How accurately can you simulate the universe's most violent events?Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz wanted to find out, so when the first detailed observations of a star being ripped apart by a black hole were reported in 2012 (Gezari et al., Nature), he was eager to compare the data with his numerical model ...

The Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA) telescope has providec the most detailed view yet of stellar nurseries within the Snake nebula and what they found lends new insight into how cosmic seeds can grow into massive stars. Stretching across almost 100 light-years of space, the Snake nebula ...

Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) has recently been linked to negative health claims, like a decline in reproductive function in adults and stunted neurodevelopment in children, and so people consumed with the 'natural' fallacy have been up in arms about it.  It hasn't quite become 'BPA ...

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is still getting important particle work done, years after the closure of the Tevatron was announced.Scientists on the CDF and DZero experiments have announced that they have found the final predicted way of creating a top quark, completing a picture of ...

Magma sitting 4-5 kilometers beneath the surface of Oregon's Mount Hood has been stored in near-solid conditions for thousands of years but that doesn't mean it won't change rapidly.  The time it takes to liquefy and potentially erupt is surprisingly short - perhaps as short as a few months ...

The criticism of wind farms is that they are expensive, don't product enough electricity to be meaningful and change the weather patterns even a thousand miles away.That may have a benefit; they may weaken hurricanes before landfall.Imagine a 2012 US presidential election without New York City ...

Wind farms are not very good. Yes, politicians embrace them because the unions advocating them donate heavily to campaigns, and environmentalists advocate them because they always advocate something new until it becomes popular (natural gas the 1980s, ethanol in the 1990s, then wind - anything ...

Temperature has been driving the fluctuating size of Peru's Quelccaya Ice Cap, not snowfall, according to a new analysis.  The Quelccaya Ice Cap is the largest ice mass in the tropics and sits 18,000 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. The dramatic shrinkage of the tropical glacier ...

Many men have been a little overexcited on the dance floor and showed off moves that have never been seen before. Blame alcohol. Testosterone has a similar effect. A little too much and the frequency of overzealous wooing behavior may increase, but the quality won't go up with it.For ...

When you think of crocodiles, you usually envision them climbing trees.Probably not. Most people imagine them in water or waddling on the ground, but a study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as far as the crowns.  Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department ...

Most of the public doesn't know this, but some people are allergic to metal. 10 percent of the Germany public is allergic to nickel, according to background information in a new paper.But medical implants use nickel. Nickel-titanium alloys are increasingly used as material for cardiovascular ...

The first life developed in ancient oceans some 3.6 billion years ago, but then nothing much happened. For a billion years, we remained pretty much a layer of slime. Then 550 million years ago, evolution came roaring back and here we are today. So what was the hold-up during a billion boring ...

Low oxygen conditions often persist inside tumors, but they are sufficient to initiate a molecular chain of events that transform breast cancer cells from being rigid and stationery to mobile and invasive. A recent study highlighted the importance of hypoxia-inducible factors in promoting breast ...

The risk of a kidney donor developing kidney failure in their kidney is much lower than in the population at large, even when compared with people who have two kidneys, according to new Johns Hopkins research. The results describe what is believed to be the largest study ever conducted of ...

Congenital heart disease is the most common form of birth defect, affecting one out of every 125 babies, according to the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from the University of Missouri recently found success using chemical compound  PHPS1 to treat laboratory mice with one form ...

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been used for decades in a wide variety of consumer products, like metal food and beverage containers, thermal paper store receipts, and dental composites. Though the FDA has found BPA safe after numerous studies, because it can exhibit hormone-like properties the public has ...

According to a paper in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, obesity may be a socially transmitted disease. Something has to explain why Samoa leads the world in obesity at 75 percent of the population - and they are proud of itThe systematic review may have the answers. It looked ...

We often think of the migration of Asians into America as a event that occurred when the Bering Sea was lower: They basically went over the land bridge that existed, from one part to another.Genetic and environmental evidence indicates instead that it was instead a conservative process and that ...

By growing “mini-livers” from adult mouse stem cells, the road may be paved to replacing, reducing or refining the use of animals in science.Dr. Meritxell Huch from the Gurdon Institute at Cambridge received the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research ...

If climate change sends us all back to the Stone Age, we wouldn't be the first culture. Or at least to the Bronze Age.It used to be that changes in climate were simply history, now they are an indictment of everything we might hold dear, like electricity.4,100 years ago, write scholars in Geology ...

Recent research has shown an alarming number of peer-reviewed papers are irreproducible and it isn't just social sciences surveys or weak observational studies. It's in fields like biology.The ability to duplicate an experiment and its results is a central tenet of the scientific method but it ...

When it comes to the names of lipsticks, anyone who has attempted to combine the ‘Presentation of Self’ theories of Erving Goffman and the semiotic modelling methods of Roland Gérard Barthes could well consult the work of professor Debra Merskin (of the School of Journalism and Communication ...

In times of easy access to the Internet and cheap travel, we consider ourselves part of a global society, but how connected this really makes us will surprise many of us. A Portuguese research group has found that social networks are allowing us to influence people everywhere, and not only ...

Boy scouts know this, and now we'll let you in on a secret too: if you've run out of drinking water during a lakeside camping trip, there's a simple solution. Break off a branch from the nearest pine tree, peel away the bark, and slowly pour lake water through the stick. This improvised filter ...