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New Study Turns Up the Heat on Soot's Role in Himalayan Warming (w/ Video)

New Study Turns Up the Heat on Soot's Role in Himalayan Warming (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Soot from fire in an unventilated fireplace wafts into a home and settles on the surfaces of floors and furniture. But with a quick fix to the chimney flue and some dusting, it bears no impact ...


I think step to the left, you think step to the east

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 4

Even the way people remember dance moves depends on the culture they come from, according to a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology. Whereas a German or other Westerner might think in terms of "step to the ...


Tool use in an invertebrate: The coconut-carrying octopus

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Scientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That's until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue ...


Flies like us: They can act like addicts, too

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

When given the chance to consume alcohol at will, fruit flies behave in ways that look an awful lot like human alcoholism. That's according to a study published online on December 10th in Current Biology that is one of the ...


Understanding ocean climate

Understanding ocean climate

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

High-resolution computer simulations performed by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) are helping to understand the inflow of North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean and how ...


It's all in your head. No, really: How mental imagery training aids perceptual learning

It's all in your head. No, really: How mental imagery training aids perceptual learning

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Practice makes perfect. But imaginary practice? Elisa Tartaglia of the Laboratory of Psychophysics at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and team show that perceptual learning—learning ...


Sylvia atricapilla (Blackcap)

By feeding the birds, you could change their evolutionary fate

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 5

Feeding birds in winter is a most innocent human activity, but it can nonetheless have profound effects on the evolutionary future of a species, and those changes can be seen in the very near term. That's ...


Ships warned about icebergs headed for New Zealand (AP)

Ships warned about icebergs headed for New Zealand

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.


Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand (AP)

Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (5) | comments 1

(AP) -- Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that hundreds of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday.


Study looks at scientific, cultural perspectives on race

Biology / Other

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study compares personal perceptions of race, color and ancestry of Brazilian high school students with the results of genetic ancestry tests, with the aim of investigating the tensions between cultural ...


Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains

Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 12

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.


New climate treaty could put species at risk

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Plans to be discussed at the forthcoming UN climate conference in Copenhagen to cut deforestation in developing countries could save some species from extinction but inadvertently increase the risk to others, scientists believe.


Cautious conservation: How to ensure that slowing global warming will protect biodiversity

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

While it is clear that massive destruction of tropical rainforests poses a serious threat to the incredibly rich biodiversity found on Earth, other hazards are not so explicit. An international group of prominent scientists ...


AKROD Knee Device

Robotic Devices Providing Home-Care Rehabilitation (w/ Video)

Electronics / Robotics

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 weblog

(PhysOrg.com) -- A group of researchers, at Northeastern University, have developed several portable robotic devices to aid in the rehabilitation process of stroke victims. These devices are small enough for ...


New study describes connections between Circadian and metabolic systems

Biology / Other

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A paper by University of Notre Dame biologist Giles Duffield and a team of researchers offers new insights into a gene that plays a key role in modulating the body's Circadian system and may also simultaneously modulate its ...