi­otics, some bac­te­ria help each oth­er out, re­search­ers say.

First “clear evidence” of feasting
Sci­en­tists are re­port­ing what they call the ear­li­est clear signs of one of hu­mans’ most uni­ver­sal and im­por­tant so­cial be­hav­iors.


Biggest black holes formed early, study finds
New simu­la­tions sug­gest the first “su­per­mas­sive” black holes arose shortly af­ter the birth of the uni­verse.

Attacked, plant calls for its enemy’s enemy
When cater­pil­lars chomp on wild to­bac­co plants, it triggers a special SOS signal from the vic­tims, a study has found.

A moment on the lips, a year on the hips
Just a few weeks of over­eat­ing may af­fect your weight and fat stor­age years lat­er—even if you lost the initial ex­cess weight, sci­en­tists say.


Designing the smells that sell household products
Put­ting a smell that sells in­to con­sum­er prod­ucts is much like com­pos­ing a sym­pho­ny, ac­cord­ing to a top fra­grance de­sign­er.


“Terror bird” jabbed like an agile boxer: scientists
Re­searchers pro­duced what they called the most de­tailed study of the at­tack style of a fi­erce an­cient hunt­er.

The Moon may be slowly shrinking
Our com­panion world has seen its crust sink in­ward by up to a thous­andth of a mil­li­meter yearly, est­i­mates sug­gest.

“Psychedelics” could find new lease on life—in the doctor’s office
Some­times touted as spiri­tu­al aids, cer­tain il­le­gal, hal­lu­ci­na­tion-in­du­cing drugs are now be­ing dis­cussed as po­tent­ial me­di­cines.






Battle against barnacles goes genetic
Under­stand­ing one gene could help eng­i­neers keep pesky barn­a­cles off ships with­out harm­ing the en­vi­ron­ment, re­search­ers say.

Adolescent obesity may finally be sliding, but not for all groups
A study in Cali­forn­ia found en­cour­ag­ing trends, but re­search­ers are con­cerned about some mi­nor­ities.


Solar activity seen restarting after long lull
Sci­en­tists say they have "sub-visual" ev­i­dence that a new cy­cle of so­lar ac­ti­vity is start­ing.

Earliest signs of tool use, meat eating ID'd among human forebears
A new find could re­write the his­tory of the hu­man line­age, re­search­ers say.

Robots designed to develop emotions through relationships
A new breed of ma­chines is pro­grammed to form emotions in much the way that child­ren do, the ma­kers claim.


What hit the Moon? New crater makes a splash
NASA sci­en­tists are av­idly stu­dy­ing a new crat­er that formed on the Moon with­in the past 39 years, as pho­tographs show.

Watery moon claims off base, study says
Recent studies purport­ing to re­veal un­ex­pect­ed­ly high lu­nar wa­ter con­tent are mis­tak­en, a re­search group says.

Company floats giant balloon concept as space junk fix
NASA est­i­mates that over half a mil­lion bits of re­fuse are or­bit­ing the planet, in­c­reas­ing­ly threat­en­ing to damage cost­ly sat­e­llites.


Tracks may tell tale of reptilian land conquest
Scaly pio­neers were the first to in­hab­it con­ti­nent­al in­ter­iors, some sci­ent­ists say.

Men, not just ladies, in red may gain allure
New research has docu­ment­ed a "red ef­fect" that works in a dir­ect­ion op­pos­ite to that ty­pi­cally ex­pected.

Planets found sharing strange dances
Most plan­ets or­bit in a sol­i­tary sort of maj­es­ty around their host star, too far from oth­er plan­ets to be af­fected by their gra­vity.


"Best-ever" Mars map online; public invited to work on it
What re­search­ers call the best Mars map is on view for plan­e­tary sci­en­tists and arm­chair as­tro­nauts alike.

Birds may boost offspring survival through infidelity
Scientists have been in­vest­ig­at­ing poss­ible rea­sons why in­fi­delity is com­mon through­out the ani­mal king­dom.

Exiled stars may have merged to form speeding giant
The Hub­ble Space Tel­e­scope has de­tected a hy­pe­r­ve­locity star, a rare ob­ject mov­ing three times faster than our Sun.


Do cleaning products cause breast cancer?
Wom­en who re­port great­er use of clean­ing prod­ucts may be at high­er breast can­cer risk than those who say they use them spar­ing­ly, a small study sug­gests.

Newfound stars seen shattering known size limits
One mon­strous star would make our Sun look as dull as the Moon by com­par­i­son, astro­nom­ers say.

Strange crystals found to twist as they grow
New research points to a much more var­ied pro­cess of crys­tal growth than was pre­vi­ously known, chem­ists say.


Superstition may boost performance-through confidence
Don't scoff at those lucky rab­bit feet: hav­ing some kind of "luck­y" to­ken can ac­tu­ally im­prove your per­for­mance.

Unusual electrons go with the flow
Sci­en­tists seek­ing new states of mat­ter have found that on some sur­faces, charged sub­a­tom­ic par­t­i­cles act like tiny su­per­heroes.

Ovarian transplant found to lengthen mouse lives 40%
Some sci­en­tists are ask­ing them­selves wheth­er ovar­i­an self-trans­plants in wom­en might have si­mi­lar be­ne­fits.


Drug said to thwart mental decline, grow brain cells in rodents
Re­search has turned up clues to a mech­an­ism that could lead to a for Alz­heim­er's dis­ease treat­ment, sci­ent­ists claim.

Longevity findings in question
Some ge­neti­cists doubt the val­id­ity of a new study on genes that are said to pre­dict who will live longest, a news­paper re­ports.

Right whales forced to shout over people's noise, scientists say
There is a lim­it to how much back­ground din North Amer­i­can right whales will be able to take, re­search­ers warn.


Once-in-a-lifetime eclipse by asteroid to treat Europe
In a rare event next Thurs­day, some sky­watch­ers will be able to see a star be "eaten" by an asteroid.

World Science Archive
 See larger image

Cathedral of darkness This haunt­ing­ly beau­ti­ful image is no paint­ing, but a real snap­shot from our local uni­verse. A re­cent Hub­ble Space Tel­e­scope im­age, it shows a ne­bula, or cloud of dust and gas, de­sig­nated IR­AS 05437+2502. As­tro­nom­ers aren't sure what is light­ing up this fog­gy re­gion, es­pe­cially the up­side-down V-shaped for­ma­tion near the top. From the Earth pers­pec­tive, the nebula co­vers only one-eight­eenth of the width of a full moon against our night sky, and lies toward the con­stel­lation Tau­rus, or The Bull. (Cred­its: NA­SA, ESA, Hub­ble, & R. Sa­hai/JPL)

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News alerts
* Space-based detector could find anti-universe (Reuters)

* Celebrated Russian seed bank fights for its land (AP)
* Rare double quake blamed for South Pacific tsunami (AP)
* Ga. scientists: Gulf oil not gone, 80 pct remains (AP)

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