The ,000 Human Genome: Are We There Yet?
2012-01-10 15:45:00
The race to the ,000 genome heated up today as Life Technologies, based in Carlsbad, Calif., announced that it will debut a new sequencing machine this year that will eventually be capable of decoding entire human genomes in a day for less than ,000. The machine, called the  Ion Proton,  will be the successor to the Personal Genome Machine made by the company Ion Torrent, a subsidiary of Life Technologies. [More]

The Neuroscience of Looking on the Bright Side
2012-01-10 12:00:00
Ask a bride before walking down the aisle “How likely are you to get divorced?” and most will respond “Not a chance!” Tell her that the average divorce rate is close to 50 percent, and ask again. Would she change her mind? Unlikely. Even law students who have learned everything about the legal aspects of divorce, including its likelihood, state that their own chances of getting divorced are basically nil. How can we explain this? [More]

Michael Mann Defends Climate Computer Models
2012-01-10 10:27:08
Fair warning: the following is more than 60 seconds, and it’s about climate change. [More]

Five Hidden Dangers of Obesity (preview)
2012-01-10 08:00:00
By now it is common knowledge that being severely overweight puts people at increased risk of suffering from heart disease, stroke and diabetes and that obesity--defined as weighing at least 20 percent more than the high side of normal--is on the rise. According to one estimate, the U.S. will be home to 65 million more obese people in 2030 than it is today, leading to an additional six million or more cases of heart disease and stroke and another eight million cases of type 2 diabetes. Many clinicians have already begun seeing families in which the grandparents are healthier and living longer than their children and grandchildren. [More]

Voter Turnout Is Tied to Sense of Identity
2012-01-10 06:00:00
Boosting voter turnout could be as simple as making individuals see voting as part of who they are rather than as something they do. [More]

Social Media Tracks Disease Spread
2012-01-09 17:28:08
After Haiti’s earthquake two years ago, cholera swept the country. And within a month, the same strain had spread to the Dominican Republic and the U.S., and then to Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, and Canada. [More]

PAIN Relief: India on Track to Be Declared Polio-Free Next Month
2012-01-09 14:30:00
In the mid-2000s, when scientists questioned whether the campaign to rid the world of polio could succeed, skeptics pointed to a problem that some called PAIN . [More]

Plight of the Condors
2012-01-09 14:00:00
The first California condors to enter the wild in five years took a few hesitant hops on a sandstone cliff, craned pinkish necks over the pre­c­ipice and tentatively tested their nine-foot-plus wings. Since that landmark launch in 1992, wildlife biologists have released nearly 200 condors that were born and raised in captivity, and they’ve prospered. The world population has rebounded from 22 in 1987 to 396 birds, with wild populations concentrated in Baja California, Arizona, and southern and central California. As these giant scavengers move to reoccupy their full seven-million-square-mile range, scientists are using state-of-the-art technology to guide the Pleistocene-period survivors toward full self-sustainability. They are counting on this and other unusual inventions, such as swapping infertile for fertile eggs, to ensure their full recovery. [More]

Ants at War [Slide Show]
2012-01-09 09:00:00
Ants engage in large-scale battles that in many ways call to mind human warfare. Entomologist and photographer Mark Moffett describes their bellicose behaviors in his article in the December issue of Scientific American . [More]

A Crust of Dust: Degradation of Desert Topsoil by Human Activities May Wreak Havoc with the Environment
2012-01-09 08:05:00
Desert soil has a living crust that is essential for fixing nitrogen, a critical plant nutrient, and for avoiding erosion that produces a swirl of itinerant dust. When the crust is damaged, dust storms well up, residents of nearby communities develop hacking coughs, snow melts early and a whole array of untoward consequences ensue. Jayne Belnap of the U.S. Geological Survey is the world's foremost expert on biological crusts and has issued a clarion call that we should stop treating this ecological treasure like dirt. Measures such as restricting off-the-road vehicles are needed to protect desert crusts. A continuation of an interview that appeared in the January issue of Scientific American follows.  [More]

Endangered Desert Microbes Protect Against Coughs, Sneezes and Red Eye (preview)
2012-01-09 08:00:00
One fine afternoon last may, Jayne Belnap drove north out of Moab, Utah, in her beige Lexus SUV when the highway vanished. In an instant, a 100-foot-tall cloud of dust had swallowed up her vehicle. She wanted to brake, but she worried about another car slamming into her from behind. She tried to pull over, but she couldn’t see the shoulder. So Belnap split the difference: “I figured if I just crept slowly enough that I’d eventually get out of there or fall off the road.” [More]

Battles among Ants Resemble Human Warfare (preview)
2012-01-08 12:00:00
The raging combatants form a blur on all sides. the scale of the violence is almost incomprehensible, the battle stretching beyond my field of view. Tens of thousands sweep ahead with a suicidal single-mindedness. Utterly devoted to duty, the fighters never retreat from a confrontation--even in the face of certain death. The engagements are brief and brutal. Suddenly, three foot soldiers grab an enemy and hold it in place until one of the bigger warriors advances and cleaves the captive’s body, leaving it smashed and oozing. [More]

Cognitive Decline Sets In Around Age 45
2012-01-08 10:00:08
When people over 65 show losses in their short-term memory and comprehension, it’s no surprise. But a new study claims that a general cognitive decline starts to set in as early as age 45. The research is in the British Medical Journal .  [More]

How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with ALS?
2012-01-07 06:00:00
Stephen Hawking turns 70 on Sunday, beating the odds of a daunting diagnosis by nearly half a century. [More]

The Secret Lives of Bats [Slide Show]
2012-01-06 14:30:00
Bats have an image problem. Throughout much of the world, they "often are associated with the devil, the underworld and the supernatural," write Michael J. Harvey, J. Scott Altenbach and Troy L. Best, authors of the new field guide  Bats of the United States and Canada  (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).  In fact, these flying mammals are among the most agriculturally and ecologically beneficial of animals, consuming vast numbers of insects, dispersing seeds, and pollinating plants. A study published last year in Science showed that insect-eating bats save the U.S. agricultural industry at least billion per year. Yet most North American bat species are in decline as a result of white nose syndrome , habitat loss and extirpation by humans. The book discusses threats to bat populations, efforts to save them and the latest research on how the nocturnal creatures live, breed and feed. [More]