My picks from ScienceDaily

Early Experience Affects Where Birds Breed For Life: What Happens If Habitat Changes?:

How young migratory birds choose the nesting location of their first breeding season has been something of a mystery in the bird world. But a new University of Maryland/National Zoo study of the American redstart suggests that the environmental conditions the birds face in their first year may help determine where they breed for the rest of their lives, a factor that could significantly affect the population as climate change makes their winter habitats hotter and drier.

Ancient Puzzle Solved In Fossils From Canadian Rockies, Dating To Cambrian Explosion:

Geologists at the University of Leicester have solved a puzzle found in rocks half a billion years old. Some of the most important fossil beds in the world are the Burgess Shales in the Canadian Rockies. Once an ancient sea bed, they were formed shortly after life suddenly became more complex and diverse -- the so-called Cambrian explosion -- and are of immense scientific interest.

Python Snakes, An Invasive Species In Florida, Could Spread To One Third Of US:

Burmese pythons--an invasive species in south Florida--could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to new "climate maps" developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although other factors such as type of food available and suitable shelter also play a role, Burmese pythons and other giant constrictor snakes have shown themselves to be highly adaptable to new environments.

Small Sea Creatures May Be The 'Canaries In The Coal Mine' Of Climate Change:

As oceans warm and become more acidic, ocean creatures are undergoing severe stress and entire food webs are at risk, according to scientists at a press briefing this morning at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

Space Tourism To Rocket In This Century, Researchers Predict:

Seeking an out-of-this-world travel destination? Outer space will rocket into reality as "the" getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza. In fact, the "final frontier" could begin showing up in travel guides by 2010, they predict.

Bacteria Can Be Made To Spin Spider Silk Through Understanding Of Big Molecules:

Biological and medical research is on the threshold of a new era based on better understanding of how large organic molecules bind together and recognise each other. There is great potential for exploiting the molecular docking processes that are commonplace in all organisms to develop new drugs that act more specifically without adverse side effects, and construct novel materials by mimicking nature.

Worm Defecation Holds Clues To Widespread Cell-to-cell Communication Process:

The focus of two recent Nobel prizes, a species of roundworm has made possible another advance in the understanding of how cells talk to one another, according to a study published online Feb. 21 in the journal Current Biology. In 2002, researchers won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for work in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) on the genetics of how cells "decide" to self-destruct, a topic now central to human cancer research. Another team won in 2006 for the discovery in C. elegans of an ancient defense mechanism against attempts by viruses to disrupt cells' genetic machinery.

Inside The Head Of An Ape:

Do apes have imagination? How do they understand pictures? A years-long study of apes performed by cognitive scientist Tomas Persson shows, among other things, that it doesn't take a human brain to understand pictures as being a representation. Persson's dissertation, which is now being submitted at Lund University, is the first one in Sweden to focus entirely on the thinking of apes.

Unveiling The Underwater Ways Of The White Shark:

It's hard to study a creature when you only catch fleeting glimpses of it. Up until recently, that was one of the big stumbling blocks for marine biologists and ecologists, but advances in electronic tracking technology have allowed them to peer farther across, and deeper under, the surface of the oceans than ever before.