My picks from ScienceDaily

Velociraptor Had Feathers:

A new look at some old bones have shown that velociraptor, the dinosaur made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, had feathers. The discovery was made by paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum of Natural History.

Personal Genomes: Mainstream In Five Years, But Who Should Have Access?:

Imagine this: you visit your clinician, undergo genetic testing, and then you are handed a miniature hard drive containing your personal genome sequence, which is subsequently uploaded onto publicly accessible databases. This may sound like science fiction, but it is scientific fact, and it is already happening.

Key To Longer Life (in Flies) Lies In Just 14 Brain Cells:

Two years ago, Brown University researchers discovered something startling: Decrease the activity of the cancer-suppressing protein p53 and you can make fruit flies live significantly longer. Now the same team reports an intriguing follow-up finding. The p53 protein, they found, may work its lifespan-extending magic in only 14 insulin-producing cells in the fly brain.

Eat Less To Live Longer: Calorie Restriction Linked To Long Healthy Lives:

For nearly 70 years scientists have known that caloric restriction prolongs life. In everything from yeast to primates, a significant decrease in calories can extend lifespan by as much as one-third. But getting under the hood of the molecular machinery that drives this longevity has remained elusive.

The Best Both Of Worlds: How To Have Sex And Survive:

Researchers have discovered that even the gruesome and brutal lifestyle of the Evarcha culicivora, a blood gorging jumping spider indigenous to East Africa, can't help but be tempted by that 'big is beautiful' mantra no matter what the costs.

Basic Research Robust In Face Of More University Patenting:

As universities continue transforming scientific discoveries into potentially lucrative patents, many wonder how this might be transforming academic science itself.

Why Are Some Groups Of Animals So Diverse?:

A new study of finger-sized Australian lizards sheds light on one of the most striking yet largely unexplained patterns in nature: why is it that some groups of animals have evolved into hundreds, even thousands of species, while other groups include only a few?

Why Conservation Efforts Often Fail:

Modern conservation techniques have brought us the resurgence of American bald eagles, sustainable forest harvests and the rescue of prized lobster fisheries. So how can modern conservation strategies also have wrought such failures, from the catastrophic loss of Guatemalan forests to the economy-crippling Klamath River salmon kill in 2006?