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Scientists assume that all exoplanets orbit in more or less the same plane and  move along their orbits in the same direction of their host star's rotation. But now astronomers have discovered nine new exoplanets that may upset this conventional wisdom. Researchers say that when combined with earlier observations of transiting exoplanets, the new images indicate that six out of a larger sample of 27 were found to be orbiting in the opposite direction to the rotation of their host star -- the exact reverse of what is seen in our own solar system.

Moderate alcohol consumption may reduce your risk for stroke, but cigarette smoking could offset that benefit, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto this week.Scientists followed the drinking and smoking habits of 22,524 people in the United Kingdom who were between the ages of 39 and 79 and did not have a history of heart attack or stroke at the start of the study. During the 12-year study, 864 strokes occurred.

Stanford scientists have harvested a tiny electric current from algae cells, found at the very source of energy production – photosynthesis, a plant's method of converting sunlight to chemical energy. The research may be one of the many possible first steps toward generating "high efficiency" bioelectricity that doesn't give off carbon dioxide as a byproduct, the researchers say. 

New tissue engineering research could greatly reduce the number of lab animals required for FDA mandated experimental trials on new health products with medical formulations.Scientists from Tel Aviv University writing in Tissue Engineering say that the necessary tissue for animal trials can be produced from adult rat stem cells ― cells that can be stimulated to create skin, bone, fat and muscle tissue from an animal in a laboratory setting.

An asteroid impact was likely not responsible for the extinction of the North American megafauna – such as mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths and Dire wolves – along with the Clovis hunter-gatherer culture some 13,000 years ago, suggests a new study in PNAS. When the last ice age came to an end approximately 13,000 years ago and the glaciers covering a large portion of the North American continent began melting and retreating toward the north, a sudden cooling period known as the Younger Dryas reversed the warming process and caused glaciers to expand again. Even though this cooling period lasted only for 1,300 years, a blink of an eye in geologic timeframes, it witnessed the disappearance of an entire fauna of large mammals.

New images from the ESA's Herschel space observatory reveal the formation of previously unseen large stars that reside in the Rosette Nebula, each one up to ten times the mass of our Sun. Astronomers say it is important to understand the formation of high-mass stars in our Galaxy because they feed so much light and other forms of energy into their parent cloud they can often trigger the formation of the next generation of stars.

The Paleoindians who occupied North America throughout the Younger Dryas interval, which saw a rapid return to glacial conditions approximately 11,000 years ago, successfully dispersed across the continent's diverse habitats, according to a new study in the Journal of World Prehistory.  Experts have generally assumed that cooling temperatures and their impact on communities posed significant adaptive challenges to Paleoindian groups.  But the new review of climatic and environmental records from this time period in continental North America suggests that the Young Dryas age cooling was not as sudden, extensive, or severe, and the notion that these conditions may have taken the Paleoindians by surprise is questionable.

the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents, known as 'black smokers' have been discovered in the Cayman Trough 3.1 Miles beneath the surface of the Caribbean Sea. Using a remotely controlled, deep-diving vehicle, scientists uncovered slender spires made of copper and iron ores on the seafloor, erupting water hot enough to melt lead, nearly half a mile deeper than anyone has seen before.Deep-sea vents are undersea springs where superheated water erupts from the ocean floor. They were first seen in the Pacific three decades ago, but most are found between one and two miles deep.

Newly drilled core samples from the Antarctic Peninsula may contain ice dating back into the last ice age and could give new insight into past global climate changes. Oxygen-isotopic ratios – a proxy for temperature, and concentrations of dust and various chemicals – including volcanic tracers, will collectively reveal past climate conditions.The expedition in early winter to the Bruce Plateau, an ice field straddling a narrow ridge on the northernmost tongue of the southernmost continent, yielded a core that was 445.6 meters (1,462 feet) long, the longest yet recovered from that region of Antarctica.

On top of the numerous functions our cell phones perform, the Department of Homeland Security says they may one day also protect us from toxic chemicals.In the coming years, Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate (S&T)'s Cell-All aims to equip cell phones with a sensor capable of detecting deadly chemicals. A chip costing less than a dollar is embedded in a cell phone and programmed to either alert the cell phone carrier to the presence of toxic chemicals in the air, and/or a central station that can monitor how many alerts in an area are being received. One might be a false positive. Hundreds might indicate the need for evacuation.

A study published in Current Biology suggests that children with Williams Syndrome are not inherently racist like the rest of the population and may help experts develop interventions designed to reduce discriminatory attitudes towards minority groups.Previous studies have shown that stereotypes are found ubiquitously in typically developing children—as early as age 3—as they are in adults, said Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim/University of Heidelberg. Even children with autism display racial stereotypes, despite profound difficulties in daily social interaction and a general failure to show adapted social knowledge.

Nearly all life forms rely on the same genetic code to specify the amino acid composition of proteins, but just how individual amino acids were assigned to specific three-letter combinations or codons during the evolution of the genetic code is still subject to speculation.Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies say that after only two waves of "matching" and some last minute fiddling, all 20 commonly used amino acids were firmly linked with their respective codons, setting the stage for the emergence of proteins with unique, defined sequences and properties.Their findings provide the first in vivo data shedding light on the origin and evolution of the genetic code. The results are published in PNAS.