 20 November 2008
Confirmed: chicks dig scars
According to new research, facial scars indicate high levels of testosterone and that means that men with facial scars are more attractive to women seeking short-term relationships...
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18 November 2008
Pesticides at "safe" levels combine to form deadly cocktail
Concentrations of the ten most widely used pesticides that fall within EPA safe-exposure levels, when combined, form an extremely toxic mixture that is deadly to amphibians and may represent a significant threat to humans in the future...
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17 November 2008
Mystery microbe forces rethink of ocean ecology
A newly discovered microorganism that lives in the open ocean is able to "fix" nitrogen but does not rely on photosynthesis for energy, forcing scientists to revise their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems...
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14 November 2008
Exoplanets galore! Four distant planets imaged
It never rains, it pours. The Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck and Gemini North Earth-based telescopes in Hawaii have been used to capture images of four exoplanets orbiting distant stars...
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13 November 2008
Ovulation triggers female risk-taking behavior
It has long been recognized that women's preferences for masculine men change throughout their menstrual cycle, but a new study from the Kinsey Institute pinpoints the areas of the brain that change around ovulation and reveals how these changes affect both sensory discrimination and risk processing...
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12 November 2008
Adaptive proteins "control" their own evolution
A previously hidden mechanism that guides the way biological organisms respond to the forces of natural selection has been observed making the proteins found in most living organisms behave like adaptive machines, subtly directing aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness...
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11 November 2008
MP3 headphones a potential heart stopper
Researchers have found that while MP3 players are safe to use around pacemakers and defibrillators, the headphones that are used with these personal stereos can make medical devices malfunction if they are brought into close proximity...
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7 November 2008
Social interactions alter gene expression
Our DNA determines a lot about who we are and how we relate to others, but recent animal studies show that the interaction between genes and behavior is more of a two-way street than most of us realize...
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6 November 2008
Force-field minimizes space radiation danger
Scientists have shown that a simple, portable magnetic field generator inside a spaceship should be sufficient to deflect the dangerous highly charged particles of the solar wind away from the spacecraft and the astronauts inside...
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5 November 2008
"Junk" DNA anything but, new study finds
The Genome Institute of Singapore reports that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is in fact a vital component that distinguishes humans from other species... |
4 November 2008
'Shrooming down the road: rainforest fungus makes diesel
A novel fungus from the Patagonian rainforest that can make diesel compounds from cellulose could be a new source of green energy, say the scientists who discovered it...
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