science

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It's a Wrap: Tooth ID's Mummy Queen
It's a Wrap: Tooth ID's Mummy Queen
Jun 27, 2007 4:39 AM CDT

It's a Wrap: Tooth ID's Mummy Queen

Powerful Hatshepsut linked to dental root and DNA tests

(Newser) - An ancient tooth and DNA evidence appear to prove that an obese mummy found in 1903 is one of Egypt's most powerful female rulers, Hatshepsut, the New York Times reports. The tooth, located in a box labeled with the queen's name, "fits exactly" with a broken root in the...

Giant Penguin Fossils Found in Peruvian Desert

Spearfishing birds waddled the earth 36 million years ago

(Newser) - Penguins haven't always lived on ice, scientists have concluded after unearthing fossils of giant penguins in Peru's Atacama desert. The penguins, nearly human-sized at 4.5 feet tall, had extraordinarily long beaks apparently used for spearfishing, and waddled the earth some 36 million years ago, the National Geographic News reports....

Coffee's Perks Not in the Caffeine
Coffee's Perks Not in the Caffeine
Jun 25, 2007 3:59 AM CDT

Coffee's Perks Not in the Caffeine

Go for decaf: other chemicals in coffee give health a jolt

(Newser) - Scientists have long championed coffee's health benefits, but a series of recent studies is waking them up to the fact that caffeine has nothing to do with it. Regular consumption of coffee or tea can provide protection against cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but researchers say other chemicals are responsible.

New Studies Give Hope to Parkinson's Patients

Gene therapy, drug could halt disease

(Newser) - Two new experimental treatments for Parkinson's could stop the progress of the devastating disease and allay its symptoms, researchers say. A new study shows gene therapy was successful in boosting production of an enzyme that calms overactive neurons, reducing the jittery effects of the brain disorder.

Missing: Five-Acre Lake
Missing: Five-Acre Lake
Jun 22, 2007 4:25 AM CDT

Missing: Five-Acre Lake

Glacial lake in the Andes was there in March, gone in May

(Newser) - A 100-foot-deep lake in the Chilean Andes vanished sometime between March and May, and scientists are stumped. The best guess in the case of the missing body of water is that it drained through cracks in the lakebed, but geologists have no idea where those cracks, usually caused by earthquakes,...

Americas' First Gun Victim Found in Peru

Inca warrior shot in head by Conquistadors, archaeologists say

(Newser) - The first gunshot victim in the Americas—an 16th century Inca warrior blasted in the back of the head by Spanish Conquistadors—has been discovered by archaeologists poring over the bones of 72 Incans killed in a 1536 uprising in Peru. The remains of the warriors were uncovered in a...

Amazon Tribe Broods Over Poached Blood

Brazil Indians livid after discovering DNA samples sold in the US

(Newser) - An Amazon tribe is bilious after scientists took blood samples in exchange for medicine they never got, the Times reports. Doctors collected DNA from the Karitiana Indians in the late '70s and again in 1996, and then sold it to researchers for $85 a pop. But now the once remote...

Big Bird Dazzles Paleontologists
Big Bird Dazzles Paleontologists
Jun 14, 2007 2:27 PM CDT

Big Bird Dazzles Paleontologists

Fossil unearthed in Gobi desert reveals record of 26-foot-long 'gigantic chicken'

(Newser) - The largest birdlike creature on record stood over 16 feet tall, weighed a ton and a half, and had sharp claws but no teeth. The Chinese paleontologist who unearthed the creature's thigh bone wasn't sure what it was, he tells the San Francisco Chronicle, but as he listed the possibilities...

Don't I Know You? Plants Can Tell Siblings From Strangers

Flora share resources with nearby kin

(Newser) - Plants are smarter than people think: New research shows flora can distinguish between members of their own family and unrelated vegetation, Nature reports. Plants tend to share resources more equitably with nearby siblings by developing smaller root systems, but compete for available nutrients when neighbors are strangers. "Plants have...

MIT Scientists Pull the Plug on Electricity

WiTricity will recharge iPods, laptops, and cell phones 15 feet away

(Newser) - Researchers at MIT are getting ready to pull the power cord on your laptop, with wireless electricity—dubbed WiTricity—that would recharge everything from cell phones to iPods from 15 feet away. The team recently lit a 60-watt bulb from 7 feet off, using a carefully designed magnetic field, the...

NIH Won't Breed Chimps for Research
NIH Won't Breed Chimps for Research
May 25, 2007 6:21 AM CDT

NIH Won't Breed Chimps for Research

Agency cites financial reasons; rights activists thrilled anyway

(Newser) - The National Institutes of Health will stop breeding chimpanzees for use in medical testing, the agency announced yesterday. The practice is being abandoned for financial reasons, NIH says; because chimpanzees live upwards of 50 years in captivity, their lifelong upkeep costs $500,000.

Shark Births Fatherless Baby
Shark Births Fatherless Baby
May 23, 2007 2:50 PM CDT

Shark Births Fatherless Baby

Female hammerheads can fertilize their own eggs, say scientists

(Newser) - Irish and American scientists, using new techniques, confirmed that a female hammerhead shark at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska gave birth to a pup in 2001— without having sex. A male tiger shark was suspected to be the father at first, but the team's genetic analysis shows no sign...

Research Gives Alzheimer's Patients Hope

New study suggests disease-related memory loss may be reversible

(Newser) - Alzheimer's patients may be able to recover some memory by using a combo of drugs and mental stimulation, a new study in the journal Nature concludes. Mice with an Alzheimer's-like condition were more likely to remember an electric shock if they had taken a drug stimulating brain-cell growth or lived...

Embryos Screened for Cancer Risk
Embryos Screened for Cancer Risk
Apr 26, 2007 10:57 AM CDT

Embryos Screened for Cancer Risk

Targeting breast cancer gene raises fears of "designer babies"

(Newser) - The British government is poised to OK a procedure that screens embryos for genes that greatly increase the risk—but do not necessarily cause—breast cancer. Two couples with strong family histories of the disease are expected to pioneer the technique, already approved in principle, and crank up the debate...

Earth-Like Planet Could Sustain Life

Scientists claim major breakthrough in search for extraterrestrial life

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a planet that can sustain liquid water, the prerequisite for life as we understand it. Named Gliese 581 C, the new planet orbits a red dwarf star in what's called the "Goldilocks zone"—not so close that water melts, and not so far that it...

British Scientists Find Fat Gene
British Scientists
Find Fat Gene
Apr 13, 2007 11:45 AM CDT

British Scientists Find Fat Gene

Answer to the waistline gap may be in the chromosomes, researchers say

(Newser) - British scientists have for the first time identified a gene that contributes to garden-variety obesity, supporting ancient anecdotal evidence that birthright, not just lifestyle, shapes stomachs.  Although they can't say exactly how the gene, called FTO, works, the 16% of white Europeans carrying two "fat" variations of it...

Sperm Made From Bone Marrow
Sperm Made From Bone Marrow
Apr 13, 2007 8:54 AM CDT

Sperm Made From Bone Marrow

Scientists may be able to produce sperm from women's bone marrow

(Newser) - Scientists are getting closer to removing men from the conception equation, announcing yesterday that they have produced early-stage sperm cells from male bone marrow. Now the team of British researchers is seeking ethical approval to try the same thing with women.

Docs Accused Of Hurrying Death To Harvest Organs

"They were waiting like vultures," the patient's sister said

(Newser) - A 47-year-old man was wrongly declared brain dead by two doctors apparently eager to harvest his organs, reports the LA Times. "They were waiting like vultures, so they could scoop them up," says the patient’s daughter, Melanie Sanchez. A third doctor determined that her father, who had...

Sorry, Al: Tree Planting May Speed Warming

Outside the tropics, trees merely trap heat, study shows

(Newser) - Planting trees to offset your carbon footprint not only won't slow global warming, it may worsen its effects, a new study claims. Trees growing outside a small band of tropical zones don't cut the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by enough to offset the heat their foliage traps,...

Conjoined Twins Are Freed
Conjoined Twins Are Freed
Apr 6, 2007 9:59 AM CDT

Conjoined Twins Are Freed

Thai twins joined at the heart and liver healthy after surgery separates them

(Newser) - A pair of conjoined twins attached at the liver and the heart are alive and separate after a surgery Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital calls a "world first." The 10-month-old girls' hearts were joined at the atrium, and the blood flow was connected,  but the organs were not dependent...

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