Science & Technology - May 10, 2011 14:40 - 0 Comments

Teen brain keeps change in high gear

BROWN (US) — Changes to the teenage brain are still going strong long after physical growth spurts have petered out. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 10, 2011 11:27 - 1 Comment

Brain area lights up in ‘lucky’ gamblers

CALTECH (US) — Gamblers who play a “lucky” number that’s paid off in the past are likely being influenced by a specific brain region linked to learning. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 9, 2011 16:34 - 1 Comment

Communication gives fish a jolt

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — An African family of fish has a unique recognition tool—an electrical signal that is distinctive not only to species, but also to sex, dominance, and even to individual identity. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 9, 2011 14:44 - 1 Comment

Hot soup of super heavy antimatter

UC DAVIS (US) — Smashing gold together almost a billion times has resulted in the creation of the heaviest form of antimatter ever found. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 9, 2011 11:03 - 0 Comments

Pupfish evolution on fast-forward

UC DAVIS (US) — A pupfish that survives by biting the scales off its underwater neighbors is evolving up to 130 times faster than other pupfish species. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 6, 2011 14:42 - 1 Comment

Gravity probe gives props to Einstein

STANFORD (US) — One of NASA’s longest-running projects comes to a close, confirming two predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 6, 2011 13:46 - 0 Comments

If you give a computer schizophrenia…

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN / YALE (US) — Researchers were able to elicit schizophrenia-like symptoms in a virtual computer network, mimicking the excessive release of dopamine in the human brain. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 5, 2011 14:28 - 0 Comments

Physics gets dirty to stop terrorism

DUKE (US) — Physicists have identified new “fingerprints” of nuclear materials, such as uranium and plutonium. The fingerprints could be used in new cargo scanners to locate dirty bombs. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 5, 2011 12:39 - 1 Comment

GPS moves cars to go greener

U. ILLINOIS (US) — In addition to the fastest and shortest routes, a new software interface that works like a GPS is able to calculate the most fuel-efficient route, too. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 5, 2011 11:21 - 0 Comments

Rice: 10,000 varieties from 1 source

NYU/WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — A study of the genome of domesticated rice shows the crop had its beginnings from a single origin about 9,000 years ago in the Yangtze Valley of China. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 4, 2011 16:50 - 2 Comments

Mashup mammal: More cat than dog

BROWN (US) — With a head and body of a dog, a striped coat like a cat, and a baby-carrying pouch like a kangaroo, the thylacine of Australia and Tasmania was an odd mix. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 3, 2011 16:58 - 1 Comment

Nutcracker Man had a taste for grass

U. COLORADO (US) — An ancient, bipedal hominid sporting huge molars preferred to slurp up vast quantities of grass, instead of crunching on the food that earned it the nickname Nutcracker Man. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 3, 2011 12:02 - 0 Comments

Less than perfect is better for nanotech

VANDERBILT (US) — Suppressing natural variability to increase reliability works well in some cases, but not so much on the nanoscale. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 3, 2011 10:28 - 0 Comments

New tricks from old polymers

IOWA STATE (US) — Organic solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and thin-film transistors could be enhanced by polymers that mimic the properties of traditional inorganic semiconductors. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 2, 2011 17:59 - 1 Comment

Cellular breakup caught on video

YALE (US) — Scientists have succeeded in creating a movie showing the breakup of actin filaments, the muscular workhorses of our cells. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 2, 2011 16:39 - 3 Comments

Biodiversity born of mass extinction

U. CHICAGO (US) — Fossils from more than 300 million years ago show that what was bad for fish was good for the fish’s food. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 2, 2011 15:01 - 0 Comments

Fruit flies may help us get good zzzs

UC DAVIS (US) — Fooling fruit flies into thinking the day is 16 hours long instead of 24 could help alleviate human sleep disorders. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 2, 2011 13:29 - 1 Comment

152,000 cousins in fly’s ‘family bush’

IOWA STATE (US) —Talk about extended families: Houseflies have more than 152,000 relatives—and those are just the ones that researchers know about. (more…)

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