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Teleworking may be good for the soul. But we can't take for granted that it's good for the environment ... [more]
Gut reaction: A bacterium that causes ulcers and stomach cancer is on the decline, but not everyone is celebrating its impending extinction ... [more]
Sensors of the world, unite! Networks of tiny, wireless sensors may be on their way, keeping a watchful eye on the structural health of buildings and the tangled web of traffic, managing energy and inventory, and monitoring manufacturing ... [more]
A new type of high-tech truck stop gives resting truck drivers air-conditioning, phone service and cable television in their cabs -- and could save up to 2 billion gallons of fuel per year ... [more]
You can patent that? A look at anti-impotence chewing gum and other intellectual-property gems ... [more]
Staring at the sun: To explain the sunspot cycle, you've got to go with the (meridional) flow ... [more]
Untangling the roots of cancer: New evidence challenges long-held theories of how cells turn malignant -- and suggests novel ways to stop tumors before they spread ... [more]
DNA theft is to become a criminal offence in the UK, as part of a plan to embrace the medical potential of genetic technology, while protecting individual rights ... [more]
Allan Snyder claims that he can turn on a person's inner savant with the flick of a switch. All it takes is a strange set of electrodes -- and a radical new theory of autism, genius and the human brain (registration required) ... [more]
Wearable tech: Coming soon to your closet ... clothing that changes color to match your mood ... [more]
Do mammals sleep around to stick around? Monogamous species are more likely to go extinct than those that play the field ... [more]
Methuselah, the world's oldest known tree, could soon be the proud elder sibling of a new generation of bristleclone pines ... [more]
Sorry Nemo: sea anemones, not parents, are the true protectors of clownfish ... [more]
Gold dust and the James Bond: The James ossuary and the Jehoash inscription are transparent fakes, says the The Israel Antiquities Authority ... [more]
Contrary to what you might think, some of your worst habits may be prolonging your life ... [more]
A small, battery-powered device may tame the bane of the intimate gig: acoustic-guitar feedback ... [more]
The Y chromosome is seriously weird: The chromosome that makes a human male is turning out to be a lot stranger than anyone expected -- and a lot more useful ... [more]
What's in a name? Nothing, according to a study showing that blind fate can boost some monikers to popularity and consign others to history. ... [more]
How does a bioethicist who believes in the importance of one's genetic heritage react to some unpalatable home truths about his birth parents? ... [more]
The United States offers any likely adversary much better targets for nuclear weapons than these adversaries offer to the US. The scientists said so in 1966, and they say it is even more true today ... [more]
Neuroeconomics could be the answer to finally getting some science into economic decision-making (registration required) ... [more]
Snottites are slimy, dripping stalactites of goo that contain vast numbers of bacteria, and could point us at how life developed ... [more]
Move over, Spider-Man, soon the rest of us may be able to scale walls and cling to ceilings too, with a super-sticky gecko-inspired adhesive ... [more]
A new vaccine approach that delivers a 'double punch' could give the immune system an edge against malaria, AIDS and other infectious diseases ... [more]
A cell's dying gasp could warn people of imminent poisons, say scientists who have created a single-cell 'canary on a chip' ... [more]
We're all naked apes, but why? Girls plucking their eyebrows on Japan's trains demonstrate not just the whims of fashion, but a legacy of evolution -- and ectoparasites ... [more]
Just as we're learning to really love seafood, we may be cutting off the supply. (And US marine policy's 'frontier mentality' isn't helping, says a recent report.) But it's not too late to rescue the oceans ... [more]
The discovery of Earth v.2 in our own starry neighborhood could happen within a decade, astronomers say ... [more]
Possibly the largest mass poisoning in history is underway in India and Bangladesh, by way of arsenic-laced well water. Now Bangladeshis are digging 1,000-foot-deep bore wells -- without machinery -- in search of safe water ... [more]
The exploits of delinquent adolescent condors in the Grand Canyon testify to the difficulty of reintroducing an almost vanished species to the wild (registration required) ... [more]
Subtly and without fanfare, the prohibition on patenting products of nature has fallen into legal disuse. But a new test could distinguish products of nature from patentable inventions ... [more]
A group of British scientists has suggested that the reason it's so hard to discover the origin of SARS is that the coronavirus came from outer space ... [more]
Drug trials without the drugs? Jon Cohen explores the practical effects of obliging those who carry out clinical trials in the developing world to continue providing drugs after research has ended ... [more]
Scientists in Scotland have been developing bacteriophage-based vaccines, which could be a better and cheaper healthcare option for developing countries ... [more]
Voice recognition that finally speaks your languagecould make natural language the way to find any type of information, anywhere ... [more]
The treasure of Nimrud survived 2,800 years buried near a dusty town in northern Iraq. But could it survive a US missile strike, looters, a flood and a grenade attack -- not to mention Saddam Hussein's son? It could, and did ... [more] ... [more]
Mars attracts! Interest in the red planet is about to peak, as three missions prepare to join the hunt for water and life on one of our closest neighbours ... [more]
The straight dope: Advanced cannabis-based pharmaceuticals could hit the European market as soon as next year ... [more]
Cheap computer power and high-tech observation systems can produce precise weather forecasts, offering personalized weather reports and saving businesses millions ... [more]
The UN's nuclear watchdog agency is helping countries use atomic physics to squeeze every last drop of hidden water from the earth's crust to avert a crisis of the world's most precious commodity ... [more]
The leaders of the G8 nations have endorsed an 'action plan' on the use of science and technology to promote sustainable development ... [more]
As North America’s captive elephants face a population crash, scientists struggle to save the prized pachyderms -- one calf at a time ... [more]
The simplex solution: Mathematicians have uncovered the secrets of a 55-year-old algorithm that allows efficient and inexpensive operation of everything from telecommunications networks to delivery fleet scheduling ... [more]
Hand-held satellite phones have become indispensable to war correspondents trying to file stories, catch the latest scuttlebutt -- or get tips on avoiding danger ... [more]
Researchers in the Netherlands say micro-bubbles can be used to deliver therapeutic DNA or drugs into cells, reducing geneticists' reliance on viruses as a delivery method ... [more]
Rethinking Neanderthals: Research suggests the so-called brutes were far more advanced than earlier thought. But if Neanderthals were so smart, why did they disappear? ... [more]
Will the miniature fuel cells now being developed for cars soon power laptop computers too? ... [more]
Artificial Black Hole Escapes Lab, Eats Chicago! No chance of that, really -- but tiny, laboratory-created black holes could take us to the threshold of a new era in physics ... [more]
Surfing the net using only your brain isn't easy, but a special browser lightens the load ... [more]
Ethernet's 30-year reign can teach today's information technologists a thing or two about designing for longevity ... [more]
The first complete skulls of a bizarre 'horned' kangaroo are the star finds in the latest cache of fossils from caves in Australia's Nullarbor Plain ... [more]
A US survey shows that a surprising percentage of men are unaware that the spermicide nonoxynol-9 offers no protection against HIV infection and might even enhance transmission, despite warnings issued since 2000 ... [more]
She sees sea shells on the sea floor: Southeast Asian water babies have supreme aquatic vision ... [more]
An aircar in every garage? The fantasy of a personal flying machine is lurching toward reality ... [more]
Mesoamerica burning: The rich diversity of wildlife in southern Mexico and Central America is in peril. Local governments are using satellites to get a grip on a vast "corridor" system of protected lands ... [more]
The World Health Organization has unanimously adopted a key anti-smoking treaty, aimed at reducing an estimated five million smoking-related deaths each year ... [more]
"The third chimp" revisited: The latest twist in the DNA debate suggests that chimpanzees should not only be part of the same taxonomic family as homo sapiens, but also the same genus ... [more]
A controversial new study claims that the link between passive smoking and lung cancer and coronary heart disease may be "considerably weaker" than generally believed ... [more]
Shoot this deer: Chronic wasting disease, a cousin of mad cow disease, is spreading among wild deer in parts of the US ... [more]
An eccentric new company called Sea Launch is sending large rockets into space from a floating launch pad that sails to the Equator for blast-off. Has the era of private space travel begun? ... [more]
Systems inevitably fail. The key to reliable computing is building systems that crash gracefully and recover quickly ... [more]
The sticky white sap of the African milkbush is used for glue, toys and even medicine -- but it may also be the cause of the most common childhood cancer in sub-Saharan Africa ... [more]
The US should ditch the dime, says mathematician Jeffrey Shallit, and replace it with an 18-cent coin ... [more]
Planetary scientist David Stevenson has a cracking idea: he says the time is ripe for an unmanned journey to the centre of the Earth ... [more] ... [more]
Dropping by: Sometimes a naturalist can get ahead by assessing what's been left behind ... [more]
Researchers have revealed SARS' Achilles' heel: Drugs to treat common cold may be effective against the virus ... [more]
Synthetic gecko hairs could have us walking up walls and across the ceiling ... [more]
The detergents, perfumes and glues that fill our homes and workplaces may be to blame for some of the developed world's current allergy epidemic ... [more]
The evolutionary path from simple microbe to complex forms is long, gradual and very Darwinian, according to a new experiment conducted with an "alien form of life" in a virtual petri dish ... [more]
Time runs slower for ex-smokers -- and it's probably due to stress hormones ... [more]
If we are not alone in the Universe, why have we never picked up signals from an extraterrestrial civilisation? Maybe the aliens are hiding their signals, say two US physicists ... [more]
In deep-sea hydrothermal vents, life has become adept at scrounging for photons ... [more]
A dedicated ISS plasma physics lab could follow the results of a promising experiment to unlock a new world of crystals ... [more]
In response to concerns raised by US election officials and security-minded techies, one of the largest makers of touch-screen voting machines has introduced a prototype capable of producing paper ballots ... [more]
The nearby Andromeda galaxy has been acting like a cosmic blender, stirring other galaxies into its stellar mix ... [more]
Drink when you get thirsty: that's the new guideline for long-distance runners, as the dangers of over-hydration become increasingly apparent ... (registration required) [more] ... [more]
Operation Paperclip, redux: What is to be done with the Iraqi weapons scientists? Put them to work for the US, of course ... [more] But many of the scientists are in hiding, fearing US military interrogation and Iraqi reprisals ... [more]
A genetically altered common cold virus worked so well in destroying brain tumours in experiments with mice that researchers want to take the treatment to people next year ... [more]
With all due respect to Kermit the Frog, it's easy being green. And one of the simplest and best ways involves thinking about how you shop ... [more]
A DNA re-write might overcome safety objections to reproductive cloning ... [more]
Hearing colours, tasting shapes: In the extraordinary world of synaesthesia, where the senses mingle together, some of the brain's mysteries are being revealed ... [more]
Having high self-esteem won't improve your job or school performance, decrease your aggression level, or discourage risky behaviours. But it will make you happier, whether you deserve it or not ... [more]
What you really need right now is a nice cuppa tea. It could help prime your immune system and keep your skin young ... [more] not to mention combatting diabetes and high blood pressure ... [more] and even heart disease ... [more]
It's not just the colour of butterflies' shimmering wings that attracts mates -- it's the flash of polarized light ... [more]
The long-sought technological convergence has already happened -- inside the minds of kids who've grown up with both crayons and computer mice in their hands ... [more]
One of the world's wettest places, which once recorded more than 1,000 inches of rain in just one year, is suffering from a serious water shortage -- and increased pollution and deforestation may be to blame ... [more]
Embryonic stem cells from mice have been turned into eggs -- and the remarkable feat has enormous implications for human infertility and cloning research ... [more]
Archaeologists in Iraq believe they have found the tomb of King Gilgamesh, the subject of the world's oldest book ... [more]
It's not vitamin deficiencies you need to worry about, these days -- it's the dangers of vitamin excess ... [more]
Imagine robots that can read your mood and ink-jet printers that can crank out transplantable hearts. These visionaries have not only imagined these things -- they're hard at work building them ... [more]
Desert metropolis: Namibia's arid expanses are home to a menagerie of creatures that live nowhere else ... [more]
What do we currently know about SARS? And just how scared should we be? (The good news is that young children seem to be hit less hard by the virus) ... [more]
For years anglers have claimed that fish feel no pain when they are hooked. But now a new British study appears to provide evidence that fish do suffer ... [more]
Looking for the first stars: An orbiting observatory designed to survey 10 billion years of cosmic history has been launched ... [more]
What the double helix can't tell you: How can clones look completely different? A look at the biology beyond DNA ... [more]
A glut of the world's second most valuable commodity is causing problems for coffee growers and drinkers -- and even greater problems for ecosystems in and around the plantations ... [more]
New alloys bend the rules: A new class of metal alloys are unusually supple, stretchy, strong and heat stable ... [more]
With Hong Kong schools closed due to the SARS crisis, virtual classrooms are serving as a vital link between teachers from 60 schools and 6,500 of their homebound students ... [more]
Sometimes the Sun's magnetic field goes haywire, with effects felt throughout the solar system. Three years ago, our star suddenly sprouted two north poles ... [more]
HAL on the horizon? Look out, humankind. Machine-to-machine integration could be the next big thing, and may bring new meaning to "disintermediation" ... [more]
Technological savvy could turn anything into oil, converting 600 million tons of turkey guts, computer parts and human excrement into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year ... [more]
Not only is that science-fiction staple, the parallel universe, probably real -- they could exist in four different ways. Somewhere out there our universe has a twin ... [more]
They might spring from an ancient lineage and produce babies that look like peanuts, but superior marsupial eyes can see more colours than our own ... [more]
Wine is fine, but motes can make it better, say scientists who have installed a wireless sensor network throughout a 50-acre Canadian vineyard ... [more]
There could be an unexpected beneficiary of the war in Iraq: the late, great Mesopotamian marshes ... [more]
From cockroaches to air vents, the quest by researchers to understand how SARS spreads is leaving no stone unturned ... [more]
Unlocking Alzheimer's mysteries: A cerebrospinal fluid shunt might be the first treatment that actually prevents brain damage in Alzheimer's sufferers ... [more]
The sex life of Ukrainian worms has provided one of the first pieces of direct evidence on how wildlife is affected by radioactive pollution ... [more]
Natural solutions to pollution: Researchers are considering trees, microbes, and the oceans as mega cleaning tools (registration required) ... [more]
How do you take high tea in space? It's easy -- just grab your chopsticks ... [more]
The discovery of human genes protecting against brain-wasting prion disease suggests that cannibalism has been practised around the world for thousands of years ... [more]
The US military has seen the future, and it is hybrid-powered and fuel-efficient -- and it might help make more efficient vehicles available to consumers ... [more]
Food for thought: Researchers have identified the specific region of the brain that responds to pleasant tastes. What does this tell us about evolution, dieting ... and beet jelly? ... [more]
Astronauts onboard the International Space Station are studying strange magnetic fluids that might one day flow in the veins of robots and help buildings resist earthquakes ... [more]
Graduates of a new university programme in Afghanistan hope to usher in the digital age and boost opportunities for women in the heavily male-dominated society ... [more]
The bush meat trade and the Ebola virus are devastating great ape populations in their last major refuge ... [more]
Robots are practising for Mars exploration with a series of roadtests, beginning by travelling unsupervised more than 100 miles across the driest place on Earth ... [more]
A gadget that's on the leading edge of virus detection technology can screen for virtually every virus family known to biologists -- and it produced the first real break in the quest to find the source of SARS ... [more]
It's a long struggle through hostile conditions for sperm -- but their ultimate goal, the fertile egg, may be just a sniff away ... [more]
Changing gears: When Asian elephants feel the need for speed, they don't just walk fast. They do something that defies easy description ... [more]
The "super-pneumonia" SARS has spread rapidly around the globe, killing scores of people. Here's the latest on efforts to combat the disease ... [more] And the CDC's SARS resource page ... [more]
US researchers say global warming may be taking us back to the climate of the balmy Middle Ages ... [more]
Fallen trees?: Northern pine forests may exude nitrogen oxides -- a contributor to smog and acid rain -- in quantities that rival those produced by industry and traffic worldwide ... [more]
An Australian neuroscientist claims he can conjure up the mysterious Australian outback phenomenon of the Min Min lights -- when conditions are right ... [more]
Maths gets into shape Is it a starfish? Is it an orchid? No, it's Superformula! ... [more]
Fast tracking: Sophisticated software and hardware are offering wildlife researchers a more profound understanding of how nature interacts ... [more]
A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first to be retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean ... [more]
Move over, man the toolmaker: The idea of men as stone tool producers may need some rechiseling, say US scientists who found women sometimes are the masters ... [more]
Watch out for Barefoot scams: Claims about the powers of coral calcium don't hold water ... [more]
Caviar wars: An unstable local economy portends a bleak future for Caspian Sea sturgeon ... [more]
Each spit of toothpaste down the plughole can be a shot of poison for streams -- as can chemicals from soaps, deodorants and contraceptives ... [more]
A mysterious stellar outburst has astronomers puzzled -- and fascinated ... [more]
The lowdown on ginkgo biloba: This herbal supplement may slightly improve your memory -- but so can eating a candy bar ... [more]
Evil-doers beware! New video enhancement technology can help track down criminals, benefit medical research and even let home filmmakers invite a digital dinosaur to their kids' next birthday party ... [more]
Patients taking anti-inflammatory steroid drugs for conditions such as asthma may be at much greater risk of heart disease ... [more]
There's a change in the air pressure -- and it's affecting Earth's climate ... [more]
Exposure to insecticides such as Permethrin may cause a cascade of chemical events in the brain that could lead to Parkinson's Disease, researchers have found ... [more]
A portable device that dynamically translates speech from one language to another could help save lives on the battlefield -- and help tourists haggle at the market ... [more]
A new bio-battery can run on shots of vodka, thanks to a special polymer ... [more]
Bear trouble: Only a few hundred of miles from the North Pole, industrial chemicals pose a threat to the Arctic's greatest predator ... [more]
How to save a soldier: Trained on high-tech dummies that breathe and bleed, medics are learning to make the most of "the golden hour," the life-or-death moments after a wound is sustained (registration required) ... [more]
On the rebound: Reversed echoes could fight disease, detect submarines and foster secure communication ... [more]
It appears that prime numbers may not be quite as random as they seem ... [more]
Drug researchers have cracked a tough nut with the development of the first preventive treatment against peanut allergy ... [more]
US Air Force research could produce small space probes that could be launched by spaceships and satellites to inspect and repair failures or damage ... [more]
High-tech weaponry, sophisticated satellite communications, advanced psychological operations, rapid-delivery news and opinion via the Web -- the Iraq conflict is the world's first total information war ... [more]
Taking hormone replacement therapy does not improve a healthy postmenopausal woman's quality of life, US researchers suggest ... [more]
If you want to make ultra-thin, hollow fibres for nanoscale optical circuits, what you really need is a little help from a spider ... [more]
We are all in search of it, and while some have it, many don't. The pursuit of it was even written into the US Declaration of Independence. But what is happiness? And how do we get more of it? ... [more]
The 'superbug' MRSA has begun appearing outside of hospitals and can be spread by simple skin contact -- but slime-filled Scottish rockpools may hold an effective cure ... [more]
After four years of sifting data on millions of home PCs, ET hunters now have a shortlist of "promising" places in space to look for aliens ... [more]
The term "window shopping" could take on a whole new meaning, with the advent of the Holoscreen ... [more]
The US government is gambling that a 'smart war' in Iraq will be over quickly, and help prevent politically damning civilian casualties [more] -- but a growing group of military thinkers is questioning the military's reliance on gadgetry ... [more]
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft is providing a new understanding of the Red Planet ... [more]
Bio-Watch is the latest US plan to detect bioterrorist attacks by random air monitoring -- but independent scientists are sceptical, to say the least ... [more]
A tiny genetic mutation may have been the switch that lit up art, culture and social behaviour in Homo sapiens 50,000 years ago ... [more]
A major conference in Japan has heard that worldwide water shortages pose a greater long-term danger than current events in the Middle East ... [more]
The dancing plant: Darwin was obsessed by it, although even he never trained his weedy Asian shrub to twitch its leaves to the sound of music. But in a small town in northern Thailand ... [more]
A lethal "mystery illness" has prompted the World Health Organisation to issue a global medical alert. Here's what is known so far ... [more]
By corralling a dynamic trio of electrons on a semiconductor, a scientist named Merlin and his team of research wizards may have solved a quantum computational quandary ... [more]
National Genes, Inc. Going once, going twice, gone! Estonia's gene pool has been sold to the bidder in the front row ... [more]
Dinosaur anatomy was weird. And as palaeontologists figure out why, they're gaining insight into the big questions of evolution ... [more]
A biodegradable bandage made from wound-healing proteins helps the body do what it does so well ... [more]
As the worms turn: Security experts say it's time to face up to the inevitability of self-replicating software virus attacks -- and focus on limiting the damage ... [more]
Microbes rule: With nearly 100 genomes completed, some foresee a better world with bacteria (registration required) ... [more]
An individually tailored high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet can dramatically reduce or end seizures in many children with severe epilepsy ... [more]
Ignore the alarm, kids. Depriving children of as little as 30 minutes sleep can significantly reduce their alertness, brain activity and concentration the next day ... [more]
A digital vaccine could allow software engineers to make computer networks tolerant to a fault ... [more]
A sense of wonder: Neuroscientist Upinder Bhalla believes smell may provide the easiest route to understanding the human brain ... [more]
Save the mice: Researchers are exploring whole-body imaging as an alternative to sacrificing lab mice (registration required) ... [more]
The big smoke: Tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs are prematurely killing around seven million people worldwide each year -- and 71 percent of those deaths are caused by tobacco ... [more]
Better, stronger, faster, etc. Once reserved for $6 million megababes and hunks, bionics for the rest of us are finally here ... [more]
I'll have a burger with tomato and peppers, please -- and hold the microbes ... [more]
The list of modern, leisure-linked afflictions that includes "tennis elbow," "turf toe," "skier's thumb" and "biker's bum" has a new (and more serious) entry: hot-tub lung ... [more]
Foods grown without herbicides or pesticides are higher in cancer-fighting chemicals than conventionally grown foods, suggests a new study ... [more]
Vectors, buckyballs, nanotubes, and microchips are just some possibilities for new drug-delivery devices. And every bodily surface is fair game (registration required) ... [more]
The leap from low-tech to modest-tech gear can make a big difference to the study of ecosystems -- but a well-trained mind is still the scientist's most important tool ... [more]
Black cats may be traditionally considered an unlucky sign, but their genes could help researchers fight disease ... [more]
There is, alas, no scientific claim so preposterous that a scientist cannot be found to vouch for it. So here's a handy list of warning signs of bogus science ... [more]
What ever happened to the "high-temp" hype? New research is unlocking the amazing potential of high-temperature superconductors ... [more]
The net speed record has been smashed, with data equivalent to the size of a DVD-quality movie being sent across the Atlantic in less than 30 seconds ... [more]
Raw meat, urine, strawberries, and sunshine: a brief round up of food fanaticisms you may have yet to try ... [more]
Un-blinded by the light: Infrared light could rescue retinas from methanol poisoning -- and help heal burns, bruises and diabetic skin ulcers ... [more]
The physics of the minuscule: Physicists have worked out how to look at the smallest sizes and shortest time that some of them believe can exist ... [more]
Neutron stars are weird. And you really wouldn't want one on your desktop -- unless you're an experimental physicist ... [more]
The whole concept of physical therapy has gone into rehab, as researchers employ a new arsenal of technology to gain insight into how the brain and body interact (registration required) ... [more]
Kids are suckers for tart sweets -- but adults lose their taste for super-sours ... [more]
A spoonful of optimism: Can the healing power of the mind help overcome cancer? The largest-ever study into the effects of positive thinking aims to find out ... [more]
This is not your father's birds and bees: Recent research is challenging the myth of female monogamy ... [more]
The beetle battle: How early, aggressive action against the citrus longhorned beetle, cousin of the destructive Asian longhorned beetle, may have thwarted an ecological disaster ... [more]
A recently released report by the US EPA warns that children's exposure to environmental contaminants is implicated in asthma, acute bronchitis and upper-respiratory infections, cancer, mental retardation and ADHD ... [more]
Soap bubbles in space have some curious properties. For one thing, you don't even need the soap ... [more]
Don't eat yellow worms: Jaundiced soil-dwellers expose arsenic pollution ... [more]
If your child won't eat her vegetables, maybe she's a supertaster, dazzled by a neon-bright culinary world. Evolutionarily, that could be a good thing ... [more]
Lethal confusion: Confusing medical monikers can mean fatal errors. Banning brand names would fix the problem, but it's not likely ... [more]
So long, Pioneer 10: After more than 30 years in space heading away from Earth, the deep space probe has sent its last signal home ... [more]
A new biodegradable bandage mimics the natural tissue that forms as a wound heals ... [more]
The hunt for hot stuff: In the former Soviet Union, "rad rangers" are racing to find lost radiation devices before terrorists can turn them into dirty bombs ... [more]
Better killing through brain chemistry: Green Berets are less likely than other soldiers to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder -- and it's all in the neurology ... [more]
Dating ancient mortar: Although radiocarbon dating is usually applied to organic remains, recent work shows that it can also reveal the age of some inorganic building materials ... [more]
One battle may have been lost, but the Aids war goes on. The most advanced HIV vaccine trial so far has failed, but left useful medical leads to pursue ... [more]
Scientists simulating meteorite impacts on the frozen oceans of Europa have made an electrifying discovery, which raises the chances of finding life on Jupiter's moon ... [more]
The rumble of destruction: Infrasonic sound, too low to be heard by the human ear, may provide clues for predicting volcanoes, tornadoes and earthquakes ... [more]
Every schoolkid knows that oil and water don't mix. Except, of course, when they do ... [more]
Biologist Joyce Poole and her team are engaged in a mammoth task: compiling an audio-visual Elephant-Human dictionary ... [more]
The big and the bizarre: The more they look, the more astronomers are amazed at what they are finding out about the heart of our galaxy ... [more]
Everybody's high: It turns out we're all a little bit high all the time, whether or not we ever smoke cannabis ... [more]
By spinning people in a giant centrifuge for 22 hours at a time, a NASA researcher is learning more about the strange effects of artificial gravity on humans ... [more]
The over-the-counter painkiller ibuprofen may counteract the beneficial effects of aspirin on the heart, warns a new report ... [more]
The secret of the Mona Lisa's smile has been revealed: you can only see it if you don't look tooo closely ... [more]
A washing-up study has revealed a dirty secret: many people who wash their dishes by hand are sending the environment down the drain ... [more]
Drinking green tea could help keep osteoarthritis at bay, UK scientists say. And at the worst, it's not going to do any harm ... [more]
Despite their reputation, brown recluse spiders get blamed for crimes they did not commit, says an arachnologist who is doing his best to set the record straight ... [more]
New Zealand scientists have found a compound that may provide a cure for drug-resistant tuberculosis ... [more]
Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have been observing strange electric-blue clouds hovering near the edge of space ... [more]
A poor US economy and high electricity costs have produced an unusual environmental bonus: In 2001, emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases declined for the first time in a decade ... [more]
Legendary Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan may have left more than terror and destruction in his wake -- geneticists suggest he may have as many as 16 million descendants ... [more]
After two and a half years of research, neuroscientist Onur Güntürkün has concluded that most people kiss the right way. But one in three turns left to snog ... [more]
A colourful cocktail kills cancer cells, British researchers say, and they're hoping to have the new therapy in use soon ... [more]
The first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, is dead at the young age of six and a half ... [more] ... [more]
It's good news for biologists, but a bit dismal for aspiring terraformers: A 30-year-old error in atmospheric models of Mars suggests that the planet's polar caps are made mostly of water ice, rather than frozen carbon dioxide ... [more]
Physicists at the University of Vienna have managed to teleport photons without destroying them. The method could be the next step towards long-distance quantum communication ... [more]
From red light cameras to TIVO, the US government plans to use a web of data-gathering technologies to collect information for their two new ultra-databases. But they're probably not allowed to monitor your email -- if you're a US citizen ... [more]
A Dutch firm has floated a solution to the country's housing crisis: build homes, roads, and even greenhouses on water ... [more]
A glint in Detroit's eyes: A new plastic could one day replace paint on cars -- and it's tougher, prettier and all set for special effects, too ... [more]
Teething trouble: It's not just sick and injured lions that become maneaters ... [more]
Conspiracy to commit murder, firearms charges, looting and corpse abuse. Just another day in the archaeological trenches ... [more]
NASA astronomers have unveiled the best-ever "baby picture" of the universe, which holds answers to questions that have taunted cosmologists, including the age and ultimate fate of the universe ... [more]
Ecologists don't always want to stop the harvesting of delicacies: the WWF is calling for a fishing free-for all to halt the advance of a spiny "Red Army" of monster crabs ... [more]
Beyond the double helix: There's more to DNA than its iconic structure ... [more]
Is genetically engineered cotton finally starting to demonstrate its utility? A huge boost in yield and a significant drop in pests suggest there is more to it than the Dark Side ... [more]
Dads' coochy-coos are prone to leave babies guessing, suggests a computerised analysis ... [more]
A new medical treatment that can prevent preterm births could halt the spiraling increase in early deliveries ... [more]
Here come the hybrids, making Seattle bus-tunnel air safe for humanity ... [more]
Bar-coding babies, retinal-scanning schoolchildren and fingerprint-registering frequent travellers: biometrics is becoming prevalent in security-conscious settings around the world ... [more]
A rapidly evolving set of computing tools allow mathematicians, engineers and insurance executives to understand the odds of catastrophe (registration required) ... [more]
A new blacker than black coating could revolutionise optical instruments -- and fine art ... [more]
Importing old enemies can be vital to controlling invasive species ... [more]
Facing the future: Surgical advances are changing the lives of children born with severely malformed features ... [more]
From musical jackets to GPS hats, and from life-sign monitoring t-shirts to self-heating vests, electrotextiles are poised to invade closets everywhere (registration required) ... [more]
US officials will soon be testing whether thicker insulation on steel structures could have prevented the collapse of the World Trade Center towers ... [more]
Chicken soup and a good night's sleep is becoming a common prescription among increasingly drug-averse doctors and patients ... [more]
Ever wondered why we get hiccups? Blame the tadpoles ... [more]
A new Japanese supercomputer has the power to humble all rivals and forecast Earth's future ... [more]
Famed for the rocket-assisted cars that career across its vast terrain in bids for land-speed records, Utah's salt flats now face a new environmental threat: bowling balls from outer space ... [more]
Psyching up the green consumer: Psychologists are helping the United Nations to pioneer ways to persuade us to adopt greener lifestyles ... [more]
A centuries-old blue dye can be used to protect humans from the effects of radiation contamination like that released by dirty bombs ... [more]
The loss of Columbia and its seven crew members signaled the end of an "amazing mission" for the 80 experiments aboard, and the demise of a scientific workhorse. Now all eyes turn to the shuttle program's troubled past and the US's future in space ... [more]
The United Nations says the global risk from mercury emissions is much greater than governments realise, and calls for drastic reductions ... [more]
It is some comfort to know that during their 16-day science mission, the Columbia's astronauts managed to find time to enjoy the "small miracles" in their onboard lives ... [more]
A technique normally used in astronomy could help opticians with the early diagnosis of retinal diseases ... [more]
Starvation could relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, suggests a recent mouse study ... [more]
New research suggests that dietary levels of the potential carcinogen acrylamide (found in foods such as potato chips, french fries and bread) do not seem to be sufficient to raise the risk of cancer ... [more]
Desk potatoes arise! Here's one good reason to get yourself moving: the risk of deep vein thrombosis ... [more]
A study involving 72,000 nurses points to the importance of healthy sleep for a healthy heart ... [more]
Since 1988, aid workers in the developing world have been going from village to village vaccinating children to rid the world of polio. But is it an impossible mission? ... [more]
Garden-variety computer chips are not very green: their production is a massively wasteful process that is dumping an unknown level of toxic chemicals into the environment ... [more]
The shrinking Arctic icecap may turn out to be good for shipping, by opening a fabled sea passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ... [more]
Hybrid cars are not just a curiosity anymore -- and they appear to be catching on with automakers and consumers alike (registration required) ... [more]
In India, water harvesting is transforming lives, recharging the water table and renewing the forests -- even in the midst of persistent drought ... [more]
Homer knew his geography, say US geologists studying the site of ancient Troy ... [more]
A New Zealand scientist thinks aquatic plants might provide an answer to the global problem of arsenic contamination in drinking water ... [more]
Space shuttle astronauts have captured images of a never-before-seen red glowing arc of light, paralleling the curve of the Earth. ... [more]
Recently discovered fossils of four-winged, feathered dinosaurs are raising new questions about the origins of flight ... [more]
What's that smell? Fragrance ingredients are well-guarded trade secrets -- but they're triggering increasing numbers of allergic and respiratory reactions, including asthma ... [more]
A large planet orbiting a distant star has given astronomers a hot, hot preview of our own planet's eventual fate ... [more]
University students in the US unearthed the world's largest cephalapod fossil at a city intersection, as cars and trucks sped past ... [more]
Tiny dots hold big promise: Reasearchers say a new molecular device could store up to 100 gigabits of data per square inch ... [more]
A pair of researchers have hatched a few odd birds -- and the experiment could yield important clues about human birth defects like cleft palate ... [more]
Stem cells from donor bone marrow may be able to be used to repair brain damage, say scientists ... [more]
An endangered moss species has finally broken a century of celibacy -- and British scientists are hoping to play matchmaker ... [more]
Glacial melt has uncovered a surprising treasure-trove in the Yukon: an 8 foot high pile of ancient caribou dung, an arsenal of Stone Age weaponry, and a veritable zoo of perfectly mummified animals ... [more]
The electric brush-off: Most electric toothbrushes are no better for your teeth and gums than the traditional type powered only by elbow grease ... [more]
New research into the neurobiology of sucide addresses the wrenching questions left when someone ends his or her own life ... [more]
A US scientist is raising a flap over dinosaur flight with the claim that it may have evolved in dinosaurs which flapped their feathered fore-limbs to climb slopes ... [more]
Guglielmo Marconi's daughter Elettra celebrated a century of radio by speaking to astronauts from the site where her father sent the first wireless transAtlantic message ... [more]
What size fitness? There are plenty of people who are fat and healthy, say some exercise and health experts -- and plenty of skinny couch potatoes, too ... [more]
The inconstant sun: If you thought the sun was an unwavering beacon, you're wrong -- and variations in its brightness may affect the climate here on Earth ... [more]
An eight-year investigation into the cause of a shocking increase in deformed amphibians has sorted out the roles of three prime suspects ... [more]
Contrary to Chicken Little's warning, the sky is rising -- not falling, after all ... [more]
Australia's historic Mount Stromlo Observatory and its irreplaceable equipment have been lost to Canberra's raging bushfires ... [more]
Adventurers looking for the white-water wilderness experience might benefit from a dry run on a computer, as mathematicians use a simulation of the Grand Canyon to find the path less travelled ... [more]
Ancient Olympian long jumpers knew a thing or two about physics -- for instance, that a little extra weight goes a long way ... [more]
A newly discovered chemical could help to treat cholera and other deadly diarrhoeas -- and aid in the search for drugs to treat cystic fibrosis ... [more]
NASA has successfully tested an alternative rocket fuel that is non-toxic, easily handled and made from a substance similar to that used in common candles ... [more]
A defect of the immune system may be to blame for some cases of the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia ... [more]
A group of scientists has created the world's first artificial organism, which can produce a 21st amino acid and incorporate it into proteins ... [more]
Venus envy: A small group of scientists have their heads in the hot clouds of the second planet ... [more]
Russia has shut down a notorious, aging nuclear plant in the Ural Mountains, in an apparent change of position regarding the dangers posed by nuclear waste ... [more]
The Brazil-nut effect got a shakedown lately, in lab tests on the physics of muesli (and sand, gravel, powdered drugs and pigments) ... [more]
Herbicide-resistant crops could be good for biodiversity, according to a UK study ... [more]
To predict reliably what increased greenhouse gases will do to global climate, we have to understand the crucial role of clouds. That's where the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program comes in ... [more]
Robots that suck: Have they finally come out with a robot for the rest of us? ... [more]
The rising demand for fresh water, a dwindling supply, and new technology are changing the economics of desalination ... [more]
Requiem for the pay phone: As cell phone use increases, a cultural icon gradually dies ... [more]
Using old saris to filter drinking water collected from rivers and ponds has halved the number of cholera cases in remote Bangladeshi villages ... [more]
Astronomers have used a hot new technique to discover the hottest known planet ... [more]
The drug tamoxifen may not only help to treat women with breast cancer, but also boost their chances of bearing children after their treatment is over ... [more]
Been watching a lot of TV lately? Maybe you haven't been feeling too good about yourself ... [more]
Many US cities are still plagued by lead poisoning caused by old paint in old buildings ... [more]
A genetically modified, protein-enriched potato will play a key part in an ambitious plan to feed India's poor ... [more]
The supermassive black hole that sits at the centre of our galaxy seems to be a little famished ... [more]
Dr Feelgood: New pain relievers are moving through research labs. Nicolas Bazan hopes his drug may ease future aches ... [more]
In the complex battle to halt the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, breast-feeding is emerging as a simple but apparently effective weapon ... [more]
Ice-encrusted power lines can come crashing down, leaving millions in the dark, but one physicist has found a way to get the ice to melt itself ... [more]
What is the secret of happiness? It may come down to a simple equation, UK scientists say ... [more]
Recent observations show that Einstein was right: the speed of gravity matches the speed of light ... [more]
The US journalist appointed to verify claims of the birth of the first cloned human has suspended his inquiry, talking of a "possible hoax" ... [more]
Orangutans' swinging culture revealed: Behaviours such as surfing falling trees imply that the basis of human culture originated much earlier than thought ... [more]
Chaitan Khosla is leading a back-to-earth movement -- using soil bacteria to manufacture lifesaving drugs ... [more]
Driver fatigue is an accident waiting to happen. And it can happen to anyone ... [more]
Look on the bright side -- it just might improve your luck ... [more]
The Universe is not as bouncy as some think, say two physicists. If a Big Crunch follows the Big Bang, space might end up dark, thick and boring ... [more]
The respiratory effects of air pollution are well documented. Now researchers report that industrial pollution could cause genetic defects, too ... [more]
Space research could help doctors improve intensive care treatment by showing how the human body behaves under extreme conditions ... [more]
The perils of a growing medicine cabinet: What your doctor doesn't know can be hazardous to your health (registration required) ... [more]
NASA's extraordinary Deep Space 1 probe has been deactivated, but a thousand years from now it could make a space archaeologist very happy ... [more]
The horseshoe crab is as old as the dinosaurs, and its blood is an essential ingredient in everyday medicine -- yet we know disturbingly little about it ... [more]
Astronauts may not be the only diners to chow down on lab-grown steaks, if the experiments of tissue engineers flesh out ... [more]
Looking back at 2002: The year brought us innovation and controversy in technology; a handful of impressive gizmos; a new batch of sneaky computer viruses; high hopes and vitriolic debates in biology and medicine; and that's not all ... [more]
The infamous mummy's curse of Tutankhamen's tomb has little basis in hard science. But it still makes for a good story ... [more]
Puzzle of the century: Is it the fresh air, the seafood, or genes? Why does Nova Scotia boast so many hardy 100-year-olds? ... [more]
German chemists are offering moviemakers a green white Christmas, with a new type of fake snow made from potato starch ... [more]
Baby massage is good for Mum too -- it can help her get a good night's sleep ... [more]
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet -- but a rose in space would smell very different, indeed ... [more]
A high-tech medical briefcase is improving in-flight care for airline passengers who fall ill ... [more]
When Mistletoe Attacks: Mistletoe may prompt lovers and serendipitous strangers to share a kiss, but the parasitic plant is a nuisance to the timber industry ... [more]
Biologists have recently identified the mysterious North Pacific "boing" which has puzzled observers for 50 years ... [more]
A mummy with buck teeth and a right royal hairstyle may have settled one of the enduring mysteries of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt ... [more]
A UK archaeologist has uncovered the world's unluckiest church -- it survived four natural disasters, plus a stint as a medieval opium den, before finally being washed into the sea ... [more]
Convincing young people to get STDs treated could significantly cut the rate of HIV transmission, according to an African study ... [more]
Scientists mapping the bottom of the Hudson River have found 400 years' worth of shipwrecks -- and a submerged set of 3000-year-old walls (registration required) ... [more]
Researchers believe they may have explained why babies born to smokers are at increased risk of cot death ... [more]
Rebuilding the Food Pyramid: The dietary guide introduced a decade ago has led people astray. Some fats are healthy for the heart, and many carbohydrates clearly are not ... [more]
The deadly nerve agent VX degrades on concrete in a matter of hours -- a finding that could help military clean-up crews and chemical-weapons inspectors ... [more]
ACEs wild: Clinical trials, lab evidence, and a new theory are probing untapped potential for ACE inhibitors (registration required) ... [more]
Beware the full moon. People will party. Dogs will bite. Robbers will steal. Murderers will kill. But no more than at any other time of the month ... [more]
An ultrasound scan for the fetal nose bone might significantly lower the number of women who undergo amniocentesis to test for Down's syndrome ... [more]
Astronomers have discovered the Moon's youngest crater -- the only permanent change ever observed on our satellite ... [more]
Shining a new light on medicine: Pigments that turn caustic on exposure to light can fight cancer, blindness and heart disease. Their light-induced toxicity may also help explain the origin of vampire tales ... [more]
An out-of-body operation has allowed doctors to kill multiple tumours in a patient's cancerous liver without damaging surrounding tissue ... [more]
The black hole hunter -- a powerful new telescope designed to track the Universe's most violent events -- has sent back its first pictures ... [more]
Mysterious ruins in Zimbabwe once served as an astronomical observatory to track eclipses, solstices and an elusive exploding star, says a South African scientist ... [more]
NASA is taking a sci-fi approach to distant worlds: creating hundreds of "synthetic planets" that might orbit faraway stars ... [more]
Good vibrations aid the amphibian mating game ... [more]
Mister Natural: Masatsugu Taniguchi is creating the world's first pollution-free environment in Japan. And he may make money on it, too ... [more]
Imaging technologies are bringing empirical rigour to the study of a mysterious medical phenomenon: the placebo effect (registration required) ... [more]
Gadgets could soon come as clothes and carpets, as electrotextiles are fashioned into chameleon curtains, singing shirts and smuggler-spotting carpets ... [more]
No wonder Teen Talk Barbie thought math was hard. All that primping and parading around the Dream Yacht in her bikini drained her brainpower ... [more]
Ancient glass that has spent thousands of years buried in the earth might help scientists to evaluate the risks of storing nuclear waste ... [more]
A fresh look at a tiny and distant patch of sky reveals what might be some of the first galaxies ever created ... [more]
Raw muscle power might achieve what the Indian government so far hasn't been able to: spreading the telecom revolution to the country's 700 million rural people ... [more]
Scientists studying the flight mechanics of butterflies say we are getting closer to the dream of tiny air vehicles ... [more]
From frozen, lifeless deserts to transient hot springs, the study of Mars is never boring ... [more]
With massive plots of monoculture dominating the agricultural landscape, it is up to a few dedicated gastronomic sleuths to introduce unusual foods to scientists and the public (registration required) ... [more]
Residents of a high-altitude village in Ethiopia have a unique way of adapting to the oxygen-poor air ... [more]
Ice packs the red planet: Staggering quantities of water are hidden below the surface of Mars, the latest results from the Odyssey spacecraft suggest ... [more]
Still haven't found presents for the science fans on your list? Before you brave the cold and the holiday crowds again, take a look at some great geek gifts ... [more]
The failure of the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket is a setback the depressed satellite launch market could have done without ... [more]
Venomous and sublime: As scientists learn more about the biology, evolution and behavior of these earthiest and most Freudianized of creatures, snakes just keep getting cooler (registration required) ... [more]
An intriguing discovery about how the Hong Kong avian flu of 1997 killed its victims may help scientists prevent a deadly flu pandemic ... [more]
Cool running: A novel fridge chills food using just sound waves ... [more]
Unfriendly fire: From missile defence to psychotronic weapons, military scientists are looking closely at possible applications for ball lightning ... [more]
NASA-supported researchers are studying the complex physics of city-swallowing sand dunes ... [more]
What the dino saw: According to new gene research, the ancestor of dinosaurs could see at night -- a theory at odds with accepted wisdom ... [more]
The public is hungry for ticket counter takeoffs to space. But the track record on building tourist-toting rockets is anything but stellar ... [more]
Tying the knot: An Australian mathematician has solved the puzzle of the best way to tie shoelaces ... [more]
Bioengineered mosquitoes may be scientists' best weapon in the battle against malaria (registration required) ... [more]
Scrub the floor, toss out the rag. Use up your minutes, toss out the phone. Watch a movie, throw away the DVD. It's the hidden waste behind disposable products that really has environmentalists worried ... [more]
Clothes make the network: Wireless wearables could link like-minded strangers in a new kind of free-form social organization ... [more]
There's diamonds in them thar oil wells ... [more]
East meets West in space: British space experts are collaborating with China on its first purely scientific space mission ... [more]
Woman jump starts car with cyber-infant! (No, really!) ... [more]
From coffee enemas to sick bag collections, take a dip into the murky waters of the world weird web ... [more]
Confounded by coffee: Here's something to ponder over your next cup of joe -- the physics of a humble bag of coffee grounds still holds surprises for scientists ... [more]
A new mathematical model suggests that Jupiter-like planets take as little as a few hundred years to form -- not a million years or more ... [more]
These may be the ultimate personalised gifts: necklaces and rugs bearing patterns based on the recipient's own genetic fingerprint ... [more]
An experimental procedure for repairing badly damaged hearts by injecting them with cells grown from patients' own muscles or bone marrow could provide a promising new treatment for congestive heart failure ... [more]
The first commercial Moon flight will land business cards, cremated remains and other mementos on the Moon in October 2003 -- for a price ... [more]
Forging terror: Rapid advances in scanning, printing, and other technologies have made counterfeiting a potent new weapon of holy war ... [more]
On Wednesday, 4 December, residents of Southern Africa will have their second chance inside 18 months to observe (very carefully) a total eclipse of the Sun ... [more]
From photocopiers to space probes, machines injected with robotic self-awareness are taking control and solving their own problems ... [more]
Researchers have produced the first element of a device held to be the best hope for quantum information processing, and completed the first truly quantum calculation ... [more]
Meat lovers fond of a good sirloin may soon have cause to rejoice -- and throw away their heavy-duty steak knives ... [more]
How mushrooms will save the world: Cleaning up toxic spills, stopping poison-gas attacks and curing deadly diseases -- fungus king Paul Stamets says there's no limit to what his spores can do ... [more]
What happened after the Big Bang? Maybe it was the Big Snowstorm ... [more]
Eco-roofs reduce runoff and contaminants from rainstorms, and lower temperatures on scorching city rooftops. They have a long history in Europe, and now North American cities are catching on ... [more]
Full face transplants are now technically possible, says a leading surgeon -- but the ethical questions will prove harder to resolve ... [more]
Eight years ago, conservationists feared the worst for the world's wild tiger populations. But intensive efforts to save the last wild tigers appears to be paying off ... [more]
People who use the facial treatment Botox have been warned that they could lose more than their wrinkles, because its long-term effects on the brain, nervous system and muscles are unknown ... [more] ... [more]
Hand tools: In pursuit of today's most noteworthy pencils, styluses, and pen scanners ... [more]
Using science to rescue art: Technology is bringing new powers, and new problems, to art research and conservation ... [more]
The diversion of arsenic-laden water for use in irrigation is producing toxic rice, deepening the crisis in Bangladesh ... [more]
Waste not, waste not ... A biological reactor that converts food waste into a biodegradable plastic could provide a use for the obscene quantities of food rich countries throw away every year ... [more]
Immunity's pregnant pause: If we can understand why a woman's body does not reject her fetus, it could help us to treat infertility and prevent problems in pregnancy ... [more]
Some Apple devotees take their love for all things Mac farther than others. 'Sex toy' doesn't begin to describe it ... [more]
The synaptic self: Without synaptic plasticity, learning -- and the self -- would be impossible ... [more]
In the same week that an oil tanker split in two and sank off the coast of Spain, a group of US researchers provided disturbing evidence that oil spill damage can persist indefinitely, even though the site appears otherwise pristine ... [more]
Like a rowing stone: An unusual canoe competition in Madison, Wisconsin, floats the notion that concrete waives the rules ... [more]
Balancing brains: NASA researchers are learning new things about the human brain by studying how astronauts regain their balance ... [more]
Astronomers have spotted two supermassive black holes in the crowded center of a distant galaxy. And it's only a matter of time before the pair collide ... [more]
Researchers seeking scientific support for honey's legendary medicinal properties have found that it stops bacteria from growing -- even strains that are resistant to some antibiotics ... [more]
The "genome man", Dr Craig Venter, is pressing ahead with plans to create synthetic microbes that could address society's need for new energy sources ... [more]
About 15,000 years of interspecies friendship have helped man's best friend to develop unique ways of understanding humans: abilities that neither scientists nor dog lovers fully understand ... [more]
Finding missing children may soon be made a little easier by a technology that will allow law enforcement officials to quickly alert entire communities via telephone ... [more]
Scientists have for the first time managed to retrieve an intact protein from a fossil bone more than 55,000 years old. The technique could provide a new tool to investigate evolution ... [more]
BIRGing and CORFing are the province of the true sports fan. But BIRGing is a lot more fun ... [more]
The perils of going solo: Social rejection has a host of behavioral consequences, none of them good ... [more]
Flashy banner ads are no longer limited to the web -- personalised ads could soon be appearing in a shopping trolley near you ... [more]
Tinfoil hats are going mainstream, with the release of a novel baseball-style cap designed to shield mobile phone users from radio emissions ... [more]
A US company has developed the world's first lightweight radiation-proof fabric, which provides as much protection as a lead vest ... [more]
Tummy time is taking hold as the latest infant-stimulation craze, as anxious parents race to find ways to develop their babies' head control and teach them how to crawl ... [more]
More and more spouses are blaming the internet for the break up of their marriages, according to US divorce lawyers ... [more]
Are you ready for the Leonids? This year's Leonid meteor storm peaks in the early morning of November 19th -- and for skywatchers in North America and Europe (not to mention the ISS) it's likely to be the best in years. You can even consult a city-by-city forecast ... [more]
It is better to give than to receive -- Helpful older people tend to live longer than their less-involved peers, says a US study ... [more]
The hunt for alien pond scum is hotting up, with growing support from the US government ... [more]
A new Swedish telescope has shown sunspots as they have never been seen before, and made an unexpected discovery as well ... [more]
Seeking smart drugs: Researchers are seeking a new generation of drug therapy to improve memory and concentration without side effects (registration required) ... [more]
Dried rice makes less gas: Draining paddy fields benefits the environment as well as farmers' pocketbooks ... [more]
Each of the shattering cosmic catastrophes called gamma-ray bursts heralds the birth of a black hole ... [more]
Buildings that breathe: The best of the new architecture uses nature instead of fighting it ... [more]
Linux for the rest of us: With the long-awaited emergence of dirt-cheap new applications, the desktop alternative to Microsoft has finally emerged ... [more]
People who load up on fish for their health may also end up loaded with toxic mercury ... [more]
The number of plants on the standard Red List of threatened plant species is a massive underestimate, botanists say, because it lacks data on tropical forests ... [more]
Brain researchers are looking beyond the physical to consider the social aspects of chronic pain. But what are we to make of the conclusion that a considerate spouse can be a pain in the back? ... [more]
Biometrics: more sci than fi. A spy-movie staple for years, biometric technology is stepping off the screen and into real-world security deployments ... [more]
As doctors learn more about our throbbing heads, they are uncovering amazingly effective ways to kill the pain of a headache before it starts ... [more]
A study of more than half a million children has found no evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine and the onset of autism ... [more]
The spin on rotary culture: A NASA project launches researchers into the realm of three-dimensional cell structures (registration required) ... [more]
A US study suggests that motherhood makes women smarter and could help prevent dementia in old age ... [more]
Noise, chilies and smoke have all been tried as elephant deterrants -- but beehives may be farmers' best bet for protecting their crops ... [more]
Space officials in China are reportedly stepping-up training of astronauts for human space travel. Two or three individuals are "expected to dart out from the Earth" and become the first batch of spacemen from China ... [more]
HAL on Earth: Evolution Robotics' ER1 will open the pod bay door -- and pour you a beer ... [more]
A stomach bacterium best known and reviled for causing ulcers and cancer has been with humanity for at least 11,000 years ... [more]
Fear of genetic disease is forcing traditional south Indian couples to abandon astrologers and knock at doctors' doors to sift through family history and match their genes ... [more]
Even people who have recovered from severe depression have signs of the disease which show up on brain scans, say US scientists ... [more]
Sensors gone wild: An experiment in the California desert and an executive suite in Tokyo provide tantalizing hints of how a networked world could make everyday life a lot more precise and profound ... [more]
On the alert: A narcolepsy drug could soon be perking up sleepy shift workers -- and stirring a debate about lifestyle pills ... [more]
Why does so much tech gear suddenly glow blue? Call it a harmonic convergence of marketing and technology ... [more]
Canadian dirigible enthusiasts and visionary business leaders are floating the idea that Arctic airships could be the cargo-carriers of the future ... [more]
Using space technology, researchers are developing artificial bones for pain-free hip implants ... [more]
Huge hydrogen clouds that measure 100 light-years across have been spotted hovering in the void between the Milky Way galaxy and intergalactic s