Hypography - Science for everyone

Were bigger brains really smarter?

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:02:05 -0800

Bigger is smarter is better. That's the conventional wisdom for why the human brain gradually became three times larger than the ancestral brain.

Catastrophic tsunami possible on West Coast

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 17:12:12 -0800

The type of devastating tsunami that struck the southern coast of Asia is entirely possible in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but might not cause as much loss of life there because of better warning systems, according to experts at Oregon State University.

Humans are a 'privileged' evolutionary lineage

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 18:12:35 -0800

The genes that regulate brain development and function evolved much more rapidly in humans than in nonhuman primates and other mammals because of natural selection processes unique to the human lineage. Researchers reported their findings in the cover article of the Dec. 29, 2004, issue of the journal Cell.

4.5 million-year-old hominid fossils found in Ethiopia

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:01:30 -0800

Scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and seven other institutions have unearthed skeletal fossils of a human ancestor believed to have lived about 4.5 million years ago. The fossils, described in this week's Nature (Jan. 20), will help scientists piece together the mysterious transformation of primitive chimp-like hominids into more human forms.

Solar Storms Cause Problems For Satellites

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:01:01 -0800

Mission controllers cross their fingers whenever the Sun is stormy and their spacecraft have to fly over the South Atlantic. There, even satellites in low orbits suffer many hits by atomic bullets from the Sun.

Optical tweezers prove Einstein right

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 19:02:49 -0800

Scientists can now confirm the theory of classical Brownian motion using details that Einstein missed when he first proposed it a century ago.

Scientists find portal to show animals evolve

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 14:02:50 -0800

Like the gaudy peacock or majestic buck, the bachelor fruit fly is in a race against time to mate and pass along its genes.

New clues add 40,000 years to age of human species

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 18:02:19 -0800

Nearly 40 years after an historic anthropology expedition to Ethiopia's Lake Turkana basin, researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting human bones found at that time are roughly 195,000 years old.

Satellites may help solve planetary riddle

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 18:02:31 -0800

NASA and university scientists have made a breakthrough in using satellites to study the tiny, free-floating ocean plants, called phytoplankton. The plants form the base of the ocean food chain and produce half of the oxygen in the air we breathe.

Plants respond similarly to signals from friends, enemies

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 19:02:28 -0800

Two soil-dwelling strangers � a friend and a foe � approach a plant and communicate with it in order to enter a partnership. The friend wants to trade nitrogen for food. The foe is a parasite that wants to burrow in and harm the plant.