A recent look at what is known about the health effects of drinking water reveals that most supposed benefits are not backed by solid evidence. The findings indicate that most people do not need to worry about drinking their recommended 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water per day.
Astronomers have known for decades that the Sun has a very dynamic atmosphere. Huge fountains of hot gas erupt in the atmosphere, or corona, every few minutes, traveling at tens of thousands of km per hour and reaching great heights. Now a team of scientists have used the Hinode spacecraft to find the origin and driver of these fountains - immense magnetic structures that thread through the solar atmosphere.
Scientists have long known that emotions and other personality traits and disorders run together in families. But finding which genes are most important in controlling emotions has proven difficult. Researchers have noted that male mice make high-frequency vocalizations during sexual interactions with female mice. These high-frequency calls are associated with approach behaviors, and with genes that control positive emotions. In the courtship phase, before mounting, males usually made simple whistles or modulated calls. After mounting the females, however, the males shifted to more complex "chirp-like" vocalizations. The male vocalizations increased in number and complexity as intensity increased.
New research finds fresh evidence that urbanization in the United States threatens the populations of some species of migratory birds. But the six-year study also refutes one of the most widely accepted explanations of why urban areas are so hostile to some kinds of birds.
For quite some time, DNA, the stuff our genes are made of, has also been considered the building material of choice for nanoscale objects. Now scientists have made a dodecahedron (a geometric shape with twelve surfaces) from DNA building blocks. These objects are formed in a self-assembly process from 20 individual trisoligonucleotides, building blocks consisting of a “branching junction” and three short DNA strands.
While investigating the tropical disease leptospirosis in the Peruvian Amazon, an infectious disease specialist has uncovered new, emerging bacteria that may be responsible for up to 40 percent of cases of the disease. Patients with severe forms of leptospirosis have jaundice, renal failure and lung hemorrhage, with high fatality rates.
A history of early-onset paternal obesity increases the odds of elevated liver enzyme levels in offspring and points to the potential for a genetic link between obesity and liver disease, according to a new study.
Bisphenol A, a chemical that leaches into food and beverages from many consumer products, causes normal, non-cancerous human breast cells to express genes characteristic of aggressive breast cancer cells. The concentration of BPA that the researchers tested was very low (less than one tenth of a millionth of a gram per milliliter), but this concentration of BPA has been found in blood from pregnant women in both the United States and Germany.
The gathering of data for research involving an animal usually involves invasive procedures or death for the experimental animals. But critical data may now be collected through a nonlethal procedure. The new animal research method not only allows for nonlethal and noninvasive study, but it also opens new lines of inquiry.
A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a fish expert. The fish, sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island, has tan- and peach-colored zebra-striping, and rippling folds of skin that obscure its fins, making it look like a glass sculpture that Dale Chihuly might have dreamed up.
The idea that the Earth's climate is determined by Sun activity and cosmic rays is discredited by UK scientists. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 3 Apr 2008 | 1:04 pm
The government's draft Marine Bill pledges better protection for wildlife, and a right to roam around the coastline. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 3 Apr 2008 | 12:26 pm
A funding hole could close a £25m particle accelerator in the UK before it has provided any experimental results. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 3 Apr 2008 | 10:40 am
Far from being the loners marine biologists had categorised them as for decades, octopuses are pretty lascivious, study reveals Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 3 Apr 2008 | 10:31 am
The exercises, which are supposed to help primary school children learn, are based on pseudoscience and a bizarre understanding of how the body works Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 3 Apr 2008 | 10:29 am
Ministers announce 15 sites in England which are shortlisted to become environmentally-friendly "eco-towns". Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 3 Apr 2008 | 10:28 am
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers using robotic cameras said on Wednesday they had found 10 new planets outside our solar system, while a second team said they had found the youngest planet yet.
LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change could bring malaria and other diseases to Britain and trigger more frequent heatwaves that will have huge health impacts, British doctors said on Thursday.
Europe's sophisticated new space freighter, the ATV, is set to dock with the International Space Station. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:06 pm
Nick Carr: In the future, marketers won't have to ask us what we think or try to decipher our intentions from our actions Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:05 pm
A US military laboratory has found new uses for radar technology usually employed in missile defence Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:05 pm
Letters: On the basis that old news is good news, I was delighted to read about excavations at Stonehenge in the Guardian Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:05 pm
Idea that several glasses of water a day is good for your health lacks scientific evidence to back it up Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:05 pm
Leading scientists warn ministers that plans for a new generation of coal power stations pose climate risk Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:03 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British researchers say they have created embryos using human cells and the egg cells of cows, but said such experiments would not lead to hybrid human-animal babies, or even to direct medical therapies.
Ministers have rejected plans for three "eco-towns" in Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Derbyshire, the BBC learns. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 7:05 pm
Carbon dioxide emissions from Europe's heavy industry sectors rose by 1.1% in 2007, say carbon market analysts. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 6:12 pm
PARIS (Reuters) - A European supply vessel carrying over five tons of freight is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday in a major advance for Europe's space programme.
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found important genetic differences between people that may help explain why some smokers get lung cancer and others do not.
Scientists pinpoint genetic variations that raise smokers' risk of lung cancer - possibly by getting them hooked. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 5:04 pm
Scientists identify genetic variants that increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer if they have ever smoked Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
The world's largest prize for marine renewable energy is announced by the Scottish Government. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 4:39 pm
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will study the safety of cloned animals for food, after a report concluded there is no biological difference in the meat and milk of cloned and non-cloned cattle, officials said on Wednesday.
Scientists find a distant embryonic planet outside the Solar System that could be less than 2,000 years old. Source: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition | 2 Apr 2008 | 11:39 am
