ScienceBlog.com

The science has long been clear that smoking causes cancer, but new research shows that children could inherit genetic damage from a father who smokes.

Surmounting several distinct hurdles to quantum computing, physicists at Harvard University have found that individual carbon-13 atoms in a diamond lattice can be manipulated with extraordinary precision to create stable quantum mechanical memory and a small quantum processor, also known as a quantum register, operating at room temperature. The finding brings the futuristic technology of quantum information systems into the realm of solid-state materials under ordinary conditions.

Women are much more interested in a man’s personality and looks than the size of his penis, but men can experience real anxiety even if they are average sized, according to a research review published in the June issue of the urology journal BJU International.

NASA and Columbia University Earth Institute research finds that human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.

An international team of astronomers has examined dark matter in the outer reaches of our galaxy in a new way. For the first time, they were able to employ triangulation — a method rooted in ancient Greek geometry — to estimate the location of dark matter and calculate its mass.

All right, so my headline is designed to get your attention, but I almost couldn’t believe what I heard on NPR’s Morning Edition today. I just about choked on my toast when I heard what NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said about global warming in an interview to be aired tomorrow.

It’s real, and it’s our fault. But we’re “arrogant” to say that its consequences are undesirable.

Rats paralyzed due to loss of blood flow to the spine returned to near normal ambulatory function six weeks after receiving grafts of human spinal stem cells (hSSCs), researchers say.

Brain “pacemakers” that have helped ease symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders seem to work by drowning out the electrical signals of their diseased brains.

In a night sky filled with hungry bats, good-tasting moths increase their chances of survival by mimicking the sounds of their bad-tasting cousins, according to a new Wake Forest University study.

The use of animals in scientific research has a long and checkered history. Animals have been invaluable in developing lifesaving cures such as penicillin (mice), in finding vaccines against diseases such as polio (monkeys), and in pioneering techniques such as organ donation (pigs). Dogs and frogs have been sent into space, sheep have been cloned and countless fruit flies, rats and mice have given their lives to scientific discovery. We just couldn’t have done it without them.

Hence, Dr. Newberg’s new book “Why We Believe What We Believe” attempts to ascertain the underlying mechanism of the biology of spirtuality and its’ subsequent effects on human behavior. Incidentally, Dr. Newberg appears to be a serious advocate for healing and spirituality, by making correlations to brain capacity, biological propensity, and subsequent behaviors. But in contrast, his groundbreaking study which reports on measuring the cerebral blood flow (6) during episodes of “speaking in tongues” or performing other praise duties, is controversial within itself.

Animals differ strikingly in character and temperament. Yet only recently has it become evident that personalities are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Animals as diverse as spiders, mice and squids appear to have personalities. Personality differences have been described in more than 60 species, including primates, rodents, birds, fish, insects and mollusks. New work offers an explanation for the evolution of animal personalities.

“Resistance to science has important social implications, because a scientifically ignorant public in unprepared to evaluated polices about global warming, genetically modified organisms, stem cell research, and cloning.” Many Americans are resistant to learn about new technologies, evolution and natural selection, or complicated health care issues. Why? Because people have a hard-time accepting information that conflicts with their personal construct and understanding of the world.

At 9:04 pm Eastern Daylight Time on May 31st, the full moon over North America will turn blue. Not really. But it will be the second full moon of May and, according to folklore, that makes it a Blue Moon.

A University of Alberta research team has combined two fields of study in nanotechnology to create a third field that the researchers believe will lead to revolutionary advances in computer electronics, among many other areas.

Young, single women in urban China are aware of contraceptive methods but some may be too shy to ask for them, research published in the online open access journal BMC Health Services Research reveals. Young women want more information, but need private and anonymous family planning because of judgemental attitudes surrounding premarital sex and particularly premarital pregnancy.

Two merging black holes can generate gravitational waves so powerful that the merged hole shoots out of its host galaxy at a speed of up to 2,500 miles per second, according to a new simulation.

Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America conduct spectacular predatory raids containing up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably, some ants use their bodies to plug potholes in the trail leading back to the nest, making a flatter surface so that prey can be delivered to the developing young at maximum speed.

Sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, which in many species is critical for finding food. However, according to new research from Boston University marine biologists, sharks can not use just their noses to locate prey; they also need their skin – specifically a location called the lateral line.

A new experiment has shown that it’s possible to store multiple rudimentary memories in an artificial culture of live neurons. The ability to record information in a manmade network of neurons is a step toward a cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips.