Science News
clock | June 6, 2009Be Your Best Friend If You'll Be Mine: Alliance Hypothesis For Human Friendship:
University of Pennsylvania psychologists studying the cognitive mechanisms behind human friendship have determined that how you rank your best friends is closely related to how you think your friends rank you. The results are consistent with a new theory called the Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship, distinct from traditional explanations for human friendship that focused on wealth, popularity or similarity.
Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!:
Are you someone who squirms when confronted with…
clock | June 4, 2009Changing Climate Likely To Make 'Super Weed' Even More Powerful:
Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered a new reason why the tall, tasseled reed Phragmites australis is one of the most invasive plants in the United States.
Trading Energy For Safety, Bees Extend Legs To Stay Stable In Wind:
New research shows some bees brace themselves against wind and turbulence by extending their sturdy hind legs while flying. But this approach comes at a steep cost, increasing aerodynamic drag and the power required for flight by roughly 30 percent, and cutting into the bees' flight…
clock | June 3, 2009
Scientists Map Penguins From Space By Locating Their Feces:
Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change.
New Hominid 12 Million Years Old Found In Spain, With 'Modern' Facial Features:
Researchers have discovered a fossilized face and jaw from a previously unknown hominoid primate genus in Spain dating to the Middle Miocene era, roughly 12 million years ago. Nicknamed "Lluc," the male bears a strikingly "…
clock | June 2, 2009Light-treatment Device To Improve Sleep Quality In The Elderly:
Sleep disturbances increase as we age. Some studies report more than half of seniors 65 years of age or older suffer from chronic sleep disturbances. Researchers have long believed that the sleep disturbances common among the elderly often result from a disruption of the body's circadian rhythms -- biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours.
High Arctic Mammals Wintered In Darkness 53 Million Years Ago:
Ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured…
clock | June 1, 2009There are 13 new articles in PLoS ONE today, as well as 12 articles published Friday night. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
The Multifaceted Origin of Taurine Cattle Reflected by the Mitochondrial Genome:
A Neolithic domestication of taurine cattle in the Fertile Crescent from local…
clock | June 1, 2009The World is a radio show co-produced by WGBH Boston, Public Radio International and BBC. You can probably hear it on your local NPR station - if not, you can find all the shows recorded on the website.
You may remember that I went to Boston a couple of months ago, as part of a team of people helping the show do something special: use the NSF grant they recently received to expand their science coverage and, in collaboration with Sigma Xi and NOVA, tie their radio science coverage to their online offerings.
The result is The World: Science website, a series of weekly science podcasts with…
clock | May 30, 2009
Virtual Reconstruction Of A Neanderthal Woman's Birth Canal Reveals Insights Into Evolution Of Human Child Birth:
Researchers from the University of California at Davis (USA) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) present a virtual reconstruction of a female Neanderthal pelvis from Tabun (Israel).
Why Coral Reefs Around The World Are Collapsing:
An explosion of knowledge has been made in the last few years about the basic biology of corals, researchers say in a new report, helping to explain why coral reefs around the world are collapsing and what it…
clock | May 29, 2009Male Or Female? Coloring Provides Gender Cues:
Our brain is wired to identify gender based on facial cues and coloring, according to a new study published in the Journal of Vision. Psychology Professor Frédéric Gosselin and his Université de Montréal team found the luminescence of the eyebrow and mouth region is vital in rapid gender discrimination.
'Glowing' Transgenic Monkeys Carrying Green Fluorescent Protein Gene Pave Way For New Disease Models:
A transgenic line of monkeys carrying a gene encoding green fluorescent protein fully integrated into their DNA has been created for the…
clock | May 28, 2009
Giant Dinosaur Posture Is All Wrong: Sauropods Held Their Heads High, Research Finds:
Famous depictions of the largest of all known dinosaurs, from film and television to museum skeletons, have almost certainly got it wrong, according to new research.
Oldest Evidence Of Leprosy Found In India:
A biological anthropologist from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate student from Appalachian, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a team of archaeologists from Deccan College (Pune, India) recently reported analysis of a 4000-year-old skeleton from India bearing…
clock | May 27, 2009There are 18 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Mathematical Logic in the Human Brain: Syntax:
Theory predicts a close structural relation of formal languages with natural languages. Both share the aspect of an underlying grammar which either generates (…
clock | May 27, 2009Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts:
Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface (BCI) technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone.
Spectacular Deep-water Coral Province Discovered Off Ireland's West Coast:
NUI Galway researchers, during a recent deep-water expedition, have confirmed the existence of a major new coral reef province on the southern end of the Porcupine Bank off the west coast of Ireland. The province covers an area of some 200 sq. km and…
clock | May 26, 2009There are 24 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Ancient Skeletal Evidence for Leprosy in India (2000 B.C.):
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that affects almost 250,000 people worldwide. The timing of first infection…
clock | May 26, 2009Mockingbirds In Fickle Climates Sing Fancier Tunes:
Why are some birds simple singers and others vocal virtuosos? Researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and McGill University suspect that inconsistent climates may play a role. A large-scale study of mockingbirds in diverse habitats reveals that species in more variable climes also sing more complex tunes. "As environments become more variable or unpredictable, song displays become more elaborate," said Carlos Botero, a postdoctoral researcher at NESCent in Durham, NC. NESCent is an…
clock | May 25, 2009Primate Eye Evolution: Small Evolutionary Shifts Make Big Impacts -- Like Developing Night Vision:
In the developing fetus, cell growth follows a very specific schedule. In the eye's retina, for example, cones -- which help distinguish color during the day -- develop before the more light-sensitive rods -- which are needed for night vision. But minor differences in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the large differences found in the eyes of two species -- owl monkeys and capuchin monkeys -- that evolved from a common ancestor.
Thieving Whale Caught On Video Gives Rare Clues About…
clock | May 22, 2009Genital Stimulation Opens Door For Cryptic Female Choice In Tsetse Flies:
By snipping off parts of male genitalia and reducing genital sensation in both male and female tsetse flies, researchers induced a suite of changes in female reproduction, including reduced ovulation, reduced sperm storage and increased re-mating attempts by the females.
Bird Songs Change With The Landscape:
When the going gets rough, the tough apparently sing slower. As vegetation reclaimed formerly cleared land in California, Oregon and Washington over the last 35 years, male white-crowned sparrows have lowered their…
clock | May 21, 2009Just in case you missed them, there were other papers published in seven PLoS Journals this week besides Ida ;-)
Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites. As always, and for the first time this applies to all seven journals, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click.
Effects of Nocturnal Light on (Clock) Gene Expression in Peripheral Organs: A…
clock | May 20, 2009Climate Change Odds Much Worse Than Thought:
The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago - and could be even worse than that.
Some People Really 'Never Forget A Face:' Understanding Extraordinary Face Recognition Ability:
Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who've discovered a group they call "super-recognizers": those…
clock | May 19, 2009There are 25 new articles in PLoS ONE today and there were 21 yesterday. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Predicting Visibility of Aircraft:
Visual detection of aircraft by human observers is an important element of aviation safety. To assess and ensure safety, it would be useful to be able to…
clock | May 19, 2009Another super-cool day at PLoS (one of those days when I wish I was not telecommuting, but sharing in the excitement with the colleagues at the Mothership) - the publication of a very exciting article describing a rarely well-preserved fossil of a prehistoric primate in a lineage to which we all belong as well:
Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology by Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald and B. Holly Smith
The fossil, named Ida (the scientific name is Darwinius masillae, a…
clock | May 18, 2009Fossil Of 'Giant' Shrew Nearly One Million Years Old Found In Spain:
Morphometric and phylogenetic analyses of the fossilised remains of the jaws and teeth of a shrew discovered in a deposit in Gran Dolina de Atapuerca, in Burgos, have shown this to be a new species (Dolinasorex glyphodon) that has not previously been described. The extinct animal had red teeth, was large in size compared with mammals of the same family, and was more closely related to Asian than European shrews.
Komodo Dragons Even More Deadly Than Thought: Combined Tooth-venom Arsenal Key To Hunting Strategy:
A new study…