Topics : Science World Report

Feb 29, 2012 02:12 PM EST

UF Scientists Name New Ancient Camels from Panama Canal Excavation

The discovery of two new extinct camel species by University of Florida scientists sheds new light on the history of the tropics, a region containing more than half the world's biodiversity and some of its most important ecosystems.

Feb 29, 2012 01:15 PM EST

Foot Bones Allow Researchers to Determine Sex of Skeletal Remains

Law enforcement officials who are tasked with identifying a body based on partial skeletal remains have a new tool at their disposal. A new paper from North Carolina State University researchers details how to determine the biological sex of skeletal remains based solely on measurements of the seven...

Feb 29, 2012 01:07 PM EST

Researcher Tracks Agricultural Overuse of Bug-killing Technology

High corn prices are leading many growers to plant corn every year and to overuse pesticides and other bug-killing technology to maximize yields, researchers report. In many instances, pesticides are applied without scouting fields to see if they are needed, violating a bedrock principle of integrat...

Feb 29, 2012 12:13 PM EST

Winning Makes People More Aggressive Toward the Defeated

In this world, there are winners and losers â€“ and, for your own safety, it is best to fear the winners. A new study found that winners â€“ those who outperformed others on a competitive task â€“ acted more aggressively against the people they beat than the losers did against the vi...

Feb 29, 2012 12:05 PM EST

Nanofiber Breakthrough Holds Promise for Medicine and Microprocessors

A new method for creating nanofibers made of proteins, developed by researchers at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), promises to greatly improve drug delivery methods for the treatment of cancers, heart disorders and Alzheimer's disease, as well as aid in the regeneration of h...

Feb 29, 2012 10:59 AM EST

Exotic Material Boosts Electromagnetism Safely

Using exotic man-made materials, scientists from Duke University and Boston College believe they can greatly enhance the forces of electromagnetism (EM), one of the four fundamental forces of nature, without harming living beings or damaging electrical equipment. This theoretical finding could ha...

Feb 29, 2012 10:25 AM EST

Barley Used in Craft Beer, Aztec Amaranth, and Tajikistan Wheat Sent to Arctic Seed Vault

Rare wheat collected from the "Roof of the World" in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan; amaranth, with its exotic blood-red stalks that are used in a "Day of the Dead" drink; barley that helped spawn the craft beer revolution; and once-forgotten forage crops that could sustain livestock in these cli...

Feb 29, 2012 10:05 AM EST

China's Urbanization Unlikely to Lead to Fast Growth of Middle Class: UW Geographer

The number of people living in China's cities, which last year for the first time surpassed 50 percent of the national population, is considered a boon for the consumer goods market. That is based on the assumption that there will be more families with more disposable income when poor farmers from C...

Feb 28, 2012 02:11 PM EST

Solving a Spintronic Mystery

A long-standing controversy regarding the semiconductor gallium manganese arsenide, one of the most promising materials for spintronic technology, looks to have been resolved. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)in collaboration with s...

Feb 28, 2012 01:49 PM EST

Indigenous Peoples at Forefront of Climate Change Offer Lessons on Plant Biodiversity

Humans are frequently blamed for deforestation and the destruction of environments, yet there are also examples of peoples and cultures around the world that have learned to manage and conserve the precious resources around them. The Yanesha of the upper Peruvian Amazon and the Tibetans of the Himal...

Feb 28, 2012 11:23 AM EST

Automated Stress Testing for Web 2.0 Applications Helps Web Developers Find Programming Errors

Web applications such as Google Mail, Facebook and Amazon are used every day. However, so far there are no methods to test them systematically and at low cost for malfunctions and security vulnerabilities. Therefore, computer scientists from Saarland University are working on automatic methods of te...

Feb 28, 2012 10:22 AM EST

Future Smart Phones Will Project Images on the Wall

Mobile phones currently on the market are capable of showing high quality images and video, but the phones' small size sets insurmountable limits on screen size, and thus the viewing experience.