Topics : Science World Report

Apr 02, 2012 06:50 AM EDT

Football Turns to Helmet Technology to Tackle Head Injuries

As Americans grow more aware of the risk of brain injury tied to football - the country's most popular sport - players and coaches are experimenting with the latest technology in a bid to make the game safer.

Mar 31, 2012 08:33 AM EDT

NIH study Finds Women Spend Longer in Labor Now than 50 Years Ago

Women take longer to give birth today than did women 50 years ago, according to an analysis of nearly 140,000 deliveries conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The researchers could not identify all of the factors that accounted for the increase, but concluded that the change...

Mar 30, 2012 11:45 AM EDT

True Economic Measure Includes Natural Assets: Scientists

Traditional measures showing strong economic growth in Brazil and India over nearly two decades fail to take account of the depletion of their natural resources, scientists and economists at a climate conference said on Wednesday.

Mar 30, 2012 10:01 AM EDT

"Speed of light" Experiment Professor Resigns

The Italian professor who led an experiment which initially appeared to challenge one of the fundaments of modern physics by showing particles moving faster than the speed of light, has resigned after the finding was overturned earlier this month.

Mar 29, 2012 03:33 PM EDT

Rare Animal-shaped Mounds Discovered in Peru by MU Anthropologist

For more than a century and a half, scientists and tourists have visited massive animal-shaped mounds, such as Serpent Mound in Ohio, created by the indigenous people of North America. But few animal effigy mounds had been found in South America until University of Missouri anthropology professor em...

Mar 29, 2012 10:27 AM EDT

Study: Conservatives' Trust in Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s

While trust in science remained stable among people who self-identified as moderates and liberals in the United States between 1974 and 2010, trust in science fell among self-identified conservatives by more than 25 percent during the same period, according to new research from Gordon Gauchat, a pos...

Mar 29, 2012 10:19 AM EDT

Maths and Olympics: How Fast Could Usain Bolt Run?

Usain Bolt, already the world's fastest man, could lop another 0.18 seconds off his 100 meter sprint world record even without running any faster. It's just a question of getting a few conditions right - and doing the maths.

Mar 28, 2012 01:32 PM EDT

Discovery of Foot Fossil Confirms 2 Human Ancestor Species Co-existed 3.4 Million Years Ago

A team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of "Lucy's" species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor. Research on this new specim...

Mar 28, 2012 10:29 AM EDT

Exploding Dinosaur Hypothesis Implodes

The pregnant ichthyosaur female from Holzmaden (Germany) that perished 182 million years ago puzzled researchers for quite some time: The skeleton of the extinct marine reptile is almost immaculately preserved and the fossilized bones of the mother animal lie largely in their anatomical position. Th...

Mar 28, 2012 09:36 AM EDT

World Scientists Define United Approach to Tackling Food Insecurity

Nearly one billion people in the world are undernourished, while millions suffer from chronic disease due to excess food consumption. Global demand is growing for agricultural products and food prices are rising, yet roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Climate...

Mar 27, 2012 12:46 PM EDT

Slices of Einstein's Brain Show "the Mind as Matter"

We've pickled it, desiccated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.

Mar 27, 2012 11:48 AM EDT

Has Modern Science Become Dysfunctional?

The recent explosion in the number of retractions in scientific journals is just the tip of the iceberg and a symptom of a greater dysfunction that has been evolving the world of biomedical research say the editors-in-chief of two prominent journals in a presentation before a committee of the Nation...