A Blog Around The Clock

'Noah's Flood' Kick-started European Farming?:

The flood believed to be behind the Noah's Ark myth kick-started European agriculture, according to new research by the Universities of Exeter, UK and Wollongong, Australia. New research assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, 8000 years ago. The results indicate a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe.

Earliest Chocolate Drink Of The New World:

The earliest known use of cacao--the source of our modern day chocolate--has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.

Octopus And Kin Inspire New Camouflage Strategies For Military Applications:

Researchers are studying the remarkable shape- and color-changing abilities of the octopus and its close relatives in an effort to understand one of nature's most remarkable feats of camouflage and self-preservation.

New Evidence For Female Control In Reproduction:

Adding another layer of competition to the mating game, scientists are reporting possible biochemical proof that the reproductive system of female mammals can "sense" the presence of sperm and react to it by changing the uterine environment. This may be the molecular mechanism behind post-copulatory sexual selection, in which females that have mated with several partners play a role in determining which sperm fertilizes their egg.

Earlier Bites By Uninfected Mosquitoes Boost West Nile Deaths In Lab Mice:

There's one more reason to try to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, scientists have discovered: bites from mosquitoes that aren't infected by the West Nile virus may make the disease worse in people who acquire it later from West Nile-infected mosquitoes.

Sunbathing Tree Frogs' Future Under A Cloud:

Animal conservationists in Manchester are turning to physics to investigate whether global warming is responsible for killing sun-loving South American tree frogs.

Like Father, Like Son: Attractiveness Is Hereditary:

Sexy dads produce sexy sons, in the insect world at least. While scientists already knew that specific attractive traits, from cricket choruses to peacocks' tails, are passed on to their offspring, the heritability of attractiveness as a whole is more contentious. Now, new research by the University of Exeter shows that attractiveness is hereditary.