My picks from ScienceDaily

Threatened Vulture Wanders Far From Mongolia:

Dr. Rich Reading (Denver Zoo) reports that a young cinereous vulture tagged in Mongolia as part of his Earthwatch-supported research was spotted 1200 miles away, near Pusan, South Korea. The vulture was tagged last August. Two other vultures were subsequently sighted in other parts of South Korea and one was seen in Heibei Province, China. Scientists have suspected that birds from Mongolia sometimes winter in Korea, but believe that their research provides the first documented confirmation.

Termites Get The Vibe On What Tastes Good:

Researchers from CSIRO and UNSW@ADFA have shown that termites can tell what sort of material their food is made of, without having to actually touch it. The findings may lead to improvements in the control of feeding termites. By offering them a choice between normal wooden blocks and specially designed blocks made of wood and other materials, the researchers found that the termites always preferred the blocks containing the most wood - even though they could not touch or see the other materials.

Don't Be Fooled By Certain 'Health' Foods:

If you're one of the millions of Americans hoping to lose weight by buying fat-free, cholesterol-free, or all-natural products, you may be surprised. Experts say it's those so-called "healthy" foods that often sabotage diets. "These are the foods we naturally look to as we try to lose extra pounds; however, they are the ones that we need to be careful about," says Dee Rollins, PhD, R.D., dietitian with Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.

Monkey See, Monkey Do? Novel Study Sheds Light On Imitation Learning:

What is the very best way to learn a complex task? Is it practice, practice, practice, or is watching and thinking enough to let you imitate a physical activity, such as skiing or ballet? A new study from Brandeis University published this week in the Journal of Vision unravels some of the mysteries surrounding how we learn to do things like tie our shoes, feed ourselves, or perform dazzling dance steps.

New Study Indicates Tanning May Be Addictive:

Despite repeated health warnings about the dangers of tanning from sunlight and artificial light sources, there are still those whose mantra "bronzed is beautiful" remains unshaken. Dermatologists have long suspected that some people may be addicted to tanning - similar to addictions to drugs or alcohol - and refuse to alter their behaviors, even knowing they have an increased risk of developing skin cancer. Now, a new study of college co-eds indicates that some people may be addicted to ultraviolet (UV) light.

More like this

There are 32 new papers that just went live on PLoS ONE and here are a couple of titles that got my immediate attention: Changing Hydrozoan Bauplans by Silencing Hox-Like Genes by Wolfgang Jakob and Bernd Schierwater: Regulatory genes of the Antp class have been a major factor for the invention and…
Global Warming Threatens Biodiversity In Australia's Wet Tropics: "There is a common, though incorrect, perception that the impacts of climate change will be worse in temperate regions than in the tropics," said Williams, principal investigator of the Earthwatch-supported Climate Change in the…
For no particular reason, here are some interesting raptor photos. Birds of many kinds often sit around with their wings only partially folded, partly hanging down at their sides; one reason for this is that they're sun-bathing and are using their wings to soak up heat. Among raptors, this…
Rock Wren, Salpinctes obsoletus. (spring song). The photographer writes; [This bird] was scurrying along a wall covered with petroglyphs on the NE side of Chaco Canyon. Perky and hardy little birds, and definitely emblematic of the desert Southwest. Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU. Birds in Science A…