BBC Science/Nature
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Guardian Unlimited Science
Scientists have used the exquisitely preserved, fossilised remains of a Jurassic bush-cricket to recreate its chirp
A love song that carried on the wind through the ancient forests of the late Jurassic has been reconstructed by scientists in Britain.
Researchers pieced together the staccato mating call of the long-gone creature, a distant relative of the modern bush-cricket, from fossilised remains unearthed in Mongolia.
The insect's body and wings were preserved in such exquisite detail that s...
by Ian Sample
6 Feb 2012 at 12:00pm
This week, we're focusing on some pivotal stories from the history of science and medicine.
First up are human-to-human transplants and intensive care medicine. These are among the greatest successes of post-war medicine, but they also raise some of the most profound ethical questions. Ahead of a discussion at the Royal Institution in London, Kevin Fong, an anaesthetist and physiology lecturer at University College London, and medical historian Richard Barnett came into the studio to discuss...
by Alok Jha, Iain Chambers, Kevin Fong, Robin McKie
6 Feb 2012 at 6:05am
Recent research suggesting potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin focus attention on the need to reform drug laws
It's been a busy fortnight. First the publication of two major peer-reviewed research papers about magic mushrooms that attracted worldwide publicity. Then off to Prague for an international drugs policy symposium. And just last week, news of a large grant for our next collaborative study with Imperial College. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I established the Beckley Foundat...
by Amanda Feilding
6 Feb 2012 at 4:36am
We're expanding our network to cover more scientific fields and are seeking some of the UK's best science bloggers
Just under 17 months ago, the Guardian launched a small network of science blogs. Each blogger ? Martin Robbins, Evan Harris, Jon Butterworth, GrrlScientist and Mo Costandi ? was given complete freedom to write about whatever they wished, as often as they wished, independent of any oversight (other than legal) from Guardian editors. We hope that, in the intervening time, they've m...
by Alok Jha
27 Jan 2012 at 10:02am
Our pick of the most alluring and innovative entries to the 2011 International Science & Engineering Visual Challenge
3 Feb 2012 at 11:03am
Army leaders in various countries have trialled compounds that can keep soldiers awake and alert ? or send them to sleep
Drugs that reduce anxiety, tiredness and memory loss ? all associated with the treatment of dementia ? could be used "off-label" as cognitive enhancers by military personnel, according to a Royal Society report.
While caffeine and nicotine are used routinely to reduce fatigue and improve attention, British armed forces prohibit other stimulants in training or on operations. T...
by Ian Sample
6 Feb 2012 at 4:01pm
Neuroscience breakthroughs could be harnessed by military and law enforcers, says Royal Society report
Soldiers could have their minds plugged directly into weapons systems, undergo brain scans during recruitment and take courses of neural stimulation to boost their learning, if the armed forces embrace the latest developments in neuroscience to hone the performance of their troops.
These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published o...
by Ian Sample
6 Feb 2012 at 4:01pm
Conservativism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is made by those too timid to properly object
Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation. Tied up in knots of reticence and self-doubt, they will not shout stop. Doing so requires an act of interruption, of presumption, f...
by George Monbiot
6 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm
The mating call of an extinct bush-cricket has been reconstructed, using the microscopic wing features of a fossil
6 Feb 2012 at 12:00pm
Sampling the waters of Lake Vostok could reveal clues about evolution and reveal unknown forms of life
Russian scientists have drilled into an Antarctic lake that has been sealed off from the rest of the world for about 15 million years. Sampling the waters of Lake Vostok could reveal clues about the evolution of life on Earth and may yield entirely unknown forms of life.
According to the Russian newswire RIA Novosti, scientists from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Peters...
by Alok Jha
6 Feb 2012 at 10:30am
ScienceDaily
Gene mutation discovery sparks hope for effective endometriosis screening
Researchers have, for the first time, described the genetic basis of endometriosis, a condition affecting millions of women that is marked by chronic pelvic pain and infertility. The researchers' discovery of a new gene mutation provides hope for new screening methods.
6 Feb 2012 at 2:43pm
Patterns in sand dunes explained
In a study of the harsh but beautiful White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, researchers have uncovered a unifying mechanism to explain dune patterns. The new work represents a contribution to basic science, but the findings may also hold implications for identifying when dune landscapes like those in Nebraska's Sand Hills may reach a "tipping point" under climate change, going from valuable grazing land to barren desert.
6 Feb 2012 at 2:43pm
Why common tree is toxic to snowshoe hares
Biologists have uncovered why the chemical defenses in birch, a common type of tree found in North America, are toxic to snowshoe hares.
6 Feb 2012 at 2:42pm
School Closures Slow Spread of pH1N1
Using high-quality data about the incidence of influenza infections in Alberta during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, the researchers show that when schools closed for the summer, the transmission of infection from person to person was sharply reduced.
6 Feb 2012 at 2:42pm
Domestic cats, and wild bobcats and pumas, living in same area have same dise...
Scientists found evidence that domestic cats and wild cats that share the same outdoor areas in urban environments also can share diseases such as Bartonellosis and Toxoplasmosis. Both can be spread from cats to people.
6 Feb 2012 at 1:46pm
A bug's (sex) life: Diving beetles offer unexpected clues about sexual selection
Studies of diving beetles suggest sperm evolution may be driven by changes in female reproductive organs, challenging the paradigm of post-mating sexual selection being driven mostly by competition among sperm. In the process, the researchers discovered an unexpected and stunning variety of sperm form and behavior.
6 Feb 2012 at 12:41pm
Copper + love chemical = big sulfur stink
When a researcher set out to study a chemical in male mouse urine called MTMT that attracts female mice, he didn't think he would stumble into a new field of study. But the research has led scientists to the discovery that it's the copper in our bodies that makes mammals recoil from sulfur chemical smells.
6 Feb 2012 at 12:41pm
Fossil cricket reveals Jurassic love song
The love song of an extinct cricket that lived 165 million years ago has been brought back to life by scientists. The song ? possibly the most ancient known musical song documented to date ? was reconstructed from microscopic wing features on a fossil discovered in North East China. It allows us to listen to one of the sounds that would have been heard by dinosaurs and other creatures roaming Jurassic forests at night.
6 Feb 2012 at 12:41pm
NASA's Juno spacecraft refines its path to Jupiter
NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft successfully refined its flight path Feb. 1 with the mission's first trajectory correction maneuver. The maneuver is the first of a dozen planned rocket firings that, over the next five years, will keep Juno on course for its rendezvous with Jupiter.
6 Feb 2012 at 11:59am
Medical debt keeps rising, new report shows
A comprehensive new report on health insurance shows the so-called Great Recession caused hundreds of thousands of Californians to lose coverage and acquire medical debt.
6 Feb 2012 at 11:41am
New Scientist
Private spacecraft move forward as Soyuz struggles
All eyes are on private rocketeers after the latest problem with Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which is now the only means of sending crews to the International Space Station
6 Feb 2012 at 3:01pm
Jurassic katydid sings out after 165 million years
An exceptionally preserved fossil has allowed biologists to reconstruct the sound of an extinct bush cricket. So what did it sound like?
6 Feb 2012 at 12:00pm
Today on New Scientist: 6 February 2012
All today's stories on newscientist.com, including: the revolution will be tweeted and robotic walking stick lends users some balance
6 Feb 2012 at 10:00am
3D printer provides woman with a brand new jaw
Sculpting an entire replacement jawbone that's both fully functional and biocompatible is seen as a breakthrough for 3D printing
6 Feb 2012 at 9:30am
Patch of seagrass is world's oldest living organism
A 15-kilometre-long swathe of seagrass off the coast of Spain is at least 80,000 years old, making it the oldest known living organism on Earth
6 Feb 2012 at 9:25am
Robotic walking stick lends users some balance
Walking sticks are being dragged into the robotics era thanks to dynamic balancing, super-strong motors and power-punching batteries
6 Feb 2012 at 8:54am
Martian real estate, windy and cratered but isolated
Mars Express has returned images of the Red Planet's Syrtis Major region, an area once thought to be an ocean – but did oceans once exist on Mars?
6 Feb 2012 at 8:33am
Contador stripped of Tour de France title
Alberto Contador has been banned for 2 years and stripped of his Tour de France title after he tested positive for the banned stimulant clenbuterol in 2010
6 Feb 2012 at 8:20am
Are we merely the sum of our neurons?
In Connectome: How the brain's wiring makes us who we are, Sebastian Seung explores the mapping of our circuitry and how much it can tell us about ourselves
6 Feb 2012 at 7:30am
Pirate file-sharing goes 3D
3D file-sharing makes copying "physibles" possible. It'll give companies a headache ? but could kick-start a 3D printing revolution
6 Feb 2012 at 5:20am
Scientific American
Baby-Led Weaning Leads to Leaner Kids
Image courtesy of iStockphoto/lisegagne
Those little pursed lips and that tiny crinkled nose might not just mean that your baby isn’t a fan of pureed peas or mashed sweet potatoes. Some of the refusals to all of those “here-comes-the-airplane” attempts to feed a weaning infant might also be the child s way of saying that she or he is just not hungry.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 3:30pm
The Quantum Physics of Free Will
[More]
6 Feb 2012 at 1:00pm
Anthrax Toxicity Depends on Human Genetics
Anthrax courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Marcus007
The white powder that arrived in envelopes addressed to lawmakers and journalists in 2001 proved to be a deadly delivery for several people. The lethal substance spores commonly known as Anthrax (from the bacterium Bactillus anthracis ) can cause a toxic reaction in a host’s blood stream , killing cells and leading to tissue damage, bleeding and death.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 12:06pm
Bright-Sized: Skull Study Shows Eye-Sockets Have Grown Larger at Higher Latit...
People who live farther from the equator have larger eye sockets than their tropical counterparts, a new study finds. And as people inhabited higher and higher latitudes , eye socket size grew along with the northerly or southerly extent of their migrations.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 9:00am
How to Overhaul the Way Buildings Use Energy
PHILADELPHIA -- When the Allies needed a weapon terrible enough to end World War II, scientists devised the atomic bomb. When the Soviet Union hurled Sputnik into space, American scientists rallied to build the world's top space program.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 8:00am
Lake Vostok is (Almost) Breached After 20 Million Years
Satellite composite showing location of Vostok within the Antarctic continent (NASA)
Two and a half miles beneath the surface of Antarctica’s central Eastern ice sheet is a body of water 160 miles by 30 miles across known as Lake Vostok , after the Vostok research station above it, built by the former Soviet Union in 1957 and now operated by Russia.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 7:58am
Thinking About Mortality Changes How We Act
The thought of shuffling off our mortal coil can make all of us a little squeamish. But avoiding the idea of death entirely means ignoring the role it can play in determining our actions. Consider the following scenario:
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 7:00am
Eyeing Greener Acres, New Farmers Reap Growing U.S. Aid
By Carey Gillam
HALLSVILLE, Missouri (Reuters) - Dan Pugh wishes he had a bigger tractor and his wife Laura worries about their chickens in the winter weather. But as new farmers putting down roots in rural Missouri, the Pughs are counting on more rewards than regrets in trading their city lives for the country.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 5:14am
Spectacular Plumes of Dust Reach across the World [Slide Show]
We don't hear too much about natural dust, the kind that the winds loft from deserts and dry lakebeds into the air and carries for hundreds of kilometers, crossing oceans and continents, but we should. Plumes of dust connect the atmosphere, the oceans and the forests, and affect the most fundamental processes of life on our planet. Scientists believe that dust has profound and somewhat mysterious influences on atmospheric chemistry, solar heat exchange and nutrient supply to the oceans and ra...
6 Feb 2012 at 5:00am
Swept from Africa to the Amazon (preview)
The Bodele depression at the southern edge of the Sahara is a fearsome, forsaken place. Winds howl through the nearby Tebesti Mountains and Ennedi Plateau, picking up speed as they funnel into a parched wasteland nearly the size of California. Once there was a massive freshwater lake here. Now the lake is a shrunken puddle of its former self. Across most of the landscape, there is nothing.
[More]6 Feb 2012 at 5:00am
PhysOrg
6 Feb 2012 at 4:00pm
Teen school drop-outs three times as likely to be on benefits in later life Teen school drop-outs are almost three times as likely to be on benefits in later life as their peers who complete their schooling, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:30pm
Potential breast cancer prevention drug found to cause significant bone loss A drug that has been shown to prevent breast cancer in postmenopausal women at high risk of developing the disease, and is poised for widespread use, appears to significantly worsen age-related bone loss, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet Oncology.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:30pm
Frequent house moves during childhood ups risk of subsequent poor health Frequent house moves during childhood seem to increase the risk of poor health in later life, suggests research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:30pm
Weaning on finger foods rather than spoon-fed purees may help children stay slim Infants allowed to feed themselves with finger foods from the start of weaning (baby led weaning) are likely to eat more healthily and be an appropriate weight as they get older than infants spoon-fed purees, indicates a small study published in BMJ Open.
6 Feb 2012 at 3:30pm
Constar's 4Q earnings soar as Redbox thrives (AP) -- Coinstar's fourth-quarter earnings nearly tripled as its Redbox kiosks for renting DVDs picked up customers who stopped getting their discs through Netflix's rival service.
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