SCIENTISTS DISCOVER 3.7-BILLION-YEAR-OLD FOSSILS

A team of Australian researchers has uncovered the world's oldest fossils in a remote area of Greenland, capturing the earliest history of the planet and demonstrating that life on Earth emerged rapidly in the planet's early years. The team discovered 3.7-billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in the world's oldest sedimentary...

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DOGS HAVE THE ABILITY TO DISTINGUISH VOCABULARY WORDS AND THE INTONATION OF HUMAN SPEECH

Dogs have the ability to distinguish vocabulary words and the intonation of human speech through brain regions similar to those that humans use, a new study reports. Attila Andics et al. note that vocabulary learning "does not appear to be a uniquely human capacity that follows from the emergence of language, but rather...

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SCIENTISTS USE ULTRASOUND TO JUMP-START A MAN'S BRAIN AFTER COMA

A 25-YEAR-OLD MAN RECOVERING FROM A COMA HAS MADE REMARKABLE PROGRESS FOLLOWING A TREATMENT TO JUMP-START HIS BRAIN USING ULTRASOUNDS, SCIENTISTS REPORT. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SUCH AN APPROACH TO SEVERE BRAIN INJURY HAS BEEN TRIED. The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. Credit:...

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DO EYE EXERCISES IMPROVE VISION?

Self-help programs of eye exercises that claim to reduce or eliminate your need for glasses and contacts have been around since the 1920s. But before you spend time and money on anything that promises you will be able to "throw away your glasses," be aware that these programs remain highly controversial...

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NEXT GENERATION ANODE TO IMPROVE LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES

RESEARCHERS HAVE CREATED A NEW SILICON-TIN NANO-COMPOSITE ANODE THAT COULD LEAD TO LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES THAT CAN BE CHARGED AND DISCHARGED MORE TIMES BEFORE THEY REACH THE END OF THEIR USEFUL LIVES. THE LONGER-LASTING BATTERIES COULD BE USED IN EVERYTHING FROM HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICES TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES. Titled...

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ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES HAVE PREVENTED CASES OF ENDOMETRIAL CANCER IN THE LAST DECADE

USE OF ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES (USUALLY REFERRED TO AS "THE PILL"), EVEN FOR JUST A FEW YEARS, GIVES SUBSTANTIAL LONG-TERM PROTECTION AGAINST ENDOMETRIAL (WOMB) CANCER, AND THE LONGER THE PILL IS USED THE GREATER THE REDUCTION IN RISK, ACCORDING TO A DETAILED RE-ANALYSIS OF ALL THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE. Researchers from...

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VIRUS ATTRACTS BUMBLEBEES TO INFECTED PLANTS BY CHANGING SCENT

Study of bee-manipulating plant virus reveals a 'short-circuiting' of natural selection. Researchers suggest that replicating the scent caused by infection could encourage declining bee populations to pollinate crops -- helping both bee and human food supplies. Plant scientists at the University of Cambridge have...

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BIOFUELS INCREASE, RATHER THAN DECREASE, HEAT-TRAPPING CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS

Contrary to popular belief, the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted when biofuels are burned is not fully balanced by the CO2 uptake that occurs as the plants grow A new study from University of Michigan researchers challenges the widely held assumption that bio-fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel are inherently...

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SCIENTISTS SOLVE PUZZLE OF CONVERTING GASEOUS CARBON DIOXIDE TO FUEL

Every year, humans advance climate change and global warming -- and quite likely our own eventual extinction -- by injecting about 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A team of scientists from the University of Toronto (U of T) believes they've found a way to convert all these emissions into energy-rich...

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NEW EYE MOVEMENT

Scientists have discovered a new type of eye movement which they have called blink-associated resetting movement. We probably do it every day, but scientists have only just discovered a distinct new way in which we move our eyes. The team from the University of Tübingen in Germany assessed the eye movements of 11...

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CARDIO-METABOLIC RISK IS SURPRISINGLY COMPLICATED

In a study being published in the August 19 issue of Science, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in collaboration with scientists from Tartu University Hospital in Estonia, the Karolinska Institutet and Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Sweden, and AstraZeneca, have identified...

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SAFE TO EAT,,,

At the grocery store, most foods -- meats, breads, cheeses, snacks -- come wrapped in plastic packaging. Not only does this create a lot of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable waste, but thin plastic films are not great at preventing spoilage. And some plastics are suspected of leaching potentially harmful compounds into...

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COOPERATING OR COMPETING ?

When given a choice between cooperating or competing, chimpanzees choose to cooperate five times more frequently Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers have found. This, the researchers say, challenges the perceptions humans are unique in our ability to cooperate and chimpanzees are overly competitive, and...

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