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Songbirds' Learning Hub in Brain Offers Insight Into Motor Control
To learn its signature melody, the
male songbird uses a
trial-and-error process to mimic
the song of its father, singing
the tune over and over again,
hundreds of times a day, making
subtle changes in the pitch of the
... > full story
- more on:
Pollution Teams With Thunderclouds to Warm Atmosphere
New simulation study shows that
atmosphere warms when pollution
intensifies storms. How much the
warming effect of these clouds
offsets the cooling that other
clouds provide is not yet clear. ... > full story
- more on:
Coffee Drinkers Have Lower Risk of Death, Study Suggests
Older adults who drank coffee --
caffeinated or decaffeinated --
had a lower risk of death overall
than others who did not drink
coffee, according a new study. ... > full story
- more on:
New Silicon Memory Chip May Offer Super-Fast Memory
The first purely silicon
oxide-based "resistive RAM" memory
chip that can operate in ambient
conditions -- opening up the
possibility of new super-fast
memory -- has now been developed. ... > full story
- more on:
Newfound Exoplanet May Turn to Dust: Planet’s Dust Cloud May Explain Strange Patterns of Light from Its Star
Researchers have detected a
possible planet, some 1,500 light
years away, that appears to be
evaporating under the blistering
heat of its parent star. The
scientists infer that a long tail
... > full story
- more on:
'Rare' Genetic Variants Are Surprisingly Common, Life Scientists Report
A large survey of human genetic
variation shows that rare genetic
variants are not so rare after
all, and offers insights into
human diseases. A team of
scientists studied 202 genes in
14,002 people -- one of the
... > full story
- more on:
How Exercise Affects the Brain: Age and Genetics Play a Role
Findings suggest that the effects
of exercise on memory depend on
the age of the exerciser;
underlying genetic mechanisms
matter, too. ... > full story
- more on:
Intricate, Often Invisible Land-Sea Ecological Chains of Life Threatened With Extinction Around the World
Intricate, often invisible chains
of life are threatened with
extinction around the world. A new
study quantifies one of the
longest such chains ever
documented. ... > full story
- more on:
Quantum Physicists Show a Small Amount of Randomness Can Be Amplified Without Limit
Once again quantum physics gives
us philosophical implications:
physicists have shown how a small
amount of randomness can be
amplified without limit. ... > full story
- more on:
Pollination With Precision: How Flowers Do It
Pollination could be a chaotic
disaster. With hundreds of pollen
grains growing long tubes to
ovules to deliver their sperm to
female gametes, how can a flower
ensure that exactly two fertile
sperm reach every ovule?
Biologists report the discovery of
... > full story
- more on:
Chemists Merge Experimentation With Theory in Understanding of Water Molecule
Using newly developed imaging
technology, chemists have
confirmed years of theoretical
assumptions about water molecules,
the most abundant and one of the
most frequently studied substances
... > full story
- more on:
Ancient History of Circumarctic Peoples Illuminated
Scientists have discovered new
information about the migration
patterns of the first humans to
settle the Americas. The studies
identify the historical
relationships among various groups
of Native American and First
... > full story
- more on:
Roll over headlines to view top news summaries:
- How Birds Learn Songs: Motor Control Insights
- Pollution-Intensified Storms Warm Atmosphere
- Coffee Drinkers Have Lower Risk of Death
- Silicon Memory Chip May Offer Super-Fast Memory
- Newfound Exoplanet May Turn to Dust
- 'Rare' Genetic Variants Surprisingly Common
- How Exercise Affects the Brain
- Fragile Land-Sea Ecological Chains At Risk
- How Quantum Physicists Amplify Randomness
- Pollination With Precision: How Flowers Do It
- Geometry of Bonding Water Molecules
- Ancient History of Circumarctic Peoples
- more top science stories
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Top Medical News
Prenatal Pollution Exposure Dangerous for Children With Asthma
The link between prenatal exposure to air pollution and childhood lung growth and respiratory ailments is well established, and now a new study suggests that these prenatal exposures can be especially serious for children with ... > full story
- Drug Found for Parasite That Is Major Cause of Death Worldwide
- Oxytocin Improves Brain Function in Children With Autism
- Weight in Pregnancy Best Controlled by Diet, Study Suggests
- Multipotent Stromal Stem Cells from Normally Discarded Human Placental Tissue Demonstrate High Therapeutic Potential
- more top health stories
Top Technology News
Good News for Nanomedicine: Quantum Dots Appear Safe in Pioneering Study on Primates
A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found the tiny crystals to be safe over a one-year period, a hopeful outcome for doctors and scientists seeking new ways to battle diseases like cancer through ... > full story
Top Environment News
A Crowning Success for Crayfish
Australian freshwater crayfish have a tooth enamel very similar to humans. Nature sometimes copies its own particularly successful developments. Scientists have now found that the teeth of the Australian freshwater crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus ... > full story
More Science Headlines
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11 pm EDT
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Revealing the Stars of Brain Adaptability
May 16, 2012 — Star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are found to bridge the gap between global brain activity and localized circuits. Global network activity in the brain modulates local neural circuitry via calcium signaling in non-neuronal cells called ... > full story -
Wounds and Healing; Today's Healthcare; Heart Disease; Cosmetic Surgery; Chronic Illness; Menopause;
Sutureless Aortic Valve Replacement a North American First
May 18, 2012 — A surgical milestone was reached on May 1st with a sutureless aortic valve replacement through a thoracic incision just 5 centimeters long. The two patients in their seventies who underwent this innovative procedure were doing well only one week ... > full story -
Emotionally Intelligent People Are Less Good at Spotting Liars
May 18, 2012 — People who rate themselves as having high emotional intelligence (EI) tend to overestimate their ability to detect deception in ... > full story -
Phase I Clinical Trial Shows Drug Shrinks Melanoma Brain Metastases
May 17, 2012 — An experimental drug targeting a common mutation in melanoma successfully shrank tumors that spread to the brain in nine out of 10 patients in part of an international phase I clinical trial ... > full story -
Bioinformatics: We Can Learn a Lot from Other Species
May 17, 2012 — Researchers have confirmed the long-held belief that studying the genes we share with other animals is useful. The study shows how bioinformatics makes it possible to test the fundamental principles on which life science is ... > full story
8 pm EDT
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Back and Neck Pain; Recycling and Waste; Environmental Issues; Pain Control; Environmental Policies; Environmental Policy;
New Advice on Medication Disposal: Trash Beats Take-Back, New Study Suggests
May 16, 2012 — Returning extra medicine to the pharmacy for disposal might not be worth the extra time, money or greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study that is the first to look at the net effects of so-called take-back ... > full story -
Health Experts Narrow the Hunt for Ebola
May 16, 2012 — Response efforts to outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa can benefit from a standardized sampling strategy that focuses on the carcasses of gorillas, chimpanzees and other species known to succumb to the virus, according to wildlife health ... > full story -
Inside a Plant’s Pharma Factory
May 16, 2012 — A newly discovered enzyme brings scientists one step closer to understanding how plants manufacture a molecule with potent medicinal properties. Plants of the genus Glycyrrhiza are best known as key ingredients in the popular treat licorice, but ... > full story -
Slew of Rare DNA Changes Following Population Explosion May Hold Clues to Common Diseases
May 17, 2012 — Scientists have taken a first step toward understanding how rare genetic differences among people contribute to leading chronic illnesses. One-letter DNA code changes occur frequently in human genomes, but each variant is usually found in only a few ... > full story -
Suspicion Resides in Two Regions of the Brain: Our Baseline Level of Distrust Is Distinct and Separable from Our Inborn Lie Detector
May 17, 2012 — Scientists have found that suspicion resides in two distinct regions of the brain: the amygdala, which plays a central role in processing fear and emotional memories, and the parahippocampal gyrus, which is associated with declarative memory and the ... > full story
5 pm EDT
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Untangling the Development of Breast Cancer: Evolution of 21 Breast Cancers
May 17, 2012 — The team created a catalogue of all the mutations in the genomes of the 21 breast cancer genomes. They identified entirely new mutational processes that drive breast cancer development, including one remarkable process defined by localized regions ... > full story -
Training the Brain Could Help Reduce Pain
May 17, 2012 — Training the brain to reduce pain could be a promising approach for treating phantom limb pain and complex regional pain syndrome, according to s neuroscience ... > full story -
Risk Factor Management Helps Prevent Migraine Attacks
May 17, 2012 — The latest genetic and biological research shows that migraine is a neurological, not vascular, disorder and both acute and preventive treatments being developed target peripheral and central nervous systems, according to a prominent migraine ... > full story -
RNA Modification Influences Thousands of Genes: Revolutionizes Understanding of Gene Expression
May 17, 2012 — Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only ... > full story -
Fighting Bacteria’s Strength in Numbers
May 17, 2012 — Scientists have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate with each ... > full story
2 pm EDT
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Hormone-Depleting Drug Shows Promise Against Localized High-Risk Prostate Tumors
May 16, 2012 — Researchers have demonstrated that a hormone-depleting drug approved for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer can help eliminate or nearly eliminate tumors in many patients with aggressive cancers that have yet to spread beyond the prostate, ... > full story -
Phase I Study of Temsirolimus, Capecitabine Appears Safe; Positive Survival Trend Seen
May 16, 2012 — A Phase I clinical trial examining the safety of combining temsirolimus and capecitabine in advanced malignancies suggests the two agents can be given safely to patients. In addition researchers conducting the study in cancer patients whose tumors ... > full story -
Clergy Can Fight HIV on Faith-Friendly Terms
May 16, 2012 — In the United States, where blacks bear a disproportionate burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, black religious institutions could help turn the tide. In a new study based on dozens of interviews and focus groups with 38 of Philadelphia's most ... > full story -
Pharmacology; Diseases and Conditions; Healthy Aging; Foodborne Illness; Alzheimer's Research; Cancer;
Potential New Drugs for Fox Tapeworm Infection in Humans
May 16, 2012 — Scientists are reporting development and testing of a new series of drugs that could finally stop the fox tapeworm -- which causes a rare but life-threatening disease in humans -- dead in its tracks. The report shows that specific organometallic ... > full story -
Giant Galaxy-Packed Filament Revealed
May 17, 2012 — Astronomers have discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament is the first structure of its kind spied in a critical era of cosmic buildup when colossal collections of galaxies called superclusters began ... > full story
11 am EDT
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Religion Is a Potent Force for Cooperation and Conflict, Research Shows
May 17, 2012 — Across history and cultures, religion increases trust within groups but also may increase conflict with other groups, according to a new ... > full story -
Babies' Susceptibility to Colds Linked to Immune Response at Birth
May 17, 2012 — Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth, according to new research. And babies with a better innate response to viruses have fewer respiratory illnesses in the first year of ... > full story -
In Chemical Reactions, Water Adds Speed Without Heat
May 17, 2012 — Scientists have discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions -— such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis —- in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting ... > full story -
Forest Diversity from Canada to the Sub-Tropics Influenced by Family Proximity
May 17, 2012 — How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. Biologists have shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale of unparalleled scope, in part, by how well tree seedlings survive under their own ... > full story -
Prosthetic Retina Offers Simple Solution for Restoring Sight
May 17, 2012 — A device which could restore sight to patients with one of the most common causes of blindness in the developed world is being ... > full story
8 am EDT
-
New Technique Reveals Unseen Information in DNA Code
May 17, 2012 — Scientists have used a new technique to map 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in DNA from human and mouse embryonic stem cells, revealing new information about their patterns of distribution. These studies have revealed ... > full story -
Pain Relief Through Distraction: It's Not All in Your Head
May 17, 2012 — Mental distractions make pain easier to take, and those pain-relieving effects aren't just in your head, according to a new ... > full story -
Extended Daily Fasting Overrides Harmful Effects of a High-Fat Diet: Study May Offer Drug-Free Intervention to Prevent Obesity and Diabetes
May 17, 2012 — It turns out that when we eat may be as important as what we eat. Scientists have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting period may override the adverse health effects of a high-fat diet and prevent obesity, diabetes and ... > full story -
Ancient Giant Turtle Fossil Was Size of Smart Car
May 17, 2012 — Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists have found just such a specimen -- the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now ... > full story -
Parents Are Happier People: Parents Experience Greater Happiness and Meaning in Life Than Nonparents, Psychologists Find
May 17, 2012 — Contrary to recent scholarship and popular belief, parents experience greater levels of happiness and meaning in life than people without children, according to researchers. Parents also are happier during the day when they are caring for their ... > full story
5 am EDT
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1,000 Years of Climate Data Confirms Australia's Warming
May 17, 2012 — In the first study of its kind in Australasia, scientists have used 27 natural climate records to create the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the region over the last 1,000 ... > full story -
Three-Telescope Interferometry Allows Astrophysicists to Observe How Black Holes Are Fueled
May 16, 2012 — By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, scientists have observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens of millions of light years away, a method that has yielded an unprecedented ... > full story -
Unexpected Source for Diabetic Neuropathy Pain
May 15, 2012 — Nearly half of all diabetics suffer from neuropathic pain, an intractable, agonizing and still mysterious companion of the disease. Now researchers have identified an unexpected source of the pain and a potential target to alleviate ... > full story -
Gene Therapy; Birth Defects; Children's Health; Diseases and Conditions; Personalized Medicine; Child Development;
Children With Rare, Incurable Brain Disease Improve After Gene Therapy
May 16, 2012 — Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease using gene transfer. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as ... > full story -
Nutrition; Staying Healthy; Diet and Weight Loss; Public Health; Diseases and Conditions; Health Policy;
20 Percent 'Fat Tax' Needed to Improve Population Health, Experts Say
May 15, 2012 — Taxes on unhealthy food and drinks would need to be at least 20 percent to have a significant effect on diet-related conditions such as obesity and heart disease, say experts on bmj.com today. Ideally, this should be combined with subsidies on ... > full story
2 am EDT
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Damaged Connections in Phineas Gage's Brain: Famous 1848 Case of Man Who Survived Accident Has Modern Parallel
May 16, 2012 — In 1848, Phineas Gage survived an accident that drove an iron rod through his head. Researchers, for the first time, used images of Gage’s skull combined with modern-day brain images to suggest there was extensive damage to the white matter ... > full story -
Cholesterol; Heart Disease; Diseases and Conditions; Vioxx; Personalized Medicine; Stroke Prevention;
Not All 'Good Cholesterol' Is 'Good': Raising HDL Not a Sure Route to Countering Heart Disease
May 16, 2012 — Medical researchers explored naturally occurring genetic variations in humans to test the connection between HDL levels and heart attack. By studying the genes of roughly 170,000 individuals, the team discovered that, when examined together, the 15 ... > full story -
Mating and Breeding; Wild Animals; Genetics; Developmental Biology; Evolutionary Biology; Extreme Survival;
Bats: A Good Immune System Ensures Success in Reproduction
May 16, 2012 — Anyone who is healthy has more enthusiasm for reproduction. The same is true even for bats. Male bats with a good immune system are more successful in being selected by females during mate choice and reproduction than their ailing ... > full story -
The Rhine Is Five Million Years Older Than First Thought: Age of the River Corrected Based on Fossils
May 16, 2012 — Scientists have examined the age of the Rhine based on fossils. They have discovered that the river is five million years older than previously ... > full story -
Children With Cancer Have Complete Responses in a COG Phase 1 Trial: Pills Zero in on Abnormal Genes That Drive Specific Cancers
May 16, 2012 — A pill designed to zero in on abnormal genes that drive specific cancers has produced encouraging early results in children with an uncommon but aggressive type of lymphoma, as well as in children with a rare form of ... > full story
Health & Biomedical Sciences
Health & Medicine
Study Combines Lapatinib With Cetuximab to Overcome Resistance in EGFR-Driven Tumors, New Research Suggests
Targeted therapies have been studied for years, but recent laboratory research is providing robust clues about drugs that might work better in combination, particularly in treating cancers that have become resistant to therapy. That kind of ... > full story
Mind & Brain
Protein Inhibitor Points to Potential Medical Treatments for Skull and Skin Birth Defects
Researchers have found new clues in the pathogenesis of skull and skin birth defects associated with a rare genetic disorder, Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrata syndrome ... > full story
- Can Consumers 'Fit In' Yet Remain Unique?
- Trusting Tiger Woods: How Do Facial Cues Affect Preference and Trust?
- Alzheimer's Gene Causes Brain's Blood Vessels to Leak Toxins and Die
- Human Genes Transplanted Into Zebrafish: Helps Identify Genes Related to Autism, Schizophrenia and Obesity
- more stories
Living Well
Foul-Mouthed Characters in Teen Books Have It All
Analysis of best-selling teen novels shows that readers come across seven instances of profanity per hour spent reading, and the characters who cuss are usually rich, beautiful and ... > full story
Biological & Earth Sciences
Plants & Animals
New Method Detects Traces of Veterinary Drugs in Baby Food
The quantities are very small, but in milk powder and in meat-based baby food, residues of drugs given to livestock were found. Researchers have now developed a system to analyze these substances quickly and precisely. Antibiotics, such as ... > full story
Earth & Climate
Unparalleled Views of Earth's Coastal Zone With HREP-HICO
Scanning the globe from the vantage point of the International Space Station is about more than the fantastic view. While cruising in low Earth orbit, the space station HICO and RAIDS Experiment Payload-Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean, or ... > full story
- Maps of Miscanthus Genome Offer Insight Into Grass Evolution
- Listening to Chickens Could Improve Poultry Production
- Humanmade Pollutants May Be Driving Earth's Tropical Belt Expansion: May Impact Large-Scale Atmospheric Circulation
- Sumatra Faces Yet Another Risk: Major Volcanic Eruptions
- more stories
Fossils & Ruins
Big-Mouthed Babies Drove the Evolution of Giant Island Snakes
The need to have big-mouthed babies drove the evolution of giant tiger snakes on Australian islands, new research shows. The findings offer a new dimension to the study of island gigantism and ... > full story
- Ancient Plant-Fungal Partnerships Reveal How the World Became Green
- Ancient Tree-Ring Records from Southwest U.S. Suggest Today's Megafires Are Truly Unusual
- Ancient Sea Reptile With Gammy Jaw Suggests Dinosaurs Got Arthritis Too
- First Ever Record of Insect Pollination from 100 Million Years Ago
- more stories
Physical & Applied Sciences
Space & Time
What Astronauts Ate: Apollo 10 Space Meal, 1969
This Smithsonian Snapshot marks the May 18, 1969, launch of the Apollo 10 mission with an astronaut's space meal from that ... > full story
Matter & Energy
Falcon 9 Aborts Launch Attempt
A SpaceX Falcon 9 aborted its launch May 19 moments after its engines ignited when computers detected higher pressure readings than allowed. The center engine pressure built above limits and a shutdown occurred one-half second before liftoff, SpaceX ... > full story
Computers & Math
Facebook and Smartphones: New Tools for Psychological Science Research
Whether you're an iPerson who can't live without a Mac, a Facebook addict, or a gamer, you know that social media and technology say things about your personality and thought processes. And psychological scientists know it too -- they've started ... > full story
- Spurious Switching Points in Traded Stock Dynamics
- People With Paralysis Control Robotic Arms to Reach and Grasp Using Brain Computer Interface
- Elusive Capacity of Networks: Calculating Data Network's Total Capacity Notoriously Difficult, but Theorists Making Some Headway
- Statistical Analysis Projects Future Temperatures in North America
- more stories
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