SSS 2010-01-01

We like to think that medical equipment implanted in our bodies undergoes rigorous testing before its put inside a person. Thats not always the case, at least for cardiovascular devices. Thats according to an article in the Journal of the American Me

SSS 2010-01-04

No surprise: machines and humans have differing opinions about art. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Girona had computers and non-art expert humans place each of 275 paintings into one of 11 artistic periods, for exampl

SSS 2010-01-05

Sometimes it pays to look like a pile of poop. At least if youre a tasty caterpillar trying to avoid getting eaten by hungry birds. Because a study in the journal Science shows that even young chicks tend to overlook caterpillars disguised as dung. A

SSS 2010-01-06

Stereotypes are usually the last thing to change in the face of contradictory evidence. A case in point is the long held belief that boys are better at mathematics than girls. Well a meta-analysis to be published in the journal Psychological Bulletin

SSS 2010-01-07

It's hard to mistake that sound. Now imagine hearing it during a night that can last for months and where temperatures drop as low as 37 degrees Celsius. Enough to give nightmares to musk ox and Arctic hares, the favorite prey of the long-legged whit

SSS 2010-01-11

When people suffer from a migraine, they often retire to a cave-like dark room. But exactly why does bright light hurt the migraine sufferer? A possible answer was published this week in the online issue of journal Nature Neuroscience. A big clue was

SSS 2010-01-12

If youve ever had a garden or grown flowers in a window box, youve probably heard that you shouldnt water your plants at high noon because their leaves might scorch. Now a study in a journal called New Phytologist confirms that water droplets can foc

SSS 2010-01-13

The author David Allen is considered to be one of world's top consultants when it comes to personal productivity. He's perhaps best known for his self-help time management book-Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity that has for yea

SSS 2010-01-14

What do a whale and a frog have in common? According to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, pound for pound, they sound the same. Sounds fishy? I mean, if you've ever heard the eerie song of the humpback whale [whale song], you

SSS 2010-02-01

Bees bread and butter is flowerstheres no reason they should be able to recognize human faces. But they can. Back in 2005, Arian Dyer at Monash University showed that bees could identify people who they associated who with sugary snacks. But could th

SSS 2010-02-03

(Gunshot.) Shhhh, just lie still, son, dont try to talk. I know what youre wondering. You come into town with the fastest draw in the West and I let you draw first and still youre still the one lying here a bullet in ya. Well, if only youd studied so

SSS 2010-02-02

When your kids misbehave, maybe you tell them to stop acting like chimps. Well, that would be an insult to the familiar common chimp, Pan troglodytes, which actually grows up pretty fast. Now bonobos, the other chimp species, or Pan paniscus, enjoy h

SSS 2010-02-15

Imagine a world where sunlight can be captured to produce electricity anywhere, on any surface. The makers of thin-film flexible solar cells imagine that world too. But a big problem has been the amount of silicon needed to harvest a little sunshine.

SSS 2010-02-12

Its good to keep on your toes. Metaphorically, that is. Not when youre actually out for a stroll. Because a new study suggests that it takes nearly twice as much energy to walk on your toes than it does to land on your heel. Humans are among a small

SSS 2010-02-11

Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. Whatever your preferred appellation, this week's winter storms brought misery to denizens of the U.S. East Coast and prompted some at least to question the scientific theory of climate change. After all, shouldn't global

SSS 2010-02-10

Its called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or FMRI. And some neuroscientists call it the greatest scientific advance of the last 25 years. Because FMRI lets researchers look at the human brain in action. By measuring blood flow, it produces co

SSS 2010-02-09

You know what its like. Sit chatting with a friend, and the hours can zip by. But once someone puts you on hold [audio: bad on-hold music] or makes you wait in line, each second feels interminable. But Dan Zakay of Tel Aviv University has some tricks

SSS 2010-02-08

At one time or other, someone has probably told you its written all over your face. Thats because your emotions can influence your expressions. Well, a study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the reverse is also true: that the look o

SSS 2010-02-05

As we look forward to Sundays Super Bowl Game, we might still think back on the shocking mistakes made during the playoffs, especially so, if your team was the one that made some of the critical errors. Consider the last play of the NFC championship

SSS 2010-02-04

Some people of Italian ancestry, like me, might have a surprise in the family treea man of east Asian descent, who was living and working 2,000 years ago in the boondocks near the heel of the Italian boot. The discovery is the first good evidence of