LiveScience
LiveScience stories are regularly syndicated on MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today and the Christian Science Monitor.
Last updated August 31, 2009. Due to the volume of stories I write for LiveScience, I will no longer update this page.

What Makes a Psychopath? Answers Remain Elusive
August 31, 2009
As exaggerated as many popular depictions of psychopaths often are, many nevertheless do pose a genuine danger to others. So what makes psychopaths the way they are?

Powerful Ideas: Bacteria Clean Sewage and Create Electricity
August 31, 2009
Batteries made with microbes could help generate power by cleaning up organic waste at the same time.

New Theory for Why We Cry
August 28, 2009
A scientist now proposes a new theory for why crying evolved — tears can act as handicaps to show you have lowered your defenses.

New Theory Questions Why We Sleep
August 25, 2009
While sleep is often thought to have evolved to play an unknown but vital role inside the body, a new theory now suggests it actually developed as a method to better deal with the outside world.

The Appendix: Useful and in Fact Promising
August 24, 2009
The body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation. Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant.

Powerful Ideas: Wind Turbine Blades Change Shape
August 24, 2009
Morphing blades made of advanced composite materials that can rapidly change their shape depending on the wind could help lead to advanced wind turbines that perform better and last longer.

Powerful Ideas: Beer Waste Makes Fuel
August 21, 2009
After beer is made, the waste from breweries could help generate power, researchers now suggest.

Prehistoric 'Runway' Used by Flying Reptile
August 18, 2009
A prehistoric runway for flying pterosaurs has been discovered for the first time.

Secret Lives of Roadrunners Revealed
August 11, 2009
The roadrunner might have eluded Wile E. Coyote in cartoons, but now scientists are finally capturing its secrets.

Powerful Ideas: Fungus Sex Forced for Fuel
August 10, 2009
Helping a fungus have sex could lead to better ways of making biofuels, scientists now suggest.

Powerful Ideas: Alcohol Could Run Artificial Muscles
August 9, 2009
Artificial muscles driving the robots or prosthetic limbs of the future might be powered by the kind of alcohol that can make people blind.

Charge: T. Rex Was a Chicken and a Baby Killer
August 7, 2009
Although past research has suggested Tyrannosaurus rex was related to chickens, now findings hint this giant predator might have acted chicken too.

Bird's Tool Use Called 'Amazing'
August 6, 2009
Just like in Aesop's fable, scientists now find that crows might indeed learn to drop stones in pitchers to raise the height of water inside, in this case to bring a tasty, floating worm within reach.

Innovation Needed: But Can America Still Lead?
August 5, 2009
For the latter half of the last century, the United States was in first place when it came to science, but now concerns are rising that the country is losing its edge or has already lost it.

Powerful Ideas: Shrimp Cocktail Helps Make Biodiesel
August 4, 2009
Shrimp cocktails could help out fuel tanks, scientists now reveal.

Could Earth Be Hit, Like Jupiter Just Was?
July 28, 2009
What are the odds of a cosmic impact threatening our planet?

Before Dinosaurs, the First Tree-Climber Revealed
July 28, 2009
Long before dinosaurs dominated the Earth, ancient relatives to mammals climbed forests to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land.

Powerful Ideas: Chicken Feathers Could Store Fuel
July 27, 2009
Chicken feathers may help cars use hydrogen fuel in the future.

Oldest Animal Fossils Found in Lakes, Not Oceans
July 27, 2009
Now researchers studying ancient rock samples in South China have found that the first animal fossils are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not in marine sediments as commonly assumed.

How NASA Would Send Humans on Mars
July 22, 2009
As the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the moon landing end, a human voyage to Mars remains a holy grail for NASA.

Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light
July 22, 2009
The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.

Radar Could Save Bats from Wind Turbines
July 21, 2009
Bats use sonar to navigate and hunt. Many have been killed by wind turbines, however, which their sonar doesn't seem to recognize as a danger. Surprisingly, radar signals could help keep bats away from wind turbines, scientists have now discovered.

Wow! Moths Jam Bat Sonar
July 16, 2009
Tiger moths can thwart attacks from bats by effectively jamming the bats' sonar, doing so by emitting sudden bursts of ultrasound, scientists now find.

Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies
July 14, 2009
Miniature robots could be good spies, but researchers now are experimenting with insect cyborgs or "cybugs" that could work even better.

Powerful Ideas: Wii Aids Doctors and Patients
June 17, 2009
The popular Nintendo Wii console offers video games that venture into the world of exercise, but scientists now are taking it further, to help doctors heal the body.

Debate Rages Over Moon Water
June 15, 2009
There have been raging debates over the years as to whether there is frozen water on the moon or not. Soon two NASA spacecraft, a lunar spycraft and a kamikaze probe, will help answer the question by peering into the permanent darkness of craters at the moon's south pole.

Crash & Splash: NASA Probes to Dash Toward Moon
June 15, 2009
The last thing one usually wants on a spaceflight is a crash, but that's exactly what NASA is hoping for when it launches two new probes at the moon's south pole this week on the first U.S. lunar mission in more than decade.

Vast Bed of Ancient Bones and Shark Teeth Explained
June 9, 2009
The famed Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed in California is loaded with shark teeth as big as a hand and each weighing a pound, from giant prehistoric killers called megalodon.

Powerful Ideas: Electronics Grown by Germs
June 3, 2009
Ancient germs that hunt bacteria are now getting recruited to assemble the electronics of the future.

New Method Predicts Where Space Storms Will Strike
June 2, 2009
For the first time, scientists have pinpointed where an Earthbound space storm would strike when it crashed into the atmosphere, helping give advance warning of its arrival.

New Technique Could Reveal Exoplanets with Water
June 1, 2009
When it comes to life as we know it, nothing is more important than liquid water. Now scientists have devised a way to spot water on distant planets that can only barely be seen now, which in turn could reveal whether they might be able to support life.

Top 10 Explosions
May 17, 2009
Explosions, both natural and man-made, have caused awe and terror for centuries. Here are 10 of the most powerful explosions the world has ever seen, with a surprise honorable mention at the end.

Reality Check: The Science of 'Star Trek'
May 6, 2009
When "Star Trek" first promised to boldly go where no man had gone before, it spun tales involving a dazzling array of futuristic technologies such as phasers and cloaking devices. How many of those devices are now actually realities today, and how many remain in the distant future?

Why Are Humans Always So Sick?
May 4, 2009
The swine flu outbreak this spring is just the latest in the mountain of ailments that seem to beset humanity, from the incurable common cold to each potentially deadly cancer diagnosed at the rate of every 30 seconds in the United States. So is our species sicker than it has ever been? Or is our current lot far better than it used to be?

The Lost Forests of America
April 17, 2009
You could plant any old tree to celebrate Arbor Day April 24. But consider instead a sugar maple, or another of the native trees that once abounded in this country.

Women May Get Sex Pills, Too
April 17, 2009
The same little blue pills that can help men get in the mood for love could be remade into little pink pills that do the same thing for women, scientists now suggest.

Digital Paleontology Reveals Dinosaur Details
April 15, 2009
The pick and shovel can go only so far in digging up details about dinosaurs. Now supercomputers are revealing knowledge about their anatomy otherwise lost to history.

Thick-Brained People Are Smarter
March 31, 2009
Although being called "thick-headed" means one is dumb, it turns out being literally thick-brained suggests one is smart, new findings reveal.

Midwest Fault System Could Be Shutting Down
March 25, 2009
A crack in the earth that resulted in the biggest quakes known in the center of the United States -- and which have raised fears of a "big one" sometime this century -- might actually be in the process of shutting down, scientists now suggest.

The Energy Debates: Nuclear
December 19, 2008
Nuclear power has proven extraordinarily controversial over the decades.

The Energy Debates: Hydrogen Cars
December 18, 2008
Imagine a car that had water come out its tailpipe instead of pollutants. That is the promise of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The Energy Debates: Hybrid Cars
December 17, 2008
Sales of hybrids are skyrocketing.

The Energy Debates: Electric Cars
December 16, 2008
Electric vehicles naturally produce no tailpipe emissions , cutting down on air pollutants that lead to smog and acid rain, as well as carbon dioxide, the major global warming gas.

The Energy Debates: Biodiesel
December 15, 2008
Just after the invention of the diesel engine, one was shown running on peanut oil at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. Now demand for biodiesel ï¿1⁄2 diesel fuel derived from animal fat or vegetable oil ï¿1⁄2 is growing worldwide.

The Energy Debates: Ethanol
December 13, 2008
Instead of relying on just gasoline, many cars are now also burning ethanol, more commonly known as drinking alcohol.

The Energy Debates: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
December 12, 2008
Most of the planet is covered by the oceans, and they absorb a staggering amount of energy from the sun each day. Ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, taps into this energy to produce electricity.

The Energy Debates: Power from Flowing Water
December 11, 2008
Hoover Dam and other imposing structures are what often pop into our minds when we think about deriving electricity from water. But novel "hydrokinetic" technologies seek to generate power without blocking the flow of water.

The Energy Debates: Geothermal Power
December 10, 2008
An extraordinary amount of heat is trapped below Earth's surface, as erupting volcanoes show with their violence. Geothermal energy seeks to use this heat to generate electricity and warm up buildings and roads.

The Energy Debates: Solar Farm
December 8, 2008
The amount of energy from the sun that falls on Earth is staggering. Averaged over the entire surface of the planet, roughly each square yard collects nearly as much energy each year as youï¿1⁄2d get from burning a barrel of oil. Solar farms seek to harness this energy for megawatts of power.

The Energy Debates: Clean Coal
December 5, 2008
In all three presidential debates this year, both President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain said they supported clean coal. But what exactly is clean coal? This vague term may refer to a variety of technologies that lead to cleaner emissions from coal power plants.

The Energy Debates: Home Solar Power
December 3, 2008
Imagine never paying another electric bill. Solar energy could make this a reality. Solar electric systems employ photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity, while solar water heaters use solar collector panels to warm up water.

The Energy Debates: Small Wind Power
December 1, 2008
The picture that wind power often brings to mind is that of giant turbines on wind farms, which produce megawatts of electricity using rotors up to hundreds of feet in diameter. Small wind power systems, on the other hand, use comparatively petite turbines to support individual homes.

The Energy Debates: Wind Farms
November 17, 2008
Wind farms harness the wind's energy to generate electricity. Wind energy actually comes mainly from the sun. When solar energy heats up the atmosphere, hot air rises while cooler air swirls down to replace it. This movement results in wind.

Early Whales Had Legs
September 11, 2008
The first whales once swam the seas by wiggling large hind feet, research now suggests.

Odd Gender Differences Found in Walking
September 8 2008
If we see a shadowy figure walking down a dark street, our sense of whether it is coming at us or walking away depends on whether we see it as a he or a she, new research finds.

Future Doctors Could Sniff Out Cancer
September 5, 2008
The scent of skin cancer has been sniffed out for the first time.

Mammoth Mystery: The Beasts' Final Years
September 4, 2008
Woolly mammoths' last stand before extinction in Siberia wasn't made by natives ï¿1⁄2 rather, the beasts had American roots, researchers have discovered.

Deep-Voiced Deer Lucky in Love
September 3, 2008
This new finding might do Barry White proud ï¿1⁄2 deeper voices can help male deer get it on.

Study: Our Mates Look Like Mom and Dad
September 2, 2008
Men like women who resemble dear old mom, and women like men who look like dear old dad, a computer analysis now shows.

Study: Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind
September 2, 2008
The seemingly nonsensical Zen practice of "thinking about not thinking" could help free the mind of distractions, new brain scans reveal.

Giant Clams Fed Early Humans
August 28, 2008
Giant clams up to a foot long might have helped feed prehistoric humans as they first migrated out of Africa, new research reveals.

Scientists Learn How Nemo Finds His Way Home
August 26, 2008
How does the orange clownfish ï¿1⁄2 aka Nemo from the movie "Finding Nemo" ï¿1⁄2 really find its way home? It turns out the colorful saltwater fish can sniff for leaves that fall into the sea from rainforests growing on the islands near their coral reef homes.

Sixth 'Taste' Discovered - Calcium
August 20, 2008
Here's the new taste sensation ï¿1⁄2 your tongue might be able to taste calcium.

Face Recognition Varies by Culture
August 19, 2008
The way people recognize faces might say a lot about what culture they come from, scientists now reveal.

New Thin Skin to Protect Tiny Spacecraft
August 19, 2008
Fleets of miniature spacecraft may now be closer to liftoff. To bring this sci-fi vision of 50-pound "micro-spacecraft" and 10-pound "nano-spacecraft" to reality, scientists have now invented a razor-thin skin that can protect craft against the extreme heat and intense cold found in outer space and withstand micrometeoroids hurtling at thousands of miles per hour.

Wide-Faced Men More Aggressive
August 19, 2008
Men with big mugs are more aggressive, a new study of hockey players suggests.

People Really Do Look Better When You Drink
August 15, 2008
For the first time, scientists have proven that "beer goggles" are real ï¿1⁄2 other people really do look more attractive to us if we have been drinking.

Spooky Physics: Signals Seem to Travel Faster Than Light
August 13, 2008
Strange events that Einstein himself called "spooky" might happen at least 10,000 times the speed of light, according to the latest attempt to understand them.

Scientists Create World's Thinnest Balloon
August 11, 2008
Scientists have created the world's thinnest balloon, made of a single layer of carbon just one atom thick.

Ancient Shark's Bite More Powerful Than T. Rex's
August 4, 2008
The most powerful bite of all time has been found ï¿1⁄2 that of the prehistoric giant shark Megalodon, which makes that of T. rex look puny.

Secret to Towering Rogue Waves Revealed
August 4, 2008
Deadly rogue waves 100 feet tall or higher could suddenly rise seemingly out of nowhere from the ocean, research now reveals.

Primal Fights: When Females Dominate
July 16, 2008
Among monkeys and other primates, males typically bully females around. But when males outnumber females, surprisingly females often prove the dominant sex.

Huge Tunguska Explosion Remains Mysterious 100 Years Later
June 30, 2008
A full century after the mysterious Tunguska explosion in Siberia leveled an area nearly the size of Tokyo, debate continues over what caused it.

Warming May Make 'Perfect Storm' of Disease
June 24, 2008
A "perfect storm" of diseases can get unleashed by the kind of extreme swings in weather expected with global warming, triggering mass die-offs of wildlife or livestock, research now reveals.

Date Determined for Eclipse in Homer's Odyssey
June 23, 2008
In the epic "Odyssey," one of the cornerstones of Western literature, the legendary Greek hero Odysseus returns to his queen Penelope after enduring 10 years of sailing the wine dark sea.

Gamma Rays: The Incredible, Hulking Reality
June 11, 2008
Gamma rays are blamed for making Bruce Banner the Incredible Hulk. But what are gamma rays and what can they really do?

New Space Telescope to Explore the Unknown
June 3, 2008
By scanning the universe for the most powerful form of radiation known, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) could shed light on dark matter, microscopic black holes and other cosmic enigmas.

Rice Byproduct Makes Biofuel
May 28, 2008
All the straw from rice in China could get turned into an inexpensive new renewable source of biofuel, new research shows.

Female Albatrosses Shack Up
May 27, 2008
What happens when there is a shortage of males and a female wants to have a family?

Frogs Pack Concealed Claws
May 27, 2008
When in danger, certain African frogs have a bizarre defense ï¿1⁄2 claws hidden entirely within their toes can burst through their skin.

Environmentally Friendly Bombs Planned
May 27, 2008
New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

Big Quakes Trigger Global Shaking
May 25, 2008
The giant earthquake that unleashed the Indian Ocean tsunamis in 2004 ï¿1⁄2 killing more than 225,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in history ï¿1⁄2 might also have triggered other quakes around the world, new findings reveal.

Ancient Flash Floods Sculpted Earth, Mars
May 22, 2008
A megaflood seems to have scoured a canyon on Earth which, interestingly, looks a lot like canyons on Mars. And that new conclusion, researchers say, could help figure out whether there was ever life on Mars.

Songbird Serenade Is Sneaky Sex Strategy
May 22, 2008
Male songbirds woo females much like the way cell phone companies lure customers, a new study finds.

First Dinosaur Footprints Found on Arabian Peninsula
May 20, 2008
For the first time, dinosaur footprints have been found on the Arabian Peninsula.

Future Aircraft Could Repair Themselves
May 20, 2008
Damaged aircraft could repair themselves automatically, even during flight, by mimicking healing processes found in nature, a researcher said this week.

'Mind-Blowing' New Creature Discovered
May 20, 2008
Among the greatest mysteries in zoology for more than a century have been vaguely shrimp-like creatures known as y-larvae.

Transitional Frog Lays Eggs on Water and Land
May 19, 2008
When our distant ancestors were making their way out from the water, they had to evolve a way to lay their eggs on land.

Extinct Tasmanian Tiger's DNA Revived in Mice
May 19, 2008
DNA from an extinct creature has been resurrected in a live animal for the first time.

Causes of Morning Sickness Revealed
May 18, 2008
As irritating as morning sickness may be for pregnant women, it may protect embryos.

Brrr! Mars Colder Than Expected
May 15, 2008
Peering beneath the ice at the north pole of Mars has now revealed the red planet may be surprisingly colder than was thought.

Junk Computers Could Fuel Cars
May 14, 2008
Potentially toxic computer waste could instead wind up fueling your car one day.

Earth Extinctions Blamed on Cosmic Speed Bump
May 13, 2008
The sun bounces up and down as it roams the Milky Way, and such wavering might have hurled showers of comets Earth's way that caused mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs, a new study claims.

Mysterious Cheetah Disease Explained
May 12, 2008
Cheetahs may get a lethal disease by eating the poop of their brethren.

Seal Tries Sex with Penguin
May 12, 2008
A seal has been caught on camera trying to have sex with a penguin.

Cat Urine Makes Mice Macho
May 9, 2008
Tom and Jerry may never get along, but cats could help mice get lucky in love.

Signs of Suicide Seen in Brain Scans
May 6, 2008
Suicides always leave behind sad and tough questions. One big one is whether those who commit suicide have faulty genes.

Secret Found: What Makes Food Look Tasty
May 6, 2008
A hormone that makes people eat more works by causing food to look tastier.

Bats Screech Louder Than Rock Concerts
April 30, 2008
Bats that weigh no more than a handful of coins screech 100 times louder than rock concerts, a discovery that could help design advanced robots.

Real Trekkie Tricorder Invented
April 30, 2008
New handheld medical scanners coupled with regular cell phones resemble "Star Trek" tricorders and could see what ails you with a push of a button.

Bees Learn Thievery
April 29, 2008
Even the pinhead-sized brains of insects can learn new skills from their comrades ï¿1⁄2 including theft.

Absinthe's Mind-Altering Mystery Solved
April 29, 2008
An analysis of century-old bottles of absinthe ï¿1⁄2 the kind once quaffed by the likes of van Gogh and Picasso to enhance their creativity ï¿1⁄2 may end the controversy over what ingredient caused the green liqueur's supposed mind-altering effects.

Bug Has Sex with Orchids
April 28, 2008
Orchids may be enthralling to humans, but our love of these flowers only goes so far. Some wasps, on the other hand, find orchids so enchanting that they sexually climax while visiting them.

Gooey Origin of Human Placenta Revealed
April 23, 2008
The inner lining of eggs laid by the distant ancestors of all mammals could be the origin of the placenta, and the whole setup evolved as mammals employed leftover reptilian-like genes.

Uranium Supply Decline Clouds Nuclear Power's Future
April 22, 2008
Declining uranium supplies suggest nuclear power is not the magic bullet some might have hoped for to replace fossil fuels.

Mind-Reading Hat Could Prevent Brain Farts
April 21, 2008
We've all goofed up and flubbed up things we've previously done time and again. It turns out the root of these brain farts may be a special kind of abnormal brain activity that begins up to 30 seconds before a mistake even happens. The solution to such screw-ups could be a kind of mind-reading hat, a device to predict and even prevent mindless errors that can threaten lives.

Cultural Differences Found in Pee
April 20, 2008
Pee from more than 4,000 volunteers shows that people from different nations often have spectacularly different metabolisms.

Mouse to Inbred Mouse: You Stink!
April 17, 2008
Female mice won't have sex with inbred males because they smell funny, a new study finds.

Humans Might Sense Oxygen Through Skin
April 17, 2008
A breathtaking trick potentially left over from our amphibian ancestors might be found in us ï¿1⁄2 the ability to sense oxygen through our skin.

Earth's Hum Sounds More Mysterious Than Ever
April 16, 2008
Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery. Now unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. These new findings could shed light on the source of this enigma.

Sex Strategies Come in Small, Medium, Large
April 7, 2008
In the beetle world, it's the big guys who often win in the mating game, chomping their larger jaws down on the competition to fend them off. But biggest is not always best. All sizes of male sap beetles ï¿1⁄2 large, medium and small ï¿1⁄2 can get lucky.

Bizarre Frog Has No Lungs
April 7, 2008
The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo.

Sans Sex, Bdelloids Party On
April 4, 2008
Could you give up sex and survive?

Space Radiation Too Deadly For Mars Mission
March 31, 2008
Dangerous levels of radiation in space could bar astronauts from a mission to Mars and limit prolonged activity on the moon, experts now caution.

Robots Tapped For Colonoscopy Work
March 27, 2008
As if the idea of colonoscopies didn't sound uncomfortable enough, now researchers are developing self-propelling probes that crawl inside the colon and grip its sides with the aid of sticky films.

Dolphin Bling Gets Girls
March 26, 2008
Just as men can use fast cars or showy clothes to impress the ladies, so too do male Amazon river dolphins show off stuff to woo the opposite sex.

Evidence for Ocean Found at Saturn's Moon Titan
March 20, 2008
An ocean seasoned with the chemical ingredients of life may lie hidden beneath the icy surface of Saturn's moon Titan.

Jupiter Sports Strange New Spots
March 17, 2008
Newfound glowing spots on Jupiter seem unexpectedly to come from electron beams whipping around the giant planet's volcanic moon Io.

Mom's Milk Helped Mammals Drop Egg-Laying
March 17, 2008
The very first mammals were reptile-like creatures that laid eggs. It turns out the ability to nurse their young — a trait unique to mammals — could have led our distant ancestors away from egg-laying, as developing offspring were able to shift from a yolk to a milk diet.

How to Get to Alpha Centauri
March 13, 2008
If the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, does harbor rocky planets similar to Earth as new findings suggest, there exist a host of ways to get us there, in theory.

Nobody Messes with Black Belts of the Insect World
March 13, 2008
Just as some people look too scary to get into a fight with, so too do the looks on the faces of some wasps keep others away.

Mystery of Alligator Movement Solved
March 13, 2008
Instead of swishing fins, feet or flippers, alligators surprisingly move their lungs around inside their body to dive, surface and roll in water.

Some Crabs Crabbier Than Others
March 12, 2008
Is one crab more crabby than another? It could be true.

The Good Thing About Parasites
March 11, 2008
By causing harm, parasites can sometimes ironically help the species they afflict.

Real Death Star Could Strike Earth
March 10, 2008
A beautiful pinwheel in space might one day blast Earth with death rays, scientists now report.

Electric Vehicles Could Strain Water Supplies
March 10, 2008
As environmentally friendly as hybrid and fully electric cars are, it turns out replacing normal vehicles with them might dangerously strain already scarce water reserves.

Monkeys Shout Complex Thoughts
March 10, 2008
The ability to string different words together to express complex ideas was a milestone in the development of language that researchers figure occurred relatively late in human evolution. Now for the first time, scientists reveal a primate other than humans can also express a variety of messages by combining sounds into different sequences. The finding suggests this level of language might have occurred far earlier in evolution than before thought.

Tiny Brain-Like Computer Created
March 10, 2008
The most powerful computer known is the brain, and now scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how the brain works.

Black Hole Effect Created in Lab
March 6, 2008
The mysterious properties of black holes can be recreated on a tabletop, scientists now reveal.

Crayfish Never Forget a Face
March 6, 2008
You looking at me, crayfish face?

Butterflies Remember Caterpillar Days
March 5, 2008
The metamorphoses that caterpillars undergo rank among the most radical transformations in the animal kingdom. So it's rather amazing that a butterfly or moth can remember things from its caterpillar days.

Real or Fake? The Frightening Creatures in '10,000 BC'
March 5, 2008
The fantastic creatures depicted in the movie — from the giant carnivorous birds to saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths — actually once existed.

Pollution Helps Birds Sing Better
March 4, 2008
Pollution can actually lead male birds to change their tune, singing better than before.

NASA Baffled by Unexplained Force Acting on Space Probes
February 29, 2008
Mysteriously, four spacecraft that flew past the Earth have each displayed unexpected anomalies in their motions.

Electric Fish Advertise Their Bodies
February 29, 2008
Male fish can amp up their electric fields to woo females and intimidate rivals, research now reveals.

Solar Power's Greenhouse Emissions Measured
February 27, 2008
Manufacturing solar cells produces far fewer air pollutants than conventional fossil-fuel-burning power plants.

Ancient Mayans: Temples for Everyone!
February 26, 2008
It turns out any number of different factions among the Maya — nobles, priests and maybe even commoners — may have built temples, scientists now suggest.

Identical Twins' DNA Varies
February 21, 2008
Identical twins may not be nearly as identical as once believed.

Machine Taste-tests Coffee
February 15, 2008
At last, scientists have devised a machine with good taste — for espresso.

Teleportation and Wormholes: The Science of 'Jumper'
February 14, 2008
As fantastic as teleportation seems, it can actually happen in the real world.

Lice Shed Light on Ancient History of Americas
February 12, 2008
Head lice from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru are shedding light on the spread of humans and diseases to the Americas.

Settlement of Americas a 3-Act Play
February 12, 2008
The epic journey by which the Americas were first settled has been a great mystery for centuries. Did it happen by land or by sea? Did it happen one dozen or so millennia ago or three dozen?

Secret to Sexy Saxophonists Revealed
February 7, 2008
John Coltrane and other famed jazz saxophonists hit piercing high notes that amateurs can't by expertly changing the shape of their vocal tracts, research now reveals.

Barnacles Go Against Flow to Mate
February 6, 2008
Barnacles can radically change the size and shape of their penises to fight the waves and have sex.

Why Parents Eat Their Young, Especially the Big Ones
February 6, 2008
Kids taking too long to grow up? Just eat 'em.

Dinos' Veggie Diets Packed Surprising Punch
February 5, 2008
By mimicking the guts of the biggest dinosaurs, scientists now find the animals' diets of evergreens and ferns were more nourishing than previously thought.

Deal? No Deal, Chimps Say
February 4, 2008
Chimps don't like bartering things, even when they're trading up.

Bird Chirps From Hind End
February 1, 2008
The chirps and beeps of hummingbirds at times come from their tails.

Fish Accused of Sexual Harassment
January 31, 2008
Endangered fish might face a new threat — sexual harassment.

Mining Site Predates Incan Empire
January 31, 2008
An ancient iron ore mine discovered in Peru reveals civilizations in the Andes mined the valuable rock before the Inca Empire.

Human Viruses Kill Great Apes
January 29, 2008
Common human viruses are killing endangered great apes.

Rare 3-Foot Spitting Earthworm Found in Legal Battle
January 29, 2008
A rare 3-foot-long spitting earthworm that smells like lilies is at the heart of a legal battle between conservationists and the U.S. government.

Strange Creature Immune to Pain
January 28, 2008
As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers.

Blind Fish Still Able to 'See'
January 28, 2008
Blind cavefish whose eyes have withered away may not be so blind after all.

DNA Molecules Display Telepathy-like Quality
January 24, 2008
DNA molecules can display what almost seems like telepathy, research now reveals.

Fashion Found Fleeting in Birds
January 24, 2008
Females are thought to have simple desires in the animal kingdom ï¿1⁄2 showy tail feathers, big horns, maybe a catchy song ï¿1⁄2 so males tend to exaggerate such ornaments to outdo their competitors. But now it seems trendiness plays a role. What is sexy among male songbirds on the Great Plains, whether it be flamboyant plumage or a large beak, changes depending on what females consider fashionable that year, new research shows.

Brain's 'Eureka!' Circuit Found
January 23, 2008
The area of the brain that controls whether you keep rooting around the refrigerator or actually start chowing down has now been discovered.

Wanted: Queen Bee Seeks Harem of Male Dancers
January 21, 2008
Honeybee queens have sex with harems of males apparently to give birth to much better dancers, research now reveals.

Computer Understands Barking Dogs
January 16, 2008
Artificially intelligent Dr. Doolittles can understand dog barks as good or better than humans do.

Huge Rodent Was Bigger than a Bull
January 15, 2008
The largest rodent that ever lived weighed a ton or two, scientists revealed today.

Drug-Resistant Germs Infiltrate Pristine Arctic
January 15, 2008
There may be no place on the surface of Earth where germs dangerously resistant to antibiotics have not spread.

Columbus May Have Brought Syphilis to Europe
January 14, 2008
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but when he sailed back 'cross the sea, he may have spread a new disease ï¿1⁄2 syphilis.

The Enduring Mysteries of Mercury
January 14, 2008
Mercury is the smallest, densest and least explored planet around the sun. More than half of it is virtually unknown. Insights into this mysterious world of extremes could shed light on how planets were made in our solar system, astronomers say.

Something Fishy About This Dinosaur Discovery
January 13, 2008
An unusual carnivorous dinosaur whose skull looked part-crocodile may have fancied fish over other meat, research now reveals.

Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found
January 11, 2008
Antimatter, which annihilates matter upon contact, seems to be rare in the universe. Still, for decades, scientists had clues that a vast cloud of antimatter lurked in space, but they did not know where it came from. The mysterious source of this antimatter has now been discovered ï¿1⁄2 stars getting ripped apart by neutron stars and black holes.

Birds Act Like Grandparents
January 8, 2008
Just as Nana and Papa help take care of the kids, senior birds have now been seen for the first time behaving like grandparents.

Newfound Carnivores of the Caveman Era
January 7, 2008
Our ancestors had lots of predators and competitors to worry about ï¿1⁄2 saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and even giant man-eating birds of prey. Now you can add cave bears to that list. These prehistoric giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears.

Super Microbes Create Better Ethanol
January 2, 2008
Ethanol is often touted as a promising alternative fuel, but this "biofuel" packs less energy than gasoline. Now scientists are genetically engineering microbes that can crank out higher-energy biofuels.

The Enduring Mysteries of the Outer Solar System
December 31, 2007
The farthest reaches of our solar system remain the most mysterious areas around the sun. Solving the mysteries of the outer solar system could shed light on how the whole thing emerged ï¿1⁄2 as well as how life on Earth was born.

Concern Lingers on Success of Artificial Reefs
December 27, 2007
Artificial reefs made of everything from oil rigs to subway cars to concrete rubble are sunk these days to the ocean floor to provide homes for marine life. But are they actually helpful?

Invention Turns Toxic Waste into Electricity
December 26, 2007
New technology could clean toxic messes from mines and create electricity at the same time.

The Enduring Mysteries of Comets
December 24, 2007
For millennia, comets were believed to be omens of doom. Instead, solving the mysteries regarding these "dirty snowballs" could help reveal the part they played in the birth of life on Earth, as well as secrets concerning the rest of the galaxy.

Musical Focus: New Speakers Don't Bother Bystanders
December 24, 2007
Experts have invented a way for audiophiles to listen to music over loudspeakers that don't annoy people standing nearby.

Trick of Light Bends Beams
December 21, 2007
Light beams are supposed to be perfectly straight, aren't they? Yet a new trick of optics now appears to make light rays curve in midair.

Fire and Brimstone Helped Form Mars Oceans
December 20, 2007
The longstanding mystery of how oceans once formed on Mars could be solved by fire and brimstone.

New Plastic Decomposes Faster
December 20, 2007
A new biodegradable plastic could decompose much faster than existing ones, safely breaking down in the environment instead of polluting the world for centuries.

Small Asteroids Pose Big New Threat
December 19, 2007
The infamous Tunguska explosion, which mysteriously leveled an area of Siberian forest nearly the size of Tokyo a century ago, might have been caused by an impacting asteroid far smaller than previously thought.

Study Reveals Why Monkeys Shout During Sex
December 18, 2007
Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals. Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found.

Hot Bugs Get More Sex
December 18, 2007
Being hot can lead to more sex. Especially if you're a male ambush bug.

Ancient Sculptures Coated in Blood
December 18, 2007
Sculptors from the extraordinarily wealthy ancient Mali Empire—once the source of nearly half the world's gold—at times coated their works of art with blood, scientists confirmed for the first time.

The Enduring Mysteries of Asteroids
December 17, 2007
There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids circling our sun, all so-called "minor planets" left over from the formation of the solar system. Much about them remains mysterious. Solving these mysteries could shed light on the past, present and future of cosmic impacts on Earth.

Monkeys Do Math Like Humans
December 17, 2007
Monkeys can perform mental addition in a manner remarkably similar to college students, a new study shows.

Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies
December 11, 2007
In The Matrix, the hero Neo could dodge bullets because time moved in slow motion for him during battles. Indeed, in the real world, people in danger often feel as if time slowed down for them. This warping of time apparently does not result from the brain speeding up from adrenaline when in danger. Instead, this feeling seems to be an illusion, scientists now find.

Is Attractiveness Hereditary?
December 7, 2007
Like father, like son—sexy fathers can give rise to sexy sons in the insect world.

'Flying Saucers' Around Saturn Explained
December 6, 2007
The formation of strange flying-saucer-shaped moons embedded in Saturn's rings have baffled scientists.

Why Whales Sing
December 6, 2007
Humpback whales may sing not to court mates but to help explore the seas around them.

Radio Antenna Made of Plasma
December 5, 2007
A radio antenna made of electrified gas could lead to stealthy, jamming-resistant transmitters, research now reveals.

Chimps Do Numbers Better Than Humans
December 3, 2007
Young chimps apparently have an extraordinary ability to remember numerals and recall them even better than human adults do.

Fashion Preview: Tomorrow's High-Tech Clothing
November 29, 2007
Fashion always keeps at least one eye on the future. Now scientists are lending a hand, developing tomorrow's super-powered clothing such as garments that can recharge your MP3 player and exoskeletons that enhance strength.

Huge Stars Seen as Source of Glowing Gas
November 29, 2007
Stars in our galaxy may often pump out waves of million-degree gas that make surrounding nebulas glow with x-rays.

Sex Role Reversals Common in Wild Kingdom
November 29, 2007
Among promiscuous African topi antelopes on the savannah, the battle of the sexes runs in reverse—females aggressively compete for mates, while the males play hard to get.

Venus May Be Earth's Hellish Twin
November 28, 2007
Venus is more Earth-like than previously thought—including lightning where theory held that none could exist.

There Once Was a Shark That Ate an Amphibian That Ate a Fish...
November 27, 2007
A fossilized shark that swallowed a crocodile-like amphibian that, in turn, had gobbled up a fish has now been unearthed.

Shooting gallery: How moons get rocked
November 26, 2007
Colossal impacts in the outer reaches of the solar system may have bowled over remote, frozen moons, leading to vast cracks across their surfaces, research now suggests.

New Type of Dying Star Discovered
November 21, 2007
A rare new kind of star may have been discovered. It is much like the white dwarf our own sun should eventually become—save for a mysterious shroud of carbon ash.

Sense of Beauty Partly Innate, Study Suggests
November 21, 2007
When people were shown pictures of sculptures in a new study, brain scans suggest they judged beauty by at least partly hard-wired standards.

Huge Claw Belonged to 8-foot Sea Scorpion
November 20, 2007
The giant fossil claw of the largest sea scorpion found yet has just been uncovered.

Carnivorous Plant Kills With Deadly Slime
November 20, 2007
Carnivorous plants can exude a deadly slime that both forms sticky filaments and behaves like quicksand, ensnaring unfortunate prey, research now reveals.

Proposal: Suck Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air
November 20, 2007
Emerging technologies could pull carbon dioxide straight from the air to potentially attack global warming directly.

Double Trouble: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs
November 12, 2007
Instead of being driven to extinction by death from above, dinosaurs might have ultimately been doomed by death from below in the form of monumental volcanic eruptions.

Biological Reactors Make Hydrogen Fuel from Sewage
November 12, 2007
All kinds of biodegradable garbage—from sewage to leftover food—could yield valuable hydrogen fuel, an alternative to fossil fuels, with the aid of microbes cultivated in special reactors.

Seawater Treatment Plants Could Combat Climate Change
November 9, 2007
The seas themselves might be modified to combat global warming by absorbing climate-altering carbon dioxide from the air, research now reveals.

Ingredients for Salad Dressing Found in 2,400-year-old Shipwreck
November 8, 2007
Genetic analysis has revealed the contents of an ancient shipwreck dating back to the era of the Roman Republic and Athenian Empire.

Study's Punch Line: Humor at the Office is Serious Business
November 7, 2007
Kidding around at work is commonly thought of as perilous, as the hit sitcom "The Office" often explores to wincing extremes. Now intense research finds light humor at work is a good thing.

New Clues to How Birds First Flew
November 6, 2007
For more than a century, scientists have debated how birds evolved flight. Some thought birds had ground-dwelling ancestors, developing flight by taking off from the ground. Others figured birds evolved from tree-dwellers, developing flight by first gliding from branches. It now seems early birds might have preferred life on the ground.

Black Holes Launch Powerful Cosmic Winds
November 5, 2007
Black holes often are thought of as just endless pits in space and time that destroy everything they pull toward them. But new findings confirm the reverse is true, too: Black holes can drive extraordinarily powerful winds that push out and force star formation and shape the fate of a galaxy.

Invisible Plastic Trash Poses Newfound Threat to Sea Life
November 2, 2007
Waterborne plastic debris too small to see and festooned with pollutants could pose a hitherto unknown toxic hazard to sea life.

Scientists Learn Why Hope Springs Eternal
October 24, 2007
Hope springs eternal and we sing that the sun will come out tomorrow despite the lack of hard evidence to support upbeat forecasts. Now some scientists know why. They've identified the brain clusters responsible for optimism.

The Enduring Mysteries of the Sun
October 22, 2007
The sun lies at the heart of our solar system, but it still holds back many secrets from science. Unlocking these mysteries could shed light on puzzling activity seen in other stars and even safeguard lives.

Emotions Run Amok in Sleep-Deprived Brains
October 22, 2007
Without sleep, the emotional centers of our brains dramatically overreact to bad experiences, research now reveals.

Chatty Cave Men? Me Neanderthal, Talk Good
October 18, 2007
Neanderthals might have spoken just like humans do now, new genetic findings suggest.

Elephants Know Good People from Bad
October 18, 2007
Elephants can apparently smell and see which humans might be out to get them, research now suggests.

Why Males Die Before Females
October 16, 2007
In humans and many other animals, males age faster and die earlier than females. New research suggests this might happen because of intense competition over sex.

Turtle Tipping Tricks Revealed
October 16, 2007
For turtles, lying belly-up is a helpless, life-threatening situation. Now it appears many turtles evolved shells with unique shapes to easily help them flip back onto their bellies if they find themselves on their backs.

Genetically Engineered Plants Could Clean Humanity's Messes
October 15, 2007
Genetically engineered grass and trees could help remove toxins and explosive residues from the environment more quickly and cheaply than ever.

Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050
October 12, 2007
Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

Human Ancestors Walked Upright, Study Claims
October 9, 2007
Controversial research now suggests the ancestors of humans and the other great apes might have actually walked upright too, making knuckle-walking chimpanzees and gorillas the exceptions and not the rule.

Moose Elude Prey with Help from Humans
October 9, 2007
In a strange new twist of nature and adaptability, moose now apparently can take advantage of human development and use it as a shield against predators.

Chimps Act Like Humans: Mine! Mine! Mine!
October 8, 2007
People often strangely consider something more valuable once they own it. Now scientists find this same apparently irrational behavior in chimps, a finding that could help shed light on the human mind.

Elephants Run From Bees
October 8, 2007
Elephants are the largest beasts alive on land today. Yet these goliaths are afraid of bees, researchers have discovered. The giants flee when they hear the buzz of a bee swarm.

Lizard Love Triangles Exposed
October 3, 2007
A three-way sex struggle resembling the game rock-paper-scissors may have existed for 175 million years or more in lizards, research now suggests. The reptilian triads may be far more common than previously recognized—and may even shape the way humans behave, the scientists said.

Female Jumping Spiders Risk Being Eaten to Make Babies
September 25, 2007
Female spiders often eat males before, during or after sexï¿1⁄2hence the moniker "black widow." But with blood-drinking jumping spiders (Evarcha culicivora) of East Africa, males are more deadly to females than vice versa. Now scientists have found that despite the risk of being cannibalistically devoured by their lovers, virgin female jumping spiders choose to get deflowered by bigger males. Later in life, they opt for smaller, safer males.

To Get Sex, Monkeys Rub Themselves with Pee
September 24, 2007
Capuchin monkeys wash their feet and hands in urine to get comfort or sex, research now suggests.

Bizarre Gender-Bender Bugs Baffle Scientists
September 20, 2007
Scientists have discovered a real gender-bender of a bug, a species in which most females impersonate males.

Surprise Strategy: Bees Smother Enemies
September 17, 2007
Cyprian honeybees don't smother their enemies with kindnessï¿1⁄2they just smother them to death, research now reveals.

The Enduring Mysteries of the Moon
September 17, 2007
As close as the moon is to Earth, we are still far from solving all its mysteries--from how the moon was born to whether life on Earth has its past and future there.

Study: Curly Hair Tangles Less
September 13, 2007
Flying in the face of intuition, scientists now find that curly hair gets less tangled than straight hair.

Forbidden Fruit Entices Female Chimps Into Sex
September 13, 2007
Forbidden fruit helps male chimpanzees entice females into sex, research now reveals.

First 'Modern' Ears Found
September 11, 2007
The first backboned creatures to conquer land were largely deaf, lacking anatomical features whereby tiny bones help transmit airborne sounds into the inner ear. Advanced hearing was assumed to have evolved shortly before the emergence of dinosaurs, roughly 200 million years ago. Now, scientists have found that weasel-sized prehistoric reptiles from Russia apparently possessed the first modern ears 260 million years agoï¿1⁄2perhaps the first-known specialized trait for living in the dark.

Hubble Telescope: Solved and Unsolved Mysteries
September 10, 2007
By capturing the clearest, deepest images of the cosmos ever, Hubble has shed light on some long-standing mysteries perplexing scientists-while uncovering far deeper ones that have yet to be solved.

Scientists Talk to Owls on Cell Phones
September 6, 2007
Cellular phones can be used to talk with owls in the wild, researchers now find.

Leafing Through Magazines, Chimps Exhibit Self-Control
September 5, 2007
When attempting to avoid temptation, chimps resist their urges by distracting themselves, a new study suggests.

Bionic Arm Powered by Rockets
August 29, 2007
Rockets can help power robotic arms, which could help lead to "better, stronger, faster" bionic limbs, research now reveals.

Fire With Fire: Virus Could Combat Deadly Human Bacteria
August 28, 2007
Viruses that are harmless to humans could help kill fatal drug-resistant bacteria lurking in hospitals, research now reveals.

Mounting Mysteries at Saturn Keep Scientists Guessing
August 27, 2007
Humanity has known of Saturn since prehistory, but enigmas about this ringed world still abound-from new mysteries concerning a baffling hexagon of clouds on the planet to perennial puzzles concerning its famous rings.

Moon's Wrinkles Probed
August 22, 2007
Wrinkles on the moon could reveal secrets regarding devastating impacts that also ravaged Earth and other planets in their early days.

Time Travel Machine Outlined
August 20, 2007
A new concept for a time machine could possibly enable distant future generations to travel into the past, research now suggests.

Women Hardwired to Like Pink, Study Suggests
August 20, 2007
Women may be biologically hardwired to prefer pink, or at least redder colors than men do, research now reveals.

How Sharks Hide Their Fingers
August 16, 2007
The genetic potential to create fingers and toes apparently existed ages before animals even crawled onto land, dating back to the distant common ancestors of sharks and humans, research now reveals.

Squirrels Heat Tails to Battle Rattlesnakes
August 13, 2007
To protect their young against rattlesnakes, California ground squirrels have evolved a special defenseï¿1⁄2they heat their tails.

New Paper Batteries Powered by Blood
August 13, 2007
Sheets of paper can be made to work like batteries and power electronics, research now reveals.

Dolphin Species Goes Extinct Due to Humans
August 8, 2007
The Yangtze River dolphin is now almost certainly extinct, making it the first dolphin that humans drove to extinction, scientists have now concluded after an intense search for the endangered species.

Greatest Mysteries: What Causes Mass Extinctions?
August 8, 2007
They are known ominously as the Big Fiveï¿1⁄2the five greatest mass extinctions over the past 500 million years, each of which is thought to have annihilated anywhere from 50 to 95 percent of all species on the planet.

Lost Forest in Africa Yields New Species
August 7, 2007
In a once-lost forest in Africa, six animal species new to science have been discovered, members of a two-month expedition now reveal, including a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.

Sex Drive in Brain, Not Hormones, Study Suggests
August 7, 2007
Female mice apparently become as randy as males after their sense of smell gets tampered with, aggressively trying to mount any mouse that moves, research now reveals.

Life Resurrected From Glaciers
August 6, 2007
Germs long frozen in glaciers may resurrect as Earth's warming climate melts ice, potentially speeding up the evolution of microbes, research now reveals.

Seals Wired to Collect Deep-Sea Data
August 6, 2007
Sea creatures dwelling in the freezing waters at the bottom of the world hold many secrets, including clues to growing changes in global climate.

Subliminal Messages Fuel Anxiety
August 2, 2007
Split-second facial expressions made by othersï¿1⁄2and the feelings they betrayï¿1⁄2might go unnoticed by your conscious mind, but apparently they do register subliminally.

Sounds Like ... Apes Play Charades
August 1, 2007
Orangutans rely on the same kinds of strategies seen in charades when they try and get their point across.

Scientists Create 12-Headed Jellyfish
July 31, 2007
Jellyfish with up to a dozen heads have been created in the laboratory by carefully monkeying with a few genes.

Bad to Worse: Oil Spills Cleaned with Deadly Detergent
July 31, 2007
Oopsï¿1⁄2the detergents often used to clean up oil spills appear more toxic to coral reefs than the oil itself, scientists now find.

How Giant Dinosaurs Survived Vulnerable Youth
July 30, 2007
Titanosaurs were among the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth, with some gargantuan examples believed to have weighed more than 100 tons. Bony scales dotted their hides, but their purpose remained a mystery. Analysis of titanosaur embryos suggest these scales helped protect the giants during their vulnerable youth, guarding them against predators.

Earth's Worst Extinction a Prolonged Event
July 30, 2007
The rise of mollusks across the globe was a harbinger of doom roughly 250 million years ago, ushering in the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history, research now reveals.

World's First Prosthetic: Egyptian Mummy's Fake Toe
July 27, 2007
An artificial big toe found on the foot of an Egyptian mummy could prove to be the world's earliest functioning prosthetic body part, it was announced today.

Crayfish Fighting and the Art of Bluffing
July 26, 2007
A male crayfish with larger-than-normal claws typically needs only to flash his menacing weapons to drive opponents away. Now researchers find these critters are frequently bluffingï¿1⁄2the enlarged claws often aren't stronger at all.

Hidden City Found Beneath Alexandria
July 24, 2007
The legendary city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great as he swept through Egypt in his quest to conquer the known world. Now scientists have discovered hidden underwater traces of a city that existed at Alexandria at least seven centuries before Alexander the Great arrived, findings hinted at in Homer's Odyssey and that could shed light on the ancient world.

For Some Male Creatures, Smaller is Better
July 24, 2007
Sometimes smaller is better for males and sex, new findings suggest.

Tale of Huge Reptiles Fishing While Flying Called False
July 23, 2007
Prehistoric flying reptiles known as pterosaurs are often pictured as skimming along the surface of water during flight with their mouths open, fishing on the wing. Now scientists find this romantic Age of Dinosaurs vision unlikely. Any pterosaur trying this feeding method might have taken a nasty crash.

Clues Found in Mystery of Antarctic Mountain Formation
July 23, 2007
The origins of the highest peaks in Antarctica have long been shrouded in mystery. Now researchers suggest they are remnants of a gigantic high plateau that collapsed as the earth tore apart.

New Fingerprint Technique Could Reveal Diet, Sex, Race
July 20, 2007
A victim might not care if a murderer is a smoker or a vegetarian. But having such knowledge could help police solve a case. Details like this could one day be at their fingertips if a new fingerprinting technique pans out as expected.

Dinosaur Sex Started Young
July 19, 2007
Dinosaurs had sex well before they reached full physical maturity, just as crocodiles and people can, research now reveals.

Move Over Elmer's: New 'Geckel' Glue Redefines Sticky
July 18, 2007
Glue like the kind that mussels use to glom onto rocks has been combined with the stickiness seen in gecko feet to form a new adhesive dubbed geckel that could one day bind wounds closed and help robots climb walls underwater.

Aggressive Men Turn Down Free Money
July 17, 2007
Money isn't everything for men with lots of testosterone.

Birds Bend Rules of Flight
July 16, 2007
Top speed for airplanes is assumed to be limited by simple rules of aerodynamics. But birds seem to break these rules in new research that underscores how complex nature can really get.

The Bright Side of Spite Revealed
July 16, 2007
Spite is a dark emotion that nonetheless seems to help set humanity apart from its closest primate relatives, new research suggests. The sinister emotion that angrily dwells on how unfair the world is could shed light on the unusual human notion of fair play, and scientists say the research could help understand how and why these dark and light sides of human nature evolved.

Planets Go 'Splat' on Stars
July 16, 2007
Debris spots found on stars reveal planets that went splat like bugs on a windshield.

Smart Robot Learns to Climb Mountains
July 12, 2007
The first climber to ascend the highest mountain in the solar system might be a robot rather than a human.

Clever Apes Recreate an Aesop Fable
July 11, 2007
Orangutans are bright enough to use water as a tool, a finding that researchers say is straight out of Aesop's Fables.

The Secret to More Useful Robots: Tai Chi Training
July 10, 2007
The dream of helpful household robots is one that's been long deferred. Problem is, robots tend to be clumsy. So train them in tai chi, researchers suggest.

Did Ancient Volcano Alter Human History?
July 10, 2007
An ancient volcanic super-eruption, one of the largest known in Earth's history, may not have devastated the world and humanity as much as once thought.

Migratory Birds Steal Information from Locals
July 5, 2007
Birds can act like copycats, shamelessly imitating even their rival species' real estate choices, scientists now find.

Glimpse of Time Before Big Bang Possible
July 2, 2007
It may be possible to glimpse before the supposed beginning of time into the universe prior to the Big Bang, researchers now say. Unfortunately, any such picture will always be fuzzy at best due to a kind of "cosmic forgetfulness."

Whiff of Mighty Mouse Fuels Female Brain Growth
July 2, 2007
Women are known to go wild over the scent of a man, but the sexy smell of a mighty male mouse can actually make the female's brain grow. This rodent brain growth apparently made females prefer more powerful mice, scientists discovered.

Selfless Chimps Shed Light on Evolution of Altruism
June 25, 2007
Chimpanzees have now shown they can help strangers at personal cost without apparent expectation of personal gain, a level of selfless behavior often claimed as unique to humans. These new findings could shed light on the evolution of such altruism, researchers said.

Stars Have Earth-Like Weather
June 25, 2007
The skies of stars might experience weather like that on planets, researchers now find. The drifting clouds scientists have seen are wispy, "just like cirrus clouds on Earth"--except these are made of mercury, explained astrophysicist Oleg Kochukhov at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Blind People Have Superior Memory Skills
June 21, 2007
Blind people are whizzes at remembering things in the right order, scientists now find.

Bone-Crushing Wolves Once Roamed Alaska
June 21, 2007
Bone-crushing wolves that specialized in hunting giant prey once roamed the icy expanses of Alaska, an international team of researchers now finds.

Bees Have Favorite Color
June 19, 2007
There might actually be a useful purpose for having a favorite colorï¿1⁄21⁄2at least if you're a bee.

Human Nature Rubs Off on Chimps
June 18, 2007
A bit of human nature can apparently rub off on chimpanzees. Chimps nurtured by humans since birth have a far better chance of figuring out how to use new tools, a new study shows.

Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others
June 17, 2007
A brain anomaly can make the saying "I know how you feel" literally true in hyper-empathetic people who actually sense that they are being touched when they witness others being touched.

Lizards 'Dress' Young For Success
June 15, 2007
Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children for success, at least among side-blotched lizards. Females of this species can apparently trigger different color patterns in their offspring, "dressing" their progeny to help them best avoid predators.

Vacuum-packed Foods Breed Deadly Bacteria
June 14, 2007
Those sealed glossy packs of cheeses and lunchmeat on your grocer's shelf can provide a particularly friendly home for nasty bugs that cause food poisoning, new research shows.

Earth's Future Glimpsed on Titan
June 12, 2007
The enigmatic Saturnian moon Titan is still yielding surprising new details years after scientists first pierced its thick haze veil. The vision now emerging of Saturn's largest moon, with its giant dunes and oceanless surface, is perhaps a glimpse of Earth's desert future.

Spiked Genitals Spur Beetle Evolution
June 11, 2007
The genitals of male seed beetles are extraordinarily spiny, helping to anchor the males inside females as they attempt to impregnate them. Unfortunately, these spikes damage the females, potentially compromising the entire reproductive mission. Now scientists have discovered an evolutionary arms race with these beetle genitalia, with female genitals growing tougher the spinier the male genitals are. The speed at which genitals change in this battle of the sexes could help shed light on how new species evolve.

Chimps Pass On Culture Like Humans Do
June 8, 2007
Chimpanzees readily learn and share techniques on how to fiddle with gadgets, new research shows, the best evidence yet that our closest living relatives pass on customs and culture just as humans do.

Wireless Power Lights Bulb 7 Feet Away
June 7, 2007
Power cables and even batteries might become a thing of the past using a new technique that can transmit power wirelessly to cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, household robots and other electronics.

Humans Had Help Finishing Off Woolly Mammoths
June 7, 2007
Humans might have finished off the woolly mammoths, but the genetics of the giants apparently helped them decline well beforehand, scientists now find.

Fungi Thrive on Dangerous Radiation
May 29, 2007
Researchers have set their sights on bypassing the normal routes of bionics to hook video cameras deep into the brain, allowing the blind to see. The bionic eye system has already proved promising in monkeys. The goal is to one day provide vision for blind people using twin video cameras worn as a pair of glasses that transmit signals wirelessly to an implant in the brain.

The Good Thing About Herpes
May 16, 2007
The herpes family of viruses can have a surprising upside--it can protect against the bubonic plague and other bacterial contagions, at least in mice.

Farfetched? Hint of Free Will Found in a Fly
May 15, 2007
A spark of free will may exist in even the tiny brain of the humble fruit fly, new findings that could shed light on the nature and evolution of free will in humans.

New Potions to Clean Old Masterpieces
May 14, 2007
The delicate frescoes of the Renaissance master Lorenzo di Pietro "il Vecchietta" have survived for more than five centuries in the millennium-old Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, Italy, one of the oldest hospitals in Europe, but ironically, failed conservation efforts to save them might have destroyed them instead. Now advanced potions much like salad dressing that were developed by scientists in Italy could help cleanse masterpieces from hundreds of years of grime and the accidental harm wrought by prior attempts to restore or preserve them.

Female Chimps Kill Infants
May 14, 2007
The killing of infant wild chimpanzees by female adults of their own kind may be more common than was thought.

Lab Twisters Could Reveal Tornado Secrets
May 11, 2007
Tiny igloos can generate "micro-tornadoes" in the lab, which could allow scientists to better understand the destructive secrets of real-life twisters-and maybe help predict them.

Mystery Source of Urban Pollution Revealed
May 11, 2007
A crucial but unknown source of molecules linked with smog has long eluded scientists trying to uncover the origins of air pollution in cities. Now researchers find the grime that builds up on windows, buildings, roads and other urban surfaces might be this mystery source.

How to Spot T. Rex Footprints
May 9, 2007
The largest predators to ever stride the earth-T. rex and its kin-often left indelible footprints with their massive steps, and some of their tracks are still evident millions of years after the dinosaurs perished. In most cases, dinosaur footprints are less than ideally preserved, and many times are barely recognizable as tracks. Now a field guide of sorts amassing research on how such footprints can get eroded could help identify these tracks, no matter their state. This could help reveal details about dinosaur anatomy and locomotion otherwise lost to history.

Shampoo Ingredient Suggests Better Solar Panels
May 8, 2007
Advanced solar panels could one day be made cheaply with the aid of a shampoo ingredient, new findings suggest.

Crabs Shack Up in Safe Sandcastles
May 8, 2007
Female fiddler crabs find male suitors more attractive if the chaps can arrange safe sand castles for booty calls, new findings suggest.

Meditation Sharpens the Mind
May 7, 2007
Three months of intense training in a form of meditation known as "insight" in Sanskrit can sharpen a person's brain enough to help them notice details they might otherwise miss.

Sun's Ripples Reveal Clues to the Core
May 7, 2007
The core of the Sun holds secrets into how it and the planets formed billions of years ago, but the bright solar surface obscures the view of its heart. Now after a 30-year search, astrophysicists may have detected hints of ripples on the surface, just a few yards high, that could finally help shed light on the mysterious core.

10x Faster Eye Scanner Could Help Prevent Blindness
May 2, 2007
A new way to use lasers to snap highly detailed 3-D pictures of the eye could help improve diagnoses of many ocular diseases, engineers say.

Ducks Wage Genital Warfare
April 30, 2007
A sexual arms race waged with twisted genitals has been discovered in waterfowl.

Bionic Eyes Plug Directly into the Brain
April 27, 2007
Researchers have set their sights on bypassing the normal routes of bionics to hook video cameras deep into the brain, allowing the blind to see. The bionic eye system has already proved promising in monkeys. The goal is to one day provide vision for blind people using twin video cameras worn as a pair of glasses that transmit signals wirelessly to an implant in the brain.

Parasites Evolve from Bad to Good
April 26, 2007
Parasites are by definition bad for you. Some, such as malaria, can kill. Others, like microbes known as Wolbachia that are found in more than one-fifth of all insects, often make female hosts less fertile. Now scientists discover parasites can evolve surprisingly rapidly to become helpful instead of harmful.

Hot Flashes Can Strike Men, Too
April 26, 2007
Men too can experience hot flashes like those of menopausal women--if they undergo chemical castration.

Cancer-Fighting Drug Found in Dirt
April 24, 2007
The bark of certain yew trees can yield a medicine that fights cancer. Now scientists find the dirt that yew trees grow in can supply the drug as well, suggesting a new way to commercially harvest the medicine.

Simple Injection Shows Promise for Treating Paralysis
April 23, 2007
Paralyzed lab rodents with spinal cord injuries apparently regained some ability to walk six weeks after a simple injection of biodegradable soap-like molecules that helped nerves regenerate.

Prehistoric Mystery Organism a Humongous Fungus
April 23, 2007
A giant mystery organism more than 350 million years old has finally been identified as a humongous fungus.

Termites Are Actually Social Cockroaches
April 20, 2007
Termites may look like white ants, but new genetic research confirms they are really a social kind of cockroach.

Pre-Incan Metallurgy Discovered
April 19, 2007
Metals found in lake mud in the central Peruvian Andes have revealed the first evidence for pre-Colonial metalsmithing there.

Ethanol: Energy Panacea or False Promise?
April 18, 2007
Ethanol, more commonly known as drinking alcohol, is touted by some as a viable alternative fuel for vehicles. Although its energy content is roughly two-thirds that of gasoline by volume, ethanol is increasingly flowing into gas tanks, with some one out of every eight gallons of gas sold in the United States containing 8 to 10 percent ethanol. Yet there is heated debate among scientists as to whether or not ethanol really is good for the environment.

Surprise: Ethanol as Deadly as Gasoline For Now
April 18, 2007
Fuels high in ethanol may pose an equal or greater risk to public health than regular gasoline, new findings suggest.

New Technique Will Photograph Earth-Like Planets
April 18, 2007
New technology developed to photograph faraway Earth-like planets actually works, NASA researchers now find.

Tiny Creatures Rediscover the Joy of Sex
April 16, 2007
Tiny spider relatives have rediscovered the joy of sex, regaining the ability to mate after their arachnid ancestors lost it, marking a reproductive first in the annals of animal evolution.

Monkey DNA Points to Common Human Ancestor
April 12, 2007
The first primate to get rocketed into space and to be cloned, the rhesus monkey, has now had its genome sequenced, promising to improve research into health and yield insights into human evolution.

Chimps Spotted Using Caves, Like Early Humans
April 11, 2007
Savannah chimpanzees, which can make weapons to hunt other primates for meat, can also seek refuge in caves, much like our earliest human ancestors.

Study Reveals How Drunken Bats Sober Up
April 10, 2007
Bats often risk getting drunk off cocktails of alcohol that stew inside ripened fruit. And just as driving is dangerous for intoxicated humans, so is flying for boozy bats. Now scientists find bats are savvy enough to dine on certain types of fruit sugar to help them get over the ill effects of alcohol. These findings could shed light on how wildlife deals with alcohol.

New Thinking on the Death of Sun-Like Stars
April 9, 2007
When stars like our Sun die, they bloat to become red giants and then eject gigantic clouds of gas and dust into space. Increasingly, however, scientists found themselves at a profound loss to explain how exactly dying stars could blow away these clouds. Now astrophysicists propose that unexpected chemical reactions during the formation of stardust could help solve this mystery.

That New-Car Smell? Not Toxic, Study Finds
April 6, 2007
Breathe easy-new car smell is apparently non-toxic, although it might exacerbate allergies, new research suggests.

Odd Body, Great Legs, Running Like the Wind
April 5, 2007
The egg-shaped torsos of ostriches might, to the untrained eye, make them ungainly runners. But new findings suggest their odd figures instead help the flightless birds maneuver gracefully while running. Researchers say their work could eventually help give patients with spinal cord damage improved odds for better locomotion.

Bizarre Human Brain Parasite Precisely Alters Fear
April 2, 2007
Rats usually have an innate fear of cat urine. The fear extends to rodents that have never seen a feline and those generations removed from ever meeting a cat. After they get infected with the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, however, rats become attracted to cat pee, increasing the chance they'll become cat food. This much researchers knew. But a new study shows the parasite, which also infects more half the world's human population, seems to target a rat's fear of cat urine with almost surgical precision, leaving other kinds of fear alone.

Smart Sunglasses Change Color on Demand
March 27, 2007
Smart new sunglasses could instantly change into virtually any color on demand with just a turn of a tiny electronic knob on their frames.

New Biodegradable Plastics Could Be Tossed into the Sea
March 27, 2007
A biodegradable plastic that dissolves into nontoxic components in seawater could make it environmentally safe to ditch "disposable" forks, spoons, wraps and other such waste overboard from ships to free up valuable space.

Healthier Pizza Passes Taste Test
March 27, 2007
Pizza could be made healthier through a few simple preparation tricks if consumers are willing to eat whole wheat crust, a new study suggests.

Sweet New Battery Runs on Sugar
March 25, 2007
In the near future, longer-lasting batteries could run on virtually anything sugary, including tree sap or flat soda pop.

Cutting-edge Technology: The World's Smallest Scissors
March 25, 2007
Scientists in Japan have created what may be the smallest scissors in the world-molecular clippers that are opened and closed with light.

Study: Cannibals Usually Dine Alone
March 23, 2007
Cannibalism is rampant in the animal kingdom, including among some humans in the past. Since germs can sneak from victims to predators, one might suspect diseases linked to cannibalism would prove widespread.

Dinosaurs Dug Deep, Possibly to Survive Catastrophe
March 23, 2007
An underground den of dinosaurs now reveals the first evidence that at least one species of "terrible lizards" could burrow.

Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
March 22, 2007
Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.

Internal Body Clock Linked to Mania in Mice
March 19, 2007
The manic state that is at the ancient root of the word "maniac" might result from a screwed up body clock, new findings in mutant rodents suggest.

Playing Music Makes You Smart
March 19, 2007
Scientists have uncovered the first concrete evidence that playing music can significantly enhance the brain and sharpen hearing for all kinds of sounds, including speech.

Fertility Planning Makes Male Chimps Fight
March 16, 2007
Female chimps manage how available they are, as a group, for sex. This leads males to fight over them, and when the best males win, the females are more likely to have fit offspring, new research shows.

The Secret to Sniffing: How We Smell So Well
March 15, 2007
Sniffing the air does more than just vacuum odors into your nose. It also ramps up electrical signals from the snout to the brain, helping the schnoz detect even faint scents.

Deep Mystery: How Huge Whales Hunt Jumbo Squid
March 12, 2007
In the cold, dark abyss of the Pacific lurk thousands of aptly named jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas), aggressive carnivores up to six feet long and 100 pounds nicknamed "red devils" by fishermen.

Hmm ... Rats Think Like Humans
March 9, 2007
Rats appear capable of reflecting on what they know and don't know, a complex form of thinking previously found only in humans and other primates.

Gorillas Gave Humans 'The Crabs'
March 7, 2007
Humans caught pubic lice, aka "the crabs," from gorillas roughly three million years ago, scientists now report.

Sea Squirt Regrows Entire Body from One Blood Vessel
March 5, 2007
Our closest invertebrate relative, the humble sea squirt, can regenerate its entire body from just tiny blood vessel fragments, scientists now report.

Caterpillars Click and Puke to Stop Predators
March 1, 2007
Caterpillars can fend off hungry birds and other predators by clicking at them, scientists now report. These clicks warn that the caterpillars will be unsavory to eat-at least, after they regurgitate a foul brown fluid.

First Videos of Deep-Sea Squid Reveal Aggressive Predator
February 27, 2007
The first live videos of the deep-sea eight-armed squid in its natural environment reveal it to be a fast, aggressive predator that flashes light shows potentially to blind prey or woo mates.

Urban Ants Handle Heat Better
February 27, 2007
The heat of cities is transforming how urban ants respond to extreme temperatures, providing glimpses of the impacts that changes in global climate might trigger, an international team of scientists now reports.

Study: Hospitals Should Open Windows to Curb Disease
February 26, 2007
Simply opening windows and doors could help prevent the airborne spread of germs inside hospitals, medical researchers now report.

Chimps Make Spears and Hunt Bushbabies
February 22, 2007
Chimpanzees are capable of making spears to hunt other primates and have been seen using the weapons to apparently kill bushbabies for meat, scientists announced today.

Bird Butts Shed Excess Heat
February 15, 2007
Dogs pant to cool off, and people cool down by sweating all over. Now scientists find birds can shed heat with their rear ends. Mammals might employ the technique too, the lead researcher said.

Mars Rovers Get Four Upgrades
February 14, 2007
NASA has made its Mars rovers even smarter with computer upgrades beamed through space that give the robots greater power to act on their own on the red planet.

New Theory Explains Mysterious Dark Galaxies
February 14, 2007
The darkest galaxies in the universe, made nearly entirely of matter which researchers think can zip right through normal matter with virtually no effect, now might be explained by a new scientific model that sheds light on their strange existence.

Bats Found to Feed On Migrating Birds at Night
February 13, 2007
The blood of the largest bat in Europe reveals it can devour birds in midair at night, the only animal known to do so thus far, evidence now strongly suggests.

Male Bling Makes Female Fish Mature Faster
February 13, 2007
It's the look of love--when female green swordtail fish see attractive adult males, they mature faster sexually, researchers now find.

Scientists Can Know Your Intentions
February 9, 2007
New experiments show it is possible for computers to detect, at a higher level of sophistication than ever before, people's intentions for the future, neuroscientists reported yesterday.

Miniature Helicopter Packs Bug-Like Brain
February 8, 2007
As tiny as insect brains are, they can still perform extraordinary acrobatics in the air that human flying machines have yet to match. Now scientists reveal a miniature helicopter, with an electronic brain inspired by insects, that could help lead to better takeoffs, flights and landings for robotic aircraft.

Tricky Parasite Creates Deadly Threesome
February 8, 2007
In a devious ploy that might impress the most hardened crime lord, parasitic worms alter their aquatic hosts' sense of smell so they are more likely to be eaten by fish that serve as the parasites' hosts later in life, new research reveals.

Norway Reveals Doomsday Vault's Design
February 8, 2007
Designs for a doomsday vault for seeds of the world, to be carved deep into frozen rock on an island not far from the North Pole, were revealed today by the government of Norway.

Smart Strategy: Thinks of the Brain as a Muscle
February 8, 2007
Students who are told they can get smarter if they train their brains to be stronger, like a muscle, do better in school, a new psychology study shows.

Mini-Windmills Generate Power in the Dark
February 7, 2007
Miniature windmills could help power devices where sunlight is not available, such as in tunnels or the shadows of mountains, valleys or forests, researchers now reveal.

Bacteria Make Female Butterflies Promiscuous, Scientists Say
February 5, 2007
A germ that kills males triggers a vicious cycle of increasing female promiscuity and male sexual exhaustion in a species of butterfly, scientists report.

Inbreeding Helps African Fish, Scientists Say
February 5, 2007
Inbreeding often conjures visions of mutant offspring, but scientists now find it can have its upside in the wild.

Origami Optics Promise Better Spy Cameras
February 5, 2007
The cameras in cell phones and robot spy planes could become more powerful by using optics folded like origami, researchers report.

Human Heartbeats and Breathing Can Synchronize
February 1, 2007
For the first time, scientists have solid evidence that heartbeats and breathing can become synchronized.

Pest and Virus Cooperate in Global Invasion
January 30, 2007
A rapidly spreading crop pest is teaming up with a virus to speed up both their invasions across the globe, scientists in China reported today.

Concrete Proposal to Cut Carbon Dioxide Emissions
January 29, 2007
The making of cement accounts for up to 10 percent of the world's total emissions of carbon dioxide, a key gas involved in global warming. Now scientists and engineers are developing a cleaner way to manufacture cement.

Rival Sperm Hook Up and Cooperate
January 29, 2007
Rats and mice have unusual sperm, possessing heads shaped like talons.

Thinking on Spinal Cord Function Turned on its Head
January 26, 2007
A new study reveals that the spinal cord seethes with a tug of war between electrical signals, overturning thinking on how it works.

Hot New Study: Earth's Heat Can Power Our Future
January 22, 2007
The extraordinary amount of heat seething below Earth's hard rocky crust could help supply the United States with a significant fraction of the electricity it will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact, scientists now claim.

Breakthrough Made in Sniffing Out Buried Bodies
January 22, 2007
Dead men do tell tales, in the form of scents that investigators follow to help discover hidden graves.

Scientist: Maybe Two Snowflakes are Alike
January 19, 2007
The old adage that "no two snowflakes are alike" might not hold true, at least for smaller crystals, new research suggests.

Nature's Whitest White Found in Ghostly Beetle
January 18, 2007
A beetle with scales as pale as a ghost could help engineers come up with super-thin, paper-white paints, new research shows.

Your Boss Really is Clueless
January 16, 2007
Your boss and other people in power often really have no idea what you and others feel and think, new experiments suggest.

Killer Spiders Prefer Malaria Mosquitoes
January 12, 2007
A jumping spider in East Africa is known to crave mosquitoes engorged with blood. Now scientists find the spider prefers a particular type of them-mosquitoes infested with the deadly malaria parasite.

Sound Pulses Exceed Speed of Light
January 12, 2007
A group of high school and college teachers and students has transmitted sound pulses faster than light travels-at least according to one understanding of the speed of light.

The World's Smallest Thinker
January 8, 2007
Using lasers, Korean researchers have crafted a microscopic version of Rodin's famed sculpture "The Thinker" just about twice the size of a red blood cell at 20 millionths of a meter high. Muscles and even toes are visible in the tiny model.

Super Soldiers: Tomorrow's 'Army of One' Technology
January 4, 2007
Within three years, soldiers could begin testing futuristic devices that make them each "an army of one" by granting them unprecedented capabilities, such as the ability to see through walls thanks to advanced radar scopes and super-protection and super-strength conferred by high-tech armor.

Talking Fish: Wide Variety of Sounds Discovered
December 27, 2006
Increasingly scientists are discovering unusual mechanisms by which fish make and hear secret whispers, grunts and thumps to attract mates and ward off the enemy.

Scientists Create Molecule-Size Keypad Lock
December 26, 2006
Scientists have created a keypad lock a single molecule in size.

Gibbons Defend Against Predators With Song
December 23, 2006
When a white-handed gibbon spots a lurking leopard, rather than high tailing it in the opposite direction, the furry ape will actually draw closer to its foe and belt out a song.

Hunted Becomes Hunter as Moths Mimic Spiders
December 21, 2006
In the animal world, some species often mimic the appearance of other species for protection against predators. For instance, many butterflies mimic the monarch butterfly, which taste awful and thus avoid being consumed by predators. Scientists have now discovered that metalmark moths in Costa Rica use mimicry to escape hunters as well, by mimicking the very predators that might normally eat them.

Virtual Mind Games Revive Controversial Experiment
December 20, 2006
Infamous experiments almost 50 years ago discovered that ordinary people--under orders from an authority figure--would deliver apparently lethal electrical shocks to complete strangers. The disturbing findings both shed light on the limits of human behavior and the mind but also ignited an ethical controversy that has made it impossible nowadays to further explore this area directly. Now scientists are conducting these experiments against computer-generated virtual people, where no real people appear to get hurt.

Cricket's Chirp Attracts Sex and Death
December 18, 2006
The chirps of crickets are love songs that males sing to entice females, but that is not all they attract. Chirping at times can lure doom, drawing parasitic flies that infest crickets with larvae, new research shows.

Electrical Properties of Human Skull Finally Determined
December 14, 2006
The brain and skull have a lot in common with latex and toothpaste, at least when it comes to electrical conductivity, scientists now find.

Brain Tumors May be Infectious
December 12, 2006
Older children often think younger siblings are a headache, but sobering findings reveal the chances of a child developing a brain tumor and cancer elsewhere in the nervous system increase with the more younger brothers and sisters one has.

An Amazing First: Two Species Cooperate to Hunt
December 7, 2006
The giant moray eel is normally a lone hunter in the dark. Now scientists find these eels may at times hunt in the daytime in the Red Sea, and surprisingly cooperate with another predatory fish, the grouper, which is also normally a solitary predator.

Llamas Enlisted to Thwart Biological Weapons
December 5, 2006
If terrorists ever unleashed a biological weapon, unusual molecules normally found in the blood of llamas could quickly help warn of the attack, scientists now report.

Naked DNA Could Prevent Impotence
December 5, 2006
Gene therapy using "naked DNA" might one day help prevent impotence, scientists now report.

Survival of the Loudest: Urban Birds Change Their Tune
December 4, 2006
To survive the urban jungle, birds change their tune, with faster-paced and higher-pitched songs to make them heard above the din.

Why Are We Here? Theoreticians Debate the Fundamentals
December 4, 2006
The emergence of humans in the universe might not tell us anything concerning the fundamental constants of nature as scientists have speculated, new theoretical findings argue.

New 'Quiet' Stethoscope Could Save Lives
November 29, 2006
A new "noise-immune" stethoscope could help doctors save lives on the battlefield, in disasters and in other noisy emergency situations.

Scientists Levitate Small Animals
November 29, 2006
Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting.

Bat's Wrinkly Face Improves Sonar
November 28, 2006
The strangely intricate wrinkles and grooves around the nostrils of many bats apparently could help them "see" in the dark by focusing their sonar, scientists in China have found.

Whale Vocabulary More Elaborate Than Thought
November 27, 2006
Humpback whales possess a vastly more elaborate vocabulary than was known, researchers now report.

Study Reveals How Magic Works
November 20, 2006
Scientists are figuring out how magicians fool our brains in research that also helps uncover how our mind actually works.

Male Chimps Prefer Older Females
November 20, 2006
Males prefer older females, at least in the chimp world, scientists now report.

Crayfish Fake Sex Not War
November 20, 2006
Scientists have discovered pseudo-sex in crayfish, where males fake sex with each other to show dominance and reduce violence. Without it, these males often killed each other.

Why Marijuana Impairs Memory
November 20, 2006
Scientists may have just found out why marijuana impairs memory and why the brain's natural versions of the drug might help against epilepsy.

Robots 'Mate' and Evolve
November 17, 2006
Robot tadpole sex might help shed light on how our early ancestors evolved backbones.

Fish Balance Courtship With Threats
November 14, 2006
New research on swordtail fish suggests male courtships displays aren't always just for appealing to the ladies, but for showing off and scaring away other males too.

Some Women Allergic to Sex
November 13, 2006
Women can be allergic to sex with men, but doctors are finding women can overcome this allergy through regular sex combined with treatments derived from semen.

Got Crushed Milk? Pressure Works Better than Pasteurization
November 10, 2006
Crushing milk at high pressures could help it last for seven weeks in the refrigerator without the unfavorable flavors associated with other long-lasting milks, researchers now report.

Steroids Fuel Crime
November 6, 2006
Steroid users appear more likely to commit crimes involving weapons and fraud, scientists in Sweden report.

Radioactive Fish Give Off Bad Vibes
November 3, 2006
Fish exposed to dangerous radiation send out chemical signals to alert their pals so they can then turn up their defenses, scientists in Canada report.

Fish Eavesdrop to Avoid Becoming Dinner
November 3, 2006
Fish can eavesdrop on the calls of dolphins to avoid getting eaten, a new study suggests.

Bright Idea: Light Bulb Burns Away Tumors
November 2, 2006
Beams of light concentrated from a light bulb could soon help burn away tumors in surgical operations that are as effective as laser surgery but 100 times cheaper, scientists in Israel now report.

Cool Mice Live Longer
November 2, 2006
Mice genetically altered to literally live a cooler life also lived longer, scientists now report.

Wine Molecule Extends Lifespan of Fat Mice
November 1, 2006
Mice living off cheese or meals similarly loaded with fat can nevertheless live long, healthy lives if they also sup wine molecules, a finding that might help improve human health, an international team of scientists now reports.

Flamingos Get a Rise From Eating
October 31, 2006
An anatomical oddity may help flamingos eat: erectile tissue.

Why We Love to be Scared
October 31, 2006
For all of their stomach-turning gore, horror films and haunted houses attract people in droves. This ability of the human brain to turn fear on its head could be a key to treating phobias and anxiety disorders, according to scientists.

Elephant Self-Awareness Mirrors Humans
October 30, 2006
Elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror, joining only humans, apes and dolphins as animals that possess this kind of self-awareness, researchers now report.

Big Birds Reveal How Dinosaur Walked
October 30, 2006
Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of the strange 167-million-year-old footprints of predatory dinosaurs that appeared to do a cross-step as they walked the ancient Earth.

Key to Hockey Goalie Success Discovered
October 26, 2006
Scientists in Canada have discovered the exact spots hockey goalies need to watch to successfully block shots.

Microscopic Robot Lends Helping Hand
October 23, 2006
A microscopic robot hand, made of silicon and plastic balloons, could help perform surgery and defuse bombs.

DNA Found in Drinking Water Could Aid Germs
October 23, 2006
DNA that helps make germs resistant to medicines may increasingly be appearing as a pollutant in the water.

Children Exposed to Pesticides in U.S. Daycare Centers
October 20, 2006
Millions of children are potentially exposed to pesticides while attending daycare, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists report.

World's 10 Most Polluted Places
October 18, 2006
Areas that researchers have declared the most polluted in the world are typically little known even in their own countries. Yet they in total afflict more than 10 million people, experts reported today.

Spider Silk Could Repair Human Ligaments
October 13, 2006
Spider web silk, the strongest natural fiber known, could possess untapped medical potential in artificial tendons or for regenerating ligaments, scientists now say.

More Oxygen Could Make Giant Bugs
October 11, 2006
Giant insects might crawl on Earth or fly above it if there was just more oxygen in the air, scientists report.

Fish Shoot Prey with Precise Water Guns
October 9, 2006
Archerfish, the snipers of the animal world, never waste a shot.

Bursting the Spherical Bubble: Universe Might Be Pill-Shaped
October 9, 2006
Instead of being perfectly round like a globe, the universe might be a bit stretched in shape like a pill.

Bug Juice Tapped to Clean Wounds
October 6, 2006
Scientists in England are developing new dressings for wounds designed to mimic maggots to clean away dead tissue and promote healing.

Marijuana's Key Ingredient Might Fight Alzheimer's
October 5, 2006
The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's than any currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of the disease.

Small Digital Camera Makes Night-Vision Images
October 2, 2006
Imagine a digital camera that not only takes up less power and space, but can also take night-vision pictures as well.

Simple Eye Test Could Spot Alzheimer's Early On
October 2, 2006
Scanning the eyes with lasers could help detect signs of Alzheimer's even before symptoms of the disease appear in the brain.

Atomic Physics Predicts Successful Store Location
September 27, 2006
Calculations of how atoms interact could help business owners find the best places to locate their stores.

Flirty Flies Shed Light on Human Sleep and Memory
September 21, 2006
After a long day spent socializing or learning who to flirt with, fruit flies apparently need to sleep longer, shedding light on what sleep may actually do for humans, scientists now find.

Swarms of Small Creatures Stir the Sea
September 21, 2006
Swarms of tiny shrimp-like crustaceans known as krill could have a big impact on ocean life, by churning the waters and bringing nutrients from the depths up to the surface.

Creepy Experiment Exposes Paranoia and Sense of Alien Control
September 20, 2006
The young woman went to doctors to have them probe her brain, to root out where her seizures came from. But unexpectedly, their investigations and the procedure they performed led her to experience the creepy illusion of a person standing behind her, where nobody was actually present.

Most Ancient Child Unearthed
September 20, 2006
Scientists have unearthed the oldest child ever discoveredï¿1⁄21⁄2the fossil remains of what appears to be a girl dating back 3.3 million years.

Despite Rumors, Black Hole Factory Will Not Destroy Earth
September 19, 2006
Scientists could generate a black hole as often as every second when the world's most powerful particle accelerator comes online in 2007.

Oldest New World Text Found
September 14, 2006
A stone block from Mexico thousands of years old apparently inscribed with a previously unknown writing may be the oldest text in the New World, an international team of archaeologists said today.

Artificial Humans Gills Inspired by Diving Beetles
September 14, 2006
By studying how beetles can trap air to keep from drowning, researchers suggest artificial gills that mimic such a trick could help people breathe underwater.

First Bright Galaxies Formed Very Rapidly
September 13, 2006
The first bright galaxies in the universe apparently formed very rapidly, jumping from just one or so in number to hundreds in the span of little over 1 percent of the universe's age, astronomers find.

Tenacious Neanderthals Held Out in Pockets
September 13, 2006
Neanderthals might have held out in isolated refuges for thousands of years longer than previously thought, scientists reported today.

Fall Fashion Guide: The Chicken Feather Suit
September 11, 2006
Chicken feathers and rice straw could become commonplace in clothing in the future, scientists report.

New Technique Adds Muscle to Animated Characters
September 11, 2006
Skeletons and muscles are conjured automatically for computer-animated characters using a new technique that helps them move more realistically.

Infants and Apes Remember Things Similarly
September 8, 2006
Infants and apes apparently adopt the same tactics for remembering where things are, but as children develop their strategies change, a new study shows.

Scientist: Humans Strange, Neanderthals Normal
September 8, 2006
Neanderthals are often thought of as the stray branch in the human family tree, but research now suggests the modern human is likely the odd man out.

Scientists Worry About Potential Risks of Nanotechnology in Food
September 7, 2006
In the next five years, dozens of food and agriculture products could emerge based on nanotechnology, including a chocolate milkshake that supposedly tastes better and is more nutritious than conventional shakes and chickenfeed additives that can remove dangerous germs from poultry. However, investigators caution research is lacking into the environmental, health and safety risks posed by nanotechnology when it comes to food and agriculture.

People Really Do Wash Away Sins
September 7, 2006
Rituals that cleanse the body to purify the soul are at the core of religions worldwide. Now scientists find these ceremonies apparently have a psychological basis.

This Machine is Alive! Microscopic Motor Runs on Microbes
August 28, 2006
Scientists have yoked bacteria to power rotary motors, the first microscopic mechanical devices to successfully incorporate living microbes together with inorganic parts.

Rats Born to Mice in Bizarre Lab Work
August 28, 2006
In lab rats, "Who's your daddy?" can now yield a surprising answer. Scientists have generated rats from mice that developed rat sperm.

Scientists Erase Memories in Rat Brains
August 24, 2006
Scientists have for the first time erased long-term memories in rats and also directly seen how the brain is changed by learning.

Study: Polar Bear Genitals are Shrinking
August 23, 2006
The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to industrial pollutants.

Alien Life Might Arise Quickly, Study Suggests
August 23, 2006
Scientists have found that oxygen and the life that generates it might have enriched the Earth far earlier than currently supposed.

Scientists Make Stem Cells Without Harming Embryos
August 23, 2006
By using single cells plucked from human embryos, scientists have grown human embryonic stem cells, which can turn into any other kind of cell in the body, while leaving the original embryo intact.

Increasing Forest Fires Pump Mercury into the Air
August 21, 2006
As wildfires grow in number and strength worldwide, they are unleashing mercury that has polluted wetlands in the north since at least the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Ant Power: The World's Fastest Bite
August 21, 2006
Scientists have discovered the fastest bite in the world, one so explosive it can be used to send the Latin American ant that performs it flying through the air to escape predators.

New Research Points to Cancer Drugs in Lower Doses
August 17, 2006
Amino acids, those not employed in creating protein and life, can improve a cancer therapy protein's activity by more than 30-fold.

DNA in Urine Can Reveal Disease
August 16, 2006
Simple urine tests for DNA fragments could help in the early detection of cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and potentially many other diseases.

Hot Dogs May Cause Genetic Mutations
August 14, 2006
Everyone knows hot dogs aren't exactly healthy for you, but in a new study chemists find they may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer.

Contagious Canine Cancer Spread by Parasites
August 10, 2006
Dogs have a form of sexually transmitted cancer that for 200 to 2,500 years has apparently spread via contagious tumor cells that escaped from their original body and now travel around the world as parasites.

Study Reveals the Logic Behind Our Irrational Brains
August 3, 2006
Is a pound of stones heavier than a pound of feathers? Of course they both weigh the same, but the decisions people make are remarkably susceptible to how choices are presented or framed. Now scientists are pinning down the centers in the brain related to how this "framing effect" can influence decision-making. The findings could have a big impact on economics, among other things.

Digging up Dinosaurs ... and Keeping the Bones
August 2, 2006
It's 110 degrees at the end of July here in the badlands around the border of North Dakota and Montana as the pickaxes swing down against the Hell Creek rock. The volunteers who have braved rattlesnakes and scorpions to work here in the swirling dust may look as if they are in prison, but they are in a time machine, traveling back 65 million years by excavating through rock. And if these volunteers are lucky, they can keep bones they find.

Human Ancestors May Have Hit the Ground Running
July 24, 2006
New findings raise the interesting possibility that the step from a tree-dwelling ape to a terrestrial biped might not have been as drastic as previously thought.

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