Dung Happens And Helps Scientists: Scoop On Poop And Climate Change:
When scientists around the world think of dung, they think of Jim Mead. Mead, a researcher at Northern Arizona University, is one of the world's foremost authorities on animal dung, and he's got the poop to prove it.
Neanderthals Moved From Place To Place, Tooth Analysis Shows:
A 40,000-year-old tooth has provided scientists with the first direct evidence that Neanderthals moved from place to place during their lifetimes. In a collaborative project involving researchers from the Germany, the United Kingdom, and Greece, Professor Michael Richards of the Max Planck institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and Durham University, UK, and his team used laser technology to collect microscopic particles of enamel from the tooth. By analysing strontium isotope ratios in the enamel - strontium is a naturally occurring metal ingested into the body through food and water - the scientists were able to uncover geological information showing where the Neanderthal had been living when the tooth was formed.
Hare-less: Yellowstone's Rabbits Have Vanished, Study Says:
A new study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that jack rabbits living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have apparently hopped into oblivion. The study, which appears in the journal Oryx, also speculates that the disappearance of jack rabbits may be having region-wide impacts on a variety of other prey species and their predators.
Extremophile Hunt Begins In Strange Antarctic Lake:
A team of scientists has just left the country to explore a very strange lake in Antarctica; it is filled with, essentially, extra-strength laundry detergent. No, the researchers haven't spilled coffee on their lab coats. They are hunting for extremophiles -- tough little creatures that thrive in conditions too extreme for most other living things.
Tough Breeds Of Livestock Disappearing: Saving Them Before It Is Too Late:
Phil Sponenberg, professor of pathology and genetics in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, has spent more than 30 years working to make sure certain living pieces of history -- some dating to the 15th century -- don't become extinct. Sponenberg's brand of living history comes in the form of various rare strains of livestock, which were involved in events like Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Caribbean Islands and the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
'V-Frog' Virtual-Reality Frog Dissection Software Offers First True Physical Simulation:
V-Frog, the world's first virtual-reality-based frog dissection software designed for biology education -- allowing not mere observation, but physically simulated dissection -- has been developed and is being marketed by Tactus Technologies.
Sex Differences In The Brain's Serotonin System:
A new thesis from he Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that the brain's serotonin system differs between men and women. The scientists who conducted the study think that they have found one of the reasons why depression and chronic anxiety are more common in women than in men.
New Findings Contradict A Prevailing Belief About The Inner Ear:
A healthy ear emits soft sounds in response to the sounds that travel in. Detectable with sensitive microphones, these otoacoustic emissions help doctors test newborns' hearing. A deaf ear doesn't produce these echoes.
Probing Women's Response To Male Odor:
A single gene determines whether a whiff of androstadienone smells pleasant or foul, or like nothing at all. But researchers who last year discovered this genetic peculiarity were left wondering about its social implications. In an effort to find out, the team has now launched a series of new studies including one that explores a different link: whether women's perceptions of -- and sensitivity to -- androstadienone corresponds with their bodies' physiological responses to it. This follow-up study, which specifically measures indices of emotional arousal and stress in ovulating women exposed to this chemical, a component of male sweat, may help the scientists better understand the role that genes play in social interaction.
Religion Colors Americans' Views Of Nanotechnology:
Is nanotechnology morally acceptable? For a significant percentage of Americans, the answer is no, according to a recent survey of Americans' attitudes about the science of the very small. Addressing scientists Feb. 15, 2008 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences communication, presented new survey results that show religion exerts far more influence on public views of technology in the United States than in Europe.
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