Not Exactly Rocket Science

The back catalogue

This is a chronological list of all the articles I've written for this blog - no personal chatter, just the good stuff.

From the new site

April 2008
#229 - 25/04/08 - Vaccinia virus tricks its way into hosts by mimicking dead cells
#228 - 24/04/08 - When learning maths, abstract symbols work better than real-world examples
#227 - 23/04/08 - Beetles transform Canadian forest from carbon sink into carbon source
#226 - 21/04/08 - 'Talking face' simulations in the brain help us work out what's being said
#225 - 18/04/08 - Brain-enhancing drugs work by focusing brain activity... for better or worse
#224 - 16/04/08 - New flu viruses emerge in tropical Asia before going on one-way world tour
#223 - 14/04/08 - Testosterone-fuelled traders make higher profits
#222 - 13/04/08 - Unconscious brain activity shapes our decisions
#221 - 11/04/08 - Bacteria inspire drug that protects against radiation sickness
#220 - 10/04/08 - When bacteria merge - two species are turning into one
#219 - 07/04/08 - Automatic "evolution machine" creates more efficient enzymes on a microchip
#218 - 07/04/08 - First lungless frog discovered in Borneo
#217 - 03/04/08 - Super-bacteria eat antibiotics for breakfast
#216 - 02/04/08 - Climate change knocked mammoths down, humans finished them off
#215 - 01/04/08 - Did conflict between old and young women drive origin of menopause?

March 2008
#214 - 31/03/08 - Boto dolphins woo females with chat-up vines
#213 - 29/03/08 - The smell of danger - shocks help people discriminate between similar odours
#212 - 27/03/08 - A squid's beak is a marvel of biological engineering
#211 - 26/03/08 - Chimpanzees take risks but bonobos play it safe
#210 - 25/03/08 - Rising carbon dioxide levels weaken plant defences against hungry insects
#209 - 24/03/08 - Bdelloid rotifers - the world's most radiation-resistant animals
#208 - 21/03/08 - Mantis shrimps have a unique way of seeing
#207 - 20/03/08 - Money can buy happiness... if you spend it on other people
#206 - 19/03/08 - Winners don't punish: "Punishing slackers Part 2"
#205 - 17/03/08 - Geckos use their tails to stop falls and manoeuvre in the air
#204 - 16/03/08 - New drug shows great promise in treating schistosomiasis
#203 - 14/03/08 - Stealthy alligators dive, rise and roll by moving their lungs
#202 - 13/03/08 - Sand dollars avoid predators by cloning themselves
#201 - 11/03/08 - How sharks, penguins and bacteria find food in the big, wide ocean
#200 - 10/03/08 - Immune snakes outrun toxic newts in evolutionary arms races
#199 - 06/03/08 - Punishing slackers and do-gooders
#198 - 05/03/08 - The machine that identifies images from brain activity alone
#197 - 04/03/08 - Moths remember what they learn as caterpillars?
#196 - 03/03/08 - What happens in the brain of an improvising jazz musician?

February 2008
#195 - 29/02/08 - Snow-making bacteria are everywhere
#194 - 29/02/08 - Communicating chimps and talking humans show activity in same part of the brain
#193 - 27/02/08 - Japanese moths hit by male-killing virus
#192 - 25/02/08 - Effects of invading island rats ripple across land and sea

From the old site

February 2008
#191 - 20/02/08 - Tiny molecules drove the evolution of the vertebrates
#190 - 17/02/08 - Testing, not studying, makes for strong long-term memories
#189 - 15/02/08 - Earliest bat shows flight developed before echolocation
#188 - 13/02/08 - Third cousin couples have the most children and grandchildren
#187 - 02/02/08 - New languages evolve in rapid bursts

January 2008
#186 - 30/01/08 - Malawi cichlids - how aggressive males create diversity
#185 - 29/01/08 - Colour-changing chameleons evolved to stand out, not blend in
#184 - 26/01/08 - Averaging photos creates infallible face recognition tool
#183 - 24/01/08 - Blind cavefish not so blind
#182 - 21/01/08 - Editing Ebola: how to tame one of the world’s deadliest viruses
#181 - 20/01/08 - Sex runs hot and cold: why does temperature control the gender of Jacky dragons?
#180 - 19/01/08 - Canny breeding creates vitamin A-rich maize without genetic modification
#179 - 17/01/08 - Meet the genetically modified super-carrot, now fortified with calcium
#178 - 14/01/08 - Dinosaurs grew fast, had teen pregnancies and died young
#177 - 11/01/08 - An interview with David Attenborough
#176 - 10/01/08 - Loss of big mammals breaks alliance between ants and trees
#175 - 07/01/08 - Cross-breeding restores sight to blind cavefish
#174 - 05/01/08 - Newborn babies have a preference for the way living things move
#173 - 03/01/08 - Evolutionary arms race turns ants into babysitters for Alcon blue butterflies
#172 - 01/01/08 - Assassin bugs deceive spiders with coat of many corpses

December 2007
#171 - 27/12/07 - Not Exactly Rocket Science's Review of 2007
#170 - 24/12/07 - Whales evolved from small aquatic hoofed ancestors
#169 - 22/12/07 - Cuttlefish tailor their defences to their predators
#168 - 19/12/07 - Short lives, short size - why are pygmies small?
#167 - 15/12/07 - Prehistoric meat-eating fungus snared microscopic worms
#166 - 13/12/07 - Time doesn't actually slow down in a crisis
#165 - 11/12/07 - Mud time capsules show evolutionary arms race between host and parasite
#164 -08/12/07 - Sickle cell mice cured by stem cells reprogrammed from their own tails
#163 - 07/12/07 - Subliminal flag shifts political views and voting choices
#162 - 06/12/07 - Songbirds need so-called "human language gene" to learn new tunes
#161 - 04/12/07 - Chimps trump university students at memory task 

November 2007
#160 - 30/11/07 - The social life of our extinct relatives
#159 - 29/11/07 - MRSA gets piggyback from livestock to human
#158 - 27/11/07 - Solving the San Francisco plankton mystery
#157 - 23/11/07 - Human skin cells reprogrammed into stem cells
#156 - 21/11/07 - Brain of the beholder – the neuroscience of beauty in sculpture
#155 - 18/11/07 - Envious capuchin monkeys react badly to raw deals
#154 - 15/11/07 - Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers
#153 - 12/11/07 - Delay not deviance: brains of children with ADHD mature later than others
#152 - 11/11/07 - Drought drives toads to mate with other species
#151 - 10/11/07 - How soil imprisons ancient carbon
#150 - 07/11/07 -Fake cleaner fish dons multiple disguises
#149 - 05/11/07 -Metabolic gene and breastfeeding unite to boost a child’s IQ
#148 - 04/11/07 - Ants spread collective immunity through contact
#147 - 03/11/07 - Broken chains and faulty mirrors cause problems for autistic children 

October 2007
#146 - 31/10/07 - ‘Brainbow’ paints individual neurons with different colours
#145 - 24/10/07 - The neuroscience of optimism – how the brain creates a rosy outlook
#144 - 22/10/07 - Clock gene and moonlight help corals to co-ordinate a mass annual orgy
#143 - 20/10/07 - How India became the fastest continent
#142 - 18/10/07 - Elephants smell the difference between human ethnic groups
#141 - 14/10/07 - Bdelloid rotifers – 80 million years without sex
#140 - 10/10/07 - The evolution of the past tense – how verbs change over time
#139 - 09/10/07 - Ants herd aphids with tranquilisers in their footsteps
#138 - 08/10/07 - Buzzing bees scare elephants away
#137 - 06/10/07 - Ancient plants manipulate insects for hot, smelly sex
#136 - 03/10/07 - Doctors repress their responses to their patients’ pain
#135 - 01/10/07 - Genes affect our likelihood to punish unfair play
#134 - 01/10/07 - Sabre-toothed cats had weak bites

September 2007
#133 - 28/09/07 - Paper wasps – caring mothers evolved into selfless workers
#132 - 26/09/07 - Tardigrades become first animals to be exposed to open space
#131 - 24/09/07 - Space flight turns Salmonella into super-bug
#130 - 23/09/07 - Flu viruses take the summer off to go travelling
#129 - 21/09/07 - Predicting ethnic violence - why good neighbours need good fences
#128 - 20/09/07 - Evidence that Velociraptor had feathers
#127 - 19/09/07 - The fall and rise of lefties in Victorian England
#126 - 17/09/07 - Mobs of honeybees suffocate hornets to death
#125 - 14/09/07 - Trout with salmon parents could help to revive endangered fish species
#124 - 12/09/07 - Did climate change kill off the Neanderthals? Not likely…
#123 - 10/09/07 - Genetic study puts damper on gray whales’ comeback
#122 - 08/09/07 - Is a virus responsible for the disappearing bees?
#121 - 05/09/07 - Moray eels attack ‘Alien-style’ with second pair of jaws
#120 - 04/09/07 - New plant species arise from conflicts between immune system genes
#119 - 01/09/07 - Foul-tasting ant parasitises the colonies of other species

August 2007
#118 - 30/08/07 - An entire bacterial genome discovered inside that of a fruit fly
#117 - 29/08/07 - Fruit flies have a taste for fizzy drinks
#116 - 27/08/07 - Virtual reality illusions produce out-of-body experiences in the lab
#115 - 25/08/07 - Scientists watch free will give way to instinct as danger approaches
#114 - 23/08/07 - Why are women better at food shopping than men?
#113 - 21/08/07 - Grammar - a weapon against bacteria
#112 - 19/08/07 - Ground squirrels use infrared signals to fool heat-seeking rattlesnakes
#111 - 18/08/07 - Molecule’s constant efforts keep our memories intact
#110 - 16/08/07 - Clever New Caledonian crows use one tool to acquire another
#109 - 13/08/07 - Dinosaurs provide clues about the shrunken genomes of birds

July 2007
#108 - 24/07/07 - Genetic diversity gives honeybees an edge
#107 - 21/07/07 - Five-month-old babies prefer their own languages and shun foreign accents
#106 - 18/07/07 - Megaflood in English Channel separated Britain from France
#105 - 14/07/07 - Butterflies evolve resistance to male-killing bacteria in record time
#104 - 10/07/07 - Aphids defend themselves with chemical bombs
#103 - 08/07/07 - Argentavis, the largest flying bird, was a master glider
#102 - 05/07/07 - Are women more talkative than men?
#101 - 03/07/07 - Bleached corals recover in the wake of hurricanes

June 2007
#100 - 28/06/07 -Icebergs are hotspots for life
#99 - 25/06/07 - Altruistic chimpanzees clearly help each other out
#98 - 24/06/07 - Restoring predator numbers by culling prey
#97 - 23/06/07 - Resistance to an extinct virus makes us more vulnerable to HIV
#96 - 21/06/07 - Bone-crushing super-wolf went extinct during last Ice Age
#95 - 20/06/07 - Moths mimic each others’ sounds to fool hungry bats
#94 - 18/06/07 - Inner ear size can predict a mammal’s agility
#93 - 16/06/07 - Human nitrogen emissions indirectly capture carbon by fertilising forests
#92 - 13/06/07 - Of flowers and pollinators – a case study in punctuated evolution
#91 - 11/06/07 - The effect of GM crops on local insect life
#90 - 08/06/07 - Simple sponges provide clues to origin of nervous systems
#89 - 07/06/07 - Cultured chimps pass on new traditions between groups
#88 - 05/06/07 - Monkeys (and their neurons) are calculating statisticians
#87 - 03/06/07 - The evolution of animal personalities - they’re a fact of life

May 2007
#86 - 31/05/07 - Orang-utan study suggests that upright walking may have started in the trees
#85 - 30/05/07 - Why music sounds right - the hidden tones in our own speech
#84 - 28/05/07 - Army ants plug potholes with their own bodies
#83 - 28/05/07 - Tracks provide evidence of swimming dinosaurs
#82 - 26/05/07 - Babies can tell apart different languages with visual cues alone
#81 - 25/05/07 - Bats create spatial memories without making new brain cells
#80 - 24/05/07 - Experience tunes a part of the brain to the shapes of words
#79 - 22/05/07 - Parasites can change the balance of entire communities
#78 - 20/05/07 - The upside of herpes – when one infection protects against another
#77 - 17/05/07 - A mismatch between nutrition before and after birth can lead to poor health
#76 - 15/05/07 - Living optic fibres bypass the retina’s back-to-front structure
#75 - 12/05/07 - Drugs and stimulating environments reverse memory loss in brain-damaged mice
#74 - 09/05/07 - Chimps show that actions spoke louder than words in language evolution
#73 - 07/05/07 - Beetle and yeast vs. bee – how American bees are losing the evolutionary arms race
#72 - 05/05/07 - Sneaking medicines past the brain’s defences
#71 - 03/05/07 - In conflicts over beliefs and values, symbolic gestures matter more than reason or money
#70 - 01/05/07 - When the heat is on, male dragons become female

April 2007
#69 - 29/04/07 - Drugs that work against each other could fight resistant germs
#68 - 27/04/07 - Climate change responsible for decline of Costa Rican amphibians and reptiles
#67 - 26/04/07 - Chimps have more adaptive genetic changes than humans
#66 - 23/04/07 - Attack of the killer mice – introduced rodents eat seabird chicks alive
#65 - 20/04/07 - Chimerism, or How a marmoset’s sperm is really his brother’s
#64 - 18/04/07 - Death of dinosaurs did not lead to rise of modern mammals
#63 - 16/04/07 - Carbon offset schemes worsen global warming if trees are planted in the wrong places
#62 - 14/04/07 - Opinion: Discovery of ‘fat gene’ highlights stigma against obese people
#61 - 11/04/07 - Corals survive acid oceans by switching to soft-bodied mode
#60 - 09/04/07 - Shark-hunting harms animals at bottom of the food chain
#59 - 06/04/07 - Loss of traditional knowledge in the Amazon leads to poorer child health
#58 - 04/04/07 - Platelet lifespans are set in a two-protein tug-of-war

March 2007
#57 - 31/03/07 - Rats check their own knowledge before taking a test
#56 - 29/03/07 - Human cone cell lets mice see in new colours
#55 - 27/03/07 - The secret of drug-resistant bubonic plague
#54 - 25/03/07- Eavesdropping songbirds get predator intel from overheard calls
#53 - 21/03/07 - Genetically-modified mosquitoes fight malaria by out-competing normal ones
#52 - 18/03/07 - Salamander robot walks, swims and sheds light on evolutionary step from sea to land
#51 - 16/03/07 - Impulsive brains are primed for drug addiction
#50 - 13/03/07 - Opinion: Not so unique - the chimpanzee Stone Age, and our place among intelligent animals
#49 - 08/03/07 - Bird-brained jays show human trick of planning for the future
#48 - 05/03/07 - Viruses evolve to be more infectious in a well-connected population
#47 - 01/03/07 - Chimpanzees make spears to hunt bushbabies

February 2007
#46 - 25/02/07 - 9/11 memories reveal how ‘flashbulb memories’ are made in the brain
#45 - 20/02/07 - The snake that eats toads to steal their poison
#44 - 18/02/07 - Review - Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
#43 - 13/02/07 - The insula - the brain’s cigarette addiction centre
#42 - 10/02/07 - The heavy cost of having children
#41 - 04/02/07 - Opinion: How biofuels could cut carbon emissions, produce energy and restore dead land
#40 - 01/02/07 - Worms track us down with a chemical trail

January 2007
#39 - 28/01/07 - Microraptor - the dinosaur that flew like a biplane
#38 - 24/01/07 - Maternal hormone shuts down babies’ brain cells during birth
#37 - 21/01/07 - Human gut bacteria linked to obesity
#36 - 14/01/07 - Brain parasite drives human culture
#35 - 02/01/07 - ‘How to Smell Underwater’ with the star-nosed mole

December 2006
#34 - 25/12/06 - Christmas special - Virgin birth by Komodo dragons
#33 - 22/12/06 - Bats: internal compasses and record-breaking tongues
#32 - 18/12/06 - Feed the world - turning cotton into a food crop
#31 - 12/12/06 - Non-coding DNA drove brain evolution by making nerve cells stickier
#30 - 07/12/06 - No new brain cells for you - settling the neurogenesis debate
#29 - 05/12/06 - New learning robot adapts to injuries
#28 - 02/12/06 - Camouflaged communication - the secret signals of squid

November 2006
#27 - 27/11/06 - Elephants can recognise themselves in a mirror
#26 - 23/11/06 - Natural selection does a handbrake turn - quick evolution at work
#25 - 19/11/06 - Carbon nanotechnology in a 17th-century Damascus sword
#24 - 16/11/06 - Asymmetrical brains allow us (and fish) to multi-task
#23 - 12/11/06 - Climate change: one degree away from the point of no return
#22 - 07/11/06 - Our sense of fair play lives on the right side of the brain
#21 - 04/11/06 - Too few genes to survive - a bacteria with the world’s smallest genome

October 2006
#20 - 30/10/06 - Opinion: Women in science or “Why those at the top should mind what they say”
#19 - 26/10/06 - Magnifection: mass-producing drugs in record time
#18 - 23/10/06 - Do fruit flies dream of electric sheep? or What is the point of sleep?
#17 - 17/10/06 - Farmed salmon decimate wild populations by exposing them to parasites
#16 - 12/10/06 - Hope for corals - swapping algae improves tolerance to global warming
#15 - 09/10/06 - Tarantula climbs wall by spinning silk from its feet
#14 - 04/10/06 - The Lady Macbeth effect - how physical cleanliness affects moral cleanliness

September 2006
#13 - 29/09/06 - Neutralising anthrax - moving closer to a cure
#12 - 22/09/06 - Round peg, square hole - why our bird flu drugs are a fluke
#11 - 16/09/06 - Hidden ‘junk’ gene separates human brains from chimpanzees
#10 - 13/09/06 - How many types of dinosaur were there?
#9 - 11/09/06 - A woman in a vegetative state shows awareness of her surroundings
#8 - 08/09/06 - Stem cells only grow up properly in the right environment
#7 - 03/09/06 - Hatena: when two cells are better than one

August 2006
#6 - 31/08/06 - Aphids get superpowers through sex
#5 - 28/08/06 - The mantis shrimp: the world’s fastest punch
#4 - 23/08/06 - How Big Brother keeps us honest
#3 - 21/08/06 - Of dogs and devils: the rise of contagious cancer
#2 - 16/08/06 - The fox and the island: an Aleutian fable
#1 - 13/08/06 - The mimic octopus: a master of disguise