southern methodist university
Solving the puzzle of Henry VIII
DALLAS (SMU) — Blood group incompatibility between Henry VIII and his wives could have driven the Tudor king’s reproductive woes, and a genetic condition related to his suspected blood group could also explain Henry’s dramatic mid-life trans…
Rare 89 million-year-old flying reptile fossil from Texas may be world’s oldest Pteranodon
Fossilized bones discovered in Texas from a flying reptile that died 89 million years ago may be the earliest occurrence in the world of the prehistoric creature known as Pteranodon.
Previously, Pteranodon bones have been found in Kansas, South …
Gender gap: Selection bias snubs scholarly achievements of female scientists
Women scientists must confront sexism when competing for awards that recognize their research, according to a new analysis.
Research funded by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Association for Women in Science found that female …
3-D digital dinosaur track download: A roadmap for saving at-risk natural history resources
Portable laser scanning technology allows researchers to tote their latest fossil discovery from the field to the lab in the form of lightweight digital data stored on a laptop. But sharing that data as a 3D model with others requires standard f…
Seismology highlights from BSSA Feb. issue
A sequence of small earthquakes that occurred at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport between October 30, 2008 and May 31, 2009 were likely triggered by the disposal of brines accompanying natural gas production at a nearby well that had recently been comp…
Why must we compensate after buying gifts that threaten our identities?
If a vegetarian has to buy a steakhouse gift certificate for a friend, her discomfort will lead her to buy something else that reaffirms her identity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
“When gift givers choose a gift th…
Rodents were diverse and abundant in prehistoric Africa when our human ancestors evolved
Rodents get a bad rap as vermin and pests because they seem to thrive everywhere. They have been one of the most common mammals in Africa for the past 50 million years.
From deserts to rainforests, rodents flourished in prehistoric Africa, m…
New breathing therapy reduces panic and anxiety by reversing hyperventilation
A new treatment program teaches people who suffer from panic disorder how to reduce the terrorizing symptoms by normalizing their breathing.
The method has proved better than traditional cognitive therapy at reducing both symptoms of panic and h…
New equation calculates cost of walking for first time
Any parent that takes their kid out for a walk knows that children tire more quickly than adults, but why is that? Do kids and small adults walk differently from taller people or do they tire faster for some other reason? Peter Weyand from Southern …
Vet med’s big shift to more women, fewer men driven by falling barriers, more female grads
Women now dominate the field of veterinary medicine — the result of a nearly 40-year trend that is likely to repeat itself in the fields of medicine and law.
That’s the conclusion of a new study that found three factors that appear to be driv…
Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas
Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Torben Rick fro…
