BBC Science/Nature

Black holes 'preceded galaxies'
Astronomers believe they have solved a cosmic chicken-and-egg question: what came first - black holes or galaxies?
7 Jan 2009 at 11:35am

First flight of algae-fuelled jet
Continental Airlines is the latest to to test-fly a jet biofuel, this time with a product derived partially from algae.
8 Jan 2009 at 7:51am

Tech fair offers greener vision
Analysts at the Consumer Electronics Show say green credentials of tech products will become critical to success.
7 Jan 2009 at 8:45am

China alert over bird flu death
Chinese authorities shut down and clean poultry markets in Hebei province, after the first human death in nearly a year.
7 Jan 2009 at 7:55am

Baby Jupiter's huge weight gain
The planet Jupiter must have gained mass fast during its infancy, according to astronomers.
6 Jan 2009 at 11:31am

Everest trip helps critically ill
Blood oxygen levels recorded on a trip by medics to Everest could help the treatment of critically ill patients.
7 Jan 2009 at 6:07pm

US vows 'huge' marine protection
The US is to establish "the largest area of protected sea in the world", banning fishing and mining, around its Pacific islands.
5 Jan 2009 at 9:10pm

Brain-cooling devices developed
Scientists are developing new ways to cool heart attack and stroke victims' brains to protect them from damage.
7 Jan 2009 at 6:06pm

Every animal counts - zoos begin their annual stock-take
Zookeepers across Britain are counting every one of their animals and insects as part of a huge new year stock-take.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:33am

'Spookfish' uses mirrors as well as lenses to spot its prey
A deep-sea fish caught in the Pacific has eyes which use mirrors as well as lenses, scientists discover.
7 Jan 2009 at 10:03am

Space.com

New Video - Five Years on Mars
NASA looks back at the long lives of rovers Spirit and Opportunity after five years exploring Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

How Moon Dust Could Yield Oxygen, Fuel and Water
Recent tests may hold the key to pull resources from moon dust on future missions.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Runaway Stars Go Ballistic
New Hubble images reveal 14 young, runaway stars.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Shuttle Discovery Moves Closer to Launch After Glitches
NASA's shuttle Discovery moved closer to the launch pad on Wednesday.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Mystery Roar from Faraway Space Detected
The roar is from the distant cosmos. Nobody knows what causes it.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Earth Life Headed for Mars Moon
A Russian mission is set to carry Earth organisms to a Martian moon.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Explosion That Injured 7 Spurs NASA Probe
NASA is studying a tank explosion that injured 7 at its Florida spaceport.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

NASA Chief to Step Down
NASA chief Michael Griffin expects to step down this month.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Perfect Space Storm Could be Catastrophic on Earth, Study Concludes
A new study outlines grim possibilities on Earth for a worst-case scenario solar storm.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

Mars Trip Proposed for Space Shuttles
A Connecticut-based inventor has proposed sending two space shuttles to Mars.
8 Jan 2009 at 11:08am

ScienceDaily

NASA Space Balloon Mission Tunes In To Cosmic Radio Mystery
Listening to the early universe just got harder. Astronomers have discovered cosmic radio noise that booms six times louder than expected.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

Avian Flu Becoming More Resistant To Antiviral Drugs
A new study shows the resistance of the avian flu virus to a major class of antiviral drugs is increasing through positive evolutionary selection, with researchers documenting the trend in more than 30 percent of the samples tested.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

To Climate-change Worries, Add One More: Extended Mercury Threat
Mercury pollution has already spurred public health officials to advise eating less fish, but it could become a more pressing concern in a warmer world.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

New Bartonella Species That Infects Humans Discovered
Researchers have produced the first link between a species of bacteria most commonly found in sheep and human illness.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

Big Raindrops Favor Tornado Formation, Simulations Suggest
One of the largest sources of uncertainty in weather prediction involves how microscale structures influence larger-scale phenomena. For instance, previous studies have demonstrated that the structure, dynamics, and evolution of thunderstorms are very sensitive to cloud microphysical parameters.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

'It Takes Two To Know One': Shared Experiences Change Self-recognition
Looking at yourself in the mirror every morning, you never think to question whether the person you see is actually you. A new study challenges this common-sense notion about our own self image. The study shows for the first time that the image we hold of our own face can actually change through shared experiences with other people's faces.
8 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm

Spookfish Uses Mirrors For Eyes
A remarkable new discovery shows the four-eyed spookfish to be the first vertebrate ever found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes.
8 Jan 2009 at 10:00am

'Scrawny' Gene Keeps Stem Cells Healthy
Stem cells are the body's primal cells, retaining the youthful ability to develop into more specialized types of cells over many cycles of cell division. How do they do it? Scientists have identified a gene, scrawny, that appears to be a key factor in keeping a variety of stem cells in their undifferentiated state. Understanding how stem cells maintain their potency has implications for basic biology and also for medical applications.
8 Jan 2009 at 10:00am

Cassiopeia A Comes Alive Across Time And Space
Two new efforts have taken a famous supernova remnant from the static to the dynamic. A new movie of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows changes in time never seen before in this type of object. A separate team has produced a dramatic 3-D visualization of the same remnant.
8 Jan 2009 at 10:00am

Cellular Task Force To Safeguard Genome Stability
The maintenance of genome stability is crucial for protecting an organism against the onset of cancer and the study of the mechanisms controlling genome stability represents one of the most promising frontiers in cancer research.
8 Jan 2009 at 10:00am

Scientific American

Inside the Savant Mind: Tips for Thinking from an Extraordinary Thinker

Daniel Tammet is the author of two books, Born on a Blue Day and Embracing the Wide Sky, which comes out this month. He’s also a linguist and holds the European record for reciting the first 22,514 decimal points of the mathematical constant Pi.  Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer chats with Tammet about how his memory works, why the IQ test is overrated, and a possible explanation for extraordinary feats of creativity. [More]

Mount Everest climbers show survival on record-low oxygen

It's no secret that scaling Mount Everest tests the limits of human survival; more than 200 people have died trying to reach its summit. Today we have new information about just how seriously climbers push their bodies on the world's highest peak: Those who manage to stay alive do so on an amount of oxygen so minute that, at sea level, would only be seen in people who were in cardiac arrest or dead. [More]

Is Hypnosis a Distinct Form of Consciousness?

The hypnotist, dangling a swinging pocket watch before the subject’s eyes, slowly intones: “You’re getting sleepy … You’re getting sleepy …” The subject’s head abruptly slumps downward. He is in a deep, sleeplike trance, oblivious to everything but the hypnotist’s soft voice. Powerless to resist the hypnotist’s influence, the subject obeys every command, including an instruction to act out an upsetting childhood scene. On “awakening” from the trance half an hour later, he has no memory of what happened.

In fact, this familiar description, captured in countless movies, embodies a host of misconceptions. Few if any modern hypnotists use the celebrated swinging watch introduced by Scottish eye surgeon James Braid in the mid-19th century. Although most hypnotists attempt to calm subjects during the “induction,” such relaxation is not necessary; people have even been hypnotized while pedaling vigorously on a stationary bicycle. Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies confirm that during hypnosis subjects are not in a sleeplike state but are awake--though sometimes a bit drowsy. Moreover, they can freely resist the hypnotist’s suggestions and are far from mindless automatons. Finally, research by psychologist Nicholas Spanos of Carleton University in Ontario shows that a failure to remember what transpired during the hypnosis session, or so-called posthypnotic amnesia, is not an intrinsic element of hypnosis and typically occurs only when subjects are told to expect it to occur.

Quantum repulsion could make nano devices even tinier

Of all the puzzling physical effects predicted and explained by quantum mechanics, one of the most counterintuitive is that fluctuations in a vacuum can exert forces on objects--almost as if those objects are getting something from nothing. Even in empty space, there are flutterings of energy, and sometimes those tiny ripples act in demonstrable ways. One example is known as the Casimir effect, predicted to exist in 1948 by the late Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir, in which quantum fluctuations create an attractive force between two surfaces in a vacuum. [More]

U.S. students say yay for science

Educrats may bemoan the sorry state of American students' performance in math and science relative to their peers overseas, but the kids themselves are enthusiastic about pursuing brainiac careers. [More]

Body Makes Own Aspirin Compound

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Aspirin is a popular painkiller, and chances are you have some in your medicine chest right now. You might even have some in your flesh-and-blood, put-a-shirt-on-it chest. Because a new study suggests that humans can make their own salicylic acid, which forms the bulk of aspirin’s active ingredient. [More]

CES: New netbooks combine mobility and power

Editor’s note: I will be Twittering and blogging from CES this week. To follow my posts, visit my Twitter page, Scientific American’s Twitter page and Scientific American.com’s 60-Second Science blog.

Las Vegas, NEV. -- With so much computer work done directly on the Web, ailing PC makers at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here are banking on the adoption of "netbooks," which let people browse their favorite sites and check e-mail using a smaller and cheaper (but also slower and less powerful) laptop.

Which came first--galaxies or black holes?

LONG BEACH, CALIF.--One of the oddities of the universe revealed over the past decade is that galaxies and the giant black holes at their hubs fit together as if they were made for each other. This is one of those facts of life that sound obvious at first glance, but get stranger the more you think about them. [More]

Are fat bums a sign of good health?

Hey, ladies, been spending hours fretting over your beefy bottoms? Perturbed about your pear-shaped bodes no matter how many lunges you do daily? Don't be. Turns out that having a little extra cushioning around your derriere and hips -- think Jennifer Lopez -- may be a sign of good health. [More]

"Love hormone" may also help us recognize faces

Oxytocin, a hormone associated with trust and social bonding, also helps people recognize familiar human faces, according to a new study. Researchers say the findings, published today in The Journal of Neuroscience, could shed light on the causes of mysterious neurological and psychological disorders. [More]

USGS Earthquake Activity

M 3.0, Central Alaska
January 08, 2009 17:05:30 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 11:05am

M 5.4, near the north coast of Papua, Indonesia
January 08, 2009 16:18:49 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 10:18am

M 4.6, near the coast of Nicaragua
January 08, 2009 12:31:43 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 6:31am

M 3.5, Puerto Rico region
January 08, 2009 12:25:27 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 6:25am

M 4.9, Macedonia
January 08, 2009 12:04:05 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 6:04am

M 5.0, Nias region, Indonesia
January 08, 2009 11:40:43 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 5:40am

M 3.2, Puerto Rico region
January 08, 2009 11:27:04 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 5:27am

M 2.6, Baja California, Mexico
January 08, 2009 10:36:36 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 4:36am

M 2.7, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska
January 08, 2009 09:32:51 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 3:32am

M 2.9, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska
January 08, 2009 09:29:50 GMT
8 Jan 2009 at 3:29am

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