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Chemicals in your body can influence how generous or selfish you are, and, in recent years, experiments have explored the role of one called oxytocin — which one researcher calls the “moral molecule.” In an experiment known as the ultimatum game, one of two people is given a sum of money, say $100, and told…
The latest attempt to build machines that can learn to recognize objects or even develop cognitive skills is caled Spaun. Its full name is the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network, but Spaun sounds way more epic. It’s the latest version of a techno brain, the creation of a Canadian research team at the University of…
This incredible image of fern spores is just one of the many mind-blowing images that won the Olympus BioScapes Imaging Competition in 2012. Check out the top ten images and videos captured by life-science researchers.
Facing multiple threats — from zebra mussels to toxins to light pollution from brightly lit shoreline cities — Lakes Erie and Ontario are the most threatened of the five Great Lakes, while the depths of Lake Superior remain the most pristine, according to a detailed analysis of 34 so-called stressors to the world’s largest supply…
As a social primate species, we modulate our morals with signals from family, friends and social groups with whom we identify because in our evolutionary past those attributes helped individuals to survive and reproduce. We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how…
The health of most of the planet’s population is rapidly coming to resemble that of the United States, where death in childhood is rare, too much food is a bigger problem than too little, and life is long and often darkened by disability. High blood pressure is now the leading “risk factor” for disease around…
Though birds, trees, and orchids call the tropical rain forest home, they are immensely outnumbered by tiny arthropods, such as insects, spiders and millipedes. In the past, scientists had trouble estimating how many arthropods exist in the vastness of a forest. But thanks to new methods of sampling and analysis, researchers now think that over…
Epigenetics — how gene expression is regulated by temporary switches called epi-marks — appears to be critical in determining sexuality, U.S. researchers say. Study co-author Sergey Gavrilets of the Working Group on Intragenomic Conflict at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis and a professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and colleagues said the…
For the first time in history, a study shows that the number of years of healthy living lost because of eating too much is higher than the number of years lost by people who do not eat enough food, according to NewScientist. Over 500 scientists in 50 countries contributed to The Global Burden of Disease…
AP poll shows that events like superstorm Sandy are succeeding with climate sceptics where scientists have been failing