Peregrine falcons are one of the world's fastest birds, reaching up to 200 miles per hour when diving. Scientists are studying the body shape and wing contour of the bird to better understand how…

Anthropologists have developed mathematical models that they say describe development patterns in both modern urban areas and ancient cities settled thousands of years ago.  Scott Ortman, an…

One major challenge in stem cell research has been to reprogram differentiated cells to a totipotent state. Researchers from RIKEN in Japan have identified a duo of histone proteins that dramatically…

A University of Texas at Arlington team exploring pigeons as a model for vertebrate evolution has uncovered that mutations and interactions among just three genes create a wide variety of color…

Tampa, FL (Feb. 6, 2014) – Declines in the underlying brain skills needed to think, remember and learn are normal in aging. In fact, this cognitive decline is a fact of life for most older Americans.…

NEW YORK, NY (February 6, 2014) — In most cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, a toxin released by cells that normally nurture neurons in the brain and spinal cord…

Fossilization is rare. It may seem common to find them because there have been billions of years and an entire planet on which to do it, but things really have to go right. An ancient fossil…

Hospitals use disinfectants but they don't all kill the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a new paper. Non-sexual transmission of the virus is exceedingly rare but hospitals need to be…

How did we evolve a face? Vertebrates, backboned animals, come in two basic models: jawless and jawed.  Jawed vertebrates, including us, number over 50,000 species but there are two jawless…

The people generally called Clovis were not the first humans in America but they were the first to accomplish expansion on the North American continent. Then they died out, leaving only speculation.…

If there is a sociological fad, trend or fashion and it catches the attention of the public, you can be sure someone will start doing weak observational studies and get published in journals. Almost…

The U.S. Geological Survey has gone cosmic and produced the first global geological map of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon and the largest in the solar system. The geologists combined images…

Conversion landscapes to cement-dominated urban centers would seem to cause great losses in biodiversity, yet nature i heartier than you might think. According to a new study involving 147 cities…

A program that allows a single autonomous robot to navigate an uncertain environment with an erratic communication link is difficult and the difficulty for writing code to handle multiple robots that…

Sometimes you don't need fancy modern compounds - primitive cavemen had the answer. Burnt bone charcoal, used in prehistoric cave paintings, will be applied to the ESA’s Solar Orbiter titanium…

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are among the first components of the immune system to confront certain pathogens and they have a critical function at mucosal barriers, like the bowel or the lung, where…

Large stars go supernova but smaller stars sometimes end up as planetary nebulae – colorful, glowing clouds of dust and gas. These nebulae have been observed to often emit powerful, bipolar jets of…

In 1832, the HMS Beagle arrived at Bahia Blanca, Argentina and Charles Darwin disembarked. On his way to Buenos Aires, Darwin collected several fossils of large mammals along with many other living…

Since most people don't want to engage in the only weight loss plan guaranteed to work - consuming fewer calories than they burn - options are limited in America's battle of the bulge and are likely…

What shapes a man’s life? To begin: Mom, dad, little Jenny Harrison in the 3rd grade, adolescence, acne, heartache, and the jockstrap. And then there comes the real trauma, age 60 or so: loss of…