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NewsPapers
- -01-21-07 "Unselfish" Area of Brain Found (BBC News)
"Scientists say they have found the part of the brain that predicts whether a person will be selfish or an altruist." 01-07
- -02-27-07 New Twist on Black Hole Theory (RedOrbit.com)
"Professor Sam Braunstein, of the University of York’s Department of Computer Science, and Dr Arun Pati, of the Institute of Physics, Sainik School, Bhubaneswar, India, have established that quantum information cannot be ‘hidden’ in conventional ways, or in Braunstein’s words, 'quantum information can run but it can’t hide.' "
"This result gives a surprising new twist to one of the great mysteries about black holes."
"Dr Pati said: 'Our result shows that either quantum mechanics or Hawking’s analysis must break down, but it does not choose between these two possibilities.' " 02-07
- -03-15-07 Scientists Discover 6 Million New Genes in the Ocean (PBS News)
"Scientists spent two years trawling the oceans for bacteria and viruses, and in the process discovered 6 million new genes, doubling the number known on Earth and holding promise for new antibiotics and alternative energy sources." 03-07
- -03-17-07 High School Student Wins Award for Spectograph (ABC News)
"Mary, a senior at Westmore High School in Oklahoma City, won first place in the 2007 Intel Science talent search competition, beating out 40 other contestants and winning a $100,000 college scholarship."
"While these devices already exist, there is one key difference between Masterman's spectrograph and those being used today. Spectrographs can cost a hundred thousand dollars to build, but Mary built hers for $300 out of household parts, and hopes that it might help make research cheaper and easier in the future." 03-07
- -04-30-07 Apes Point to Origins of Human Language (MSNBC News)
"Our closest primate relatives, the bonobos and chimps, are more versatile when communicating with their hands, feet and limbs than with their facial expressions and voices."
"The finding, detailed online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, supports the notion that humans were communicating with sign language long before they were speaking, an idea known as the 'gestural hypothesis.' " 04-07
- -05-07-07 Bees Disappearing at an Alarming Rate (CBS News)
"According to the Apiary Inspectors of America, a hive-tracking group, more than a quarter of the country's bee colonies have been lost — more than half-a million bee colonies that have simply vanished. What is actually happening — and what repercussions could it have on your dinner table?" 05-07
- -05-30-07 Scientists Hear the Sun Scream (MSNBC News)
"Speedy solar storms carrying a billion tons of charged gas through space let out a thunderous scream before they unleash satellite-stopping radiation storms that slam into Earth's magnetic field." 05-07
- -06-04-07 Study: Dogs More Intelligent Than Scientists Thought (MSNBC News)
" 'What's surprising and shocking about this is that we thought this sort of imitation was very sophisticated, something seen only in humans,' said Brian Hare, who studies dogs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. 'Once again, it ends up dogs are smarter than scientists thought.' "
"The experiment suggests that dogs can put themselves inside the head of another dog -- and perhaps people -- to make relatively complex decisions."
" 'This suggests they can actually think about your intention -- they can look for explanations of your behavior and make inferences about what you are thinking,' Hare said." 06-07
- -06-04-07 Study: Men and Women Think Differently (LiveScience.com)
"Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study." 06-07
- -06-06-07 Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells (New York Times)
"In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient’s cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease."
"The new technique, developed by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, depends on inserting just four genes into a skin cell. These accomplish the same reprogramming task as the egg does, or at least one that seems very similar."
"The technique, if adaptable to human cells, is much easier to apply than nuclear transfer, would not involve the expensive and controversial use of human eggs, and should avoid all or almost all of the ethical criticism directed at the use of embryonic stem cells." 06-07
- -06-06-07 The Universe Is Expanding Beyond Understanding (New York Times)
"When Albert Einstein was starting out on his cosmological quest 100 years ago, the universe was apparently a pretty simple and static place. Common wisdom had it that all creation consisted of an island of stars and nebulae known as the Milky Way surrounded by infinite darkness." 06-07
- -06-07-07 Congress Passes Bill Supporting Stem Cell Research (MSNBC News)
"The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation Thursday to loosen restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but the bill’s supporters lacked the votes needed to override President Bush’s threatened veto." 06-07
- -06-07-07 Stem Cells Stall Brain Disease in Mice for First Time (MSNBC News)
"Human stem cells taken from both embryos and fetuses delayed a fatal brain and nerve disease in mice, moving throughout the brain to take on the jobs of damaged neurons, scientists report."
"They said their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, represents the first time a human embryonic stem cell has successfully treated a disease in an animal." 06-07
- -06-09-07 Wireless Charging of Devices (CBS News)
"Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announced Thursday they had made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly, potentially previewing a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in." 06-07
- -06-14-07 Study Changes Long-Held DNA Beliefs (PBS News)
"A four-year international study of the human genome has prompted scientists to rethink some of their most basic ideas about how DNA functions." 06-07
- -06-22-07 Race Is on to Make Antimatter Atoms (MSNBC - Cosmic Log)
"It's not often that a scientific experiment gets written up as a front-page news story, as well as a science-fiction twist in a best-selling thriller and a can't-miss movie script - but that's what's been happening to CERN's Antiproton Decelerator facility, the only place in the world where whole atoms of antimatter are built." 06-07
- -07-12-07 Mysterious Black Spot Seen on Mars (DiscoverMagazine.com)
"The HiRISE astronomical imaging project has a striking picture of a spot on Mars' surface that looks like total blackness to their Earth-based camera—it sees no light beyond the background noise level."
- -07-13-07 Virus May Be Causing Bees to Disappear (PBS.org)
"A virus from Australia may be the culprit in the mysterious deaths of tens of millions of honeybees in the past year, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science."
"Colony Collapse Disorder affected 23 percent of U.S. beekeepers last year. Affected beekeepers lost an average 45 percent of their bees to the phenomenon -- the bees simply disappeared, leaving empty or nearly empty hives." 05-07
- -09-11-07 Brainy Bird Dies (New York Times)
"He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with his own brand of one-liners he established himself in television shows, scientific reports and news articles as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird." 09-07
- -09-13-07 Super Scope to See Hidden Texts (BBC News)
"The hidden content in ancient works could be illuminated by a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun."
"The technique employs Britain's new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, and could be used on works such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or musical scores by Bach."
The method uses x-rays. 09-07
- -09-19-07 New Source for Stem Cells (CBS News)
"Researchers hope to one day extract stem cells from testicles that could be directed to grow into all kinds of tissues to repair everything from a damaged heart to brains destroyed by Alzheimer's to insulin-producing cells to cure diabetes."
"So far, the researchers have found a way to grow different tissues from stem cells isolated from the testes of laboratory mice, but they believe the same technology could work in humans." 09-07
- -10-08-07 Three Win Nobel in Medicine for Gene Technology (New York Times)
"Two Americans and a Briton won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine today for developing the immensely powerful 'knockout' technology that allows scientists to create animal models of human disease in mice."
"The winners, who will share the $1.54 million prize, are: Mario R. Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales." 10-07
- -10-09-07 Nobel Prizes for Physics Announced (CBS News)
"France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance, a process used by billions [sic] of people on their computers and digital music players."
"In 1988 Fert and Gruenberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect, GMR. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. This is how information stored magnetically on a hard disk can be converted to electrical signals that the computer reads." 10-07
- For Longevity, Other Factors Pale in Comparison to "Education" (New York Times)
"The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income."
"And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison." 01-07
- Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells (Christian Science Monitor)
"Scientists in the United States and Japan announced yesterday that they have developed artificial stem cells from adult mouse cells. If the approach can be retooled for humans, they say, it would avoid the ethical quicksand that surrounds the use of stem cells drawn from nascent human embryos." 06-07
- DNA Matching to Find Criminals (KatiesLaw.org)
"In January of 2006, 'Katie's Bill', which requires DNA for most felony arrests for inclusion in the database, was passed by the New Mexico state legislature in only thirty days. The bill was signed into law in March 2006 and went into effect on January 1, 2007. After passing 'Katie’s Law' in New Mexico, Dave and Jayann dedicated themselves to getting similar legislation passed nationwide."
Editor's Note: The test uses 13 markers. 09-07
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