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In his recent book The Social Conquest of Earth, the great myrmecologist and evolutionary theorist Edward O. Wilson comments at several points on animals with especially complex social behavior. Leading that parade: human beings. A close second: leafcutter ants. It might seem odd that tiny ants, with their necessarily tiny brains, could rival humans in…
The extent of Arctic sea ice reached a record low on August 27, according to the University of Colorado National Snow and Ice Data Center, and was on track to decline further in the next two weeks. The news that the Arctic sea ice cover had shrunk to 1.58 million square miles came two days…
Harvard scientists have, for the first, time created a type of “cyborg” tissue by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, bio-compatible nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues. As described in a paper published in Nature Materials, a multi-institutional research team led by Harvard’s Charles M. Lieber and Daniel Kohane developed a system for creating nanoscale…
If the dream of a New Jersey group comes to life, another creationist attraction will locate in Northern Kentucky. Founders of the Creation Science Hall of Fame, which now exists only as a website, would like to build a brick-and mortar structure along Interstate 75. The group will consider vacant land and the renovation of…
Some college students facing exams used to try to study by sleeping with earphones on while playing a recording of material they had not managed to cover. It was regarded as a waste of time. Now, however, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot believe sleeplearning of new things may be possible –…
Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers have shown simpler versions of the universal genetic code can still function in protein synthesis. In addition to understanding early primordial organisms, the research could lead to applications preventing non-natural genetically modified materials from entering the natural world.
In the wake of the passing of pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong, Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, tweeted that men walking on the moon was “The only positive event in the last 50 yrs for which everyone remembers where they were when it happened.” So after Armstrong, what’s next for space…
Astronomers have for the first time observed a nova-producing system turn into a supernova, a finding that indicates the universe has more than one way to create a nova. A normal Type Ia supernova is a rare event, occurring perhaps once or twice every century. The type of supernova observed by a team of astronomers…
Humans inherit more than three times as many mutations from their fathers as from their mothers, and mutation rates increase with the father’s age but not the mother’s, researchers have found in the largest study of human genetic mutations to date. The study, based on the DNA of around 85,000 Icelanders, also calculates the rate…
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), his party’s candidate in the Missouri Senate race to unseat Democrat Claire McCaskill, has quickly attempted to retract his comment that in cases of “legitimate rape,” women have biological defenses against pregnancy. “I misspoke,” he claimed in a carefully crafted statement. After all, cleaning up the mess after the candidate not…