My picks from ScienceDaily

Bone Parts Don't Add Up To Conclusion Of Hobbit-like Palauan Dwarfs:

Misinterpreted fragments of leg bones, teeth and brow ridges found in Palau appear to be an archaeologist's undoing, according to researchers at three institutions. They say that the so-called dwarfs of these Micronesian islands actually were modern, normal-sized hunters and gatherers.

First Prehistoric Pregnant Turtle And Nest Of Eggs Discovered In Southern Alberta:

A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilized eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and staff from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology are yielding new ideas on the evolution of egg-laying and reproduction in turtles and tortoises.

Racing Cane Toads Reveals They Get Cold Feet On Southern Australia Invasion:

Cane toads weren't allowed to compete in the Olympics, but scientists have raced cane toads in the laboratory and calculated that they would not be able to invade Melbourne, Adelaide or Hobart and are unlikely to do well in Perth or Sydney, even with climate change.

Uninsured Patients Receive Unpredictable, Rationed Access To Health Care:

A case study of three health care institutions -- public, for-profit and not-for-profit -- within one metropolitan area found that self-pay patients must navigate a system that provides no guarantees medical centers will follow their own policies for providing uncompensated care.

DNA Barcoding In Danger Of 'Ringing Up' Wrong Species:

DNA barcoding is a movement to catalog all life on earth by a simple standardized genetic tag, similar to stores labeling products with unique barcodes. The effort promises foolproof food inspection, improved border security, and better defenses against disease-causing insects, among many other applications.

Tags

More like this

And the best article on the implications of this, surprisingly, comes from Huffington post authors Young and Kirkham: The database released on Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lays out for the first time and in voluminous detail how much the vast majority of…
Over at evolgen, ScienceBlogling RPM discusses a paper that describes a new barcoding technique for plants. It struck me while reading his post that barcoding has two very different meanings, even though both techniques are used in genomics--and often, at the same time. One meaning of barcoding,…
Climate Change Makes Migrations Longer For Birds: A team of scientists, led by Durham University, have published findings that show that the marathon flights undertaken by birds to spring breeding grounds in Europe, are going to turn into even more epic journeys; the length of some migrations could…
In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt: At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition exceeding $30,000 a year. ... The Apollo…