A Blog Around The Clock

'Beauty Machine' Makes Average Face A Knockout With A Single Click:

Our mothers told us that true beauty is more than skin deep -- but researchers from Tel Aviv University are now challenging Mom. They've built a beauty machine that, with the press of a button, turns a picture of your own ordinary face into that of a cover model. While its output is currently limited to digitized images, the software may be able to guide plastic surgeons, aid magazine cover editors, and even become a feature incorporated into all digital cameras.

Bullies May Enjoy Seeing Others In Pain:

Unusually aggressive youth may actually enjoy inflicting pain on others, research using brain scans at the University of Chicago shows.

Ancient China: Lack Of Rainfall Could Have Contributed To Social Upheaval And Fall Of Dynasties:

Chinese history is replete with the rise and fall of dynasties, but researchers now have identified a natural phenomenon that may have been the last straw for some of them: a weakening of the summer Asian Monsoons.

'Unprecedented' Warming Drives Dramatic Ecosystem Shifts In North Atlantic, Study Finds:

While Earth has experienced numerous changes in climate over the past 65 million years, recent decades have experienced the most significant climate change since the beginning of human civilized societies about 5,000 years ago, says a new Cornell University study.

Drivers Beware: Wildlife Specialist Offers Hints For Avoiding Deer-vehicle Crashes:

In November, when it comes to avoiding deer collisions, it's not the one you see crossing the road that's likely to get you, according to a wildlife expert. "It's the one that's chasing her," said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, Texas AgriLife Extension Service fisheries and wildlife specialist.

Key To Sonic Hedgehog Control Of Brain Development Found:

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have discovered how the expression of the Sonic hedgehog gene is regulated during brain development and how mutations that alter this process cause brain malformations. The results appear online this month in Nature Genetics.

Harnessing Network Anarchy For The Common Good:

Anarchy may be the bane of political conservatives, but on the Internet it is the essence of the information superhighway. No hierarchical authority controls the Internet and users have the freedom to create information, and leave or rejoin the network at will. Yet the essential freedoms users have on shared networks such as the Internet - described famously by political scientist Dana Ward as the "quintessential example of a large-scale anarchist organisation" - makes them difficult to manage efficiently.

Mechanism That Allows 2 Pacemakers To Control Breathing Pieced Together:

Two pacemakers in the brain work together in harmony to ensure that breathing occurs in a regular rhythm, according to new research from MIT scientists.

Without Glial Cells, Animals Lose Their Senses:

Sensory neurons have always put on a good show. But now, it turns out, they'll be sharing the credit. In groundbreaking research to appear in the October 31 issue of Science, Rockefeller University scientists show that while neurons play the lead role in detecting sensory information, a second type of cell, the glial cell, pulls the strings behind the scenes.

Epic Voyage To Discover Origins And Migration Routes Of Ancestors Of Ancient Polynesians And Their Animals:

Two Durham University scientists are to play a key part in a 6000km trip following the migration route of ancient Pacific cultures.