James Watson retires amidst race controversy - opinion - 25 October 2007 - New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12835&feedId=online-news_rss20 --- DNA co-discover and Nobel laureate James Watson, who caused outrage last week by characterising people of African descent as genetically inferior, has announced his retirement chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Watson has been embroiled in controversy because of comments he made to a UK newspaper concerning the intelligence of Africans. The 79-year-old's decision follows the laboratory's decision to suspend him from his position as chancellor. Eduardo Mestre, chairman of the board of CSHL, says Watson's contribution to the understanding of DNA "will continue to influence biomedical research for decades to come", and added that, the board "respects his decision to retire at this point in his career".

New catfish lives near hot spring | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1436 ---
A new species of trichomycterid catfish able to live in very warm waters has been described from Bolivia. The description of Trichomycterus therma new species, is published by Luis Fernández and Guillermina Miranda in the latest issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.

Appendix may be safe haven for good bacteria

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Tech%2B%2526%2BScience/STIStory_169696.html --- NEW YORK - CONTRARY to conventional wisdom, the appendix may not be useless after all. New research suggests that the structure helps beneficial bacteria survive and repopulate the colon after these organisms become depleted as a result of an infection or drug treatment. Beneficial bacterial, also referred to as commensal bacteria, help maintain a proper balance in the intestine and may also kill dangerous microbes. For example, this is why patients frequently develop gastrointestinal problems during or after a course of antibiotics. Along with the pathogen causing the infection, the antibiotic may destroy commensal bacteria as well. This report 'proposes a novel and unique function for the human appendix, for which the appendix is well suited', said senior author Dr William Parker, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. 'Importantly, the proposal explains clearly why the function is not evident in our industrialised culture.'

Early modern humans had a taste for seafood - being-human - 17 October 2007 - New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19626265.200&feedId=online-news_rss20 ---
"OUR ancestors dined on seafood, painted their bodies and made delicate stone blades 164,000 years ago, much earlier than previously realised. The discovery means that these cultural features must have developed soon after modern humans evolved. The evidence comes from a cave in South Africa overlooking the Indian Ocean. Researchers led by Curtis Marean, an anthropologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, excavated a collection of shellfish remains, ochre pigments and stone blades, some of which were just a centimetre wide. The team dated the earliest material to 164,000 years ago, give or take 12,000 years (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06204). This fits with estimates of sea level during that period, which indicate that the cave was only within easy walking distance of the shore about 167,000 years ago. The earliest previous record of humans eating shellfish dates from about 125,000 years ago. Abundant shellfish may have encouraged groups to settle in one place instead of wandering nomadically and provided them with leisure time for activities such as body adornment."

ScienceDaily: Fish Get Insomnia, Eyes Wide Open, Say Sleep Researchers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071015215148.htm ---
Science Daily — Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have hooked a fish that suffers from insomnia in their quest to understand the genetics behind sleep disorders.

ScienceDaily: Women With Severe PMS Perceive Their Sleep Quality To Be Poor

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001081624.htm ---
Women With Severe PMS Perceive Their Sleep Quality To Be Poor Science Daily — Women with severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) perceive their sleep quality to be poorer in association with their symptoms in the late luteal (premenstrual) phase, despite there being no specific alterations in sleep structure associated with premenstrual symptoms, according to a study published in the October 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

ScienceDaily: Turn Off The TV During Family Meals

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071014200545.htm ---

Science Daily — September and October mark the start of television's new fall season as the premieres of new shows and old favorites hit the airwaves. But, University of Minnesota researchers found that watching television while eating family meals may have a negative impact on children's diets.

Lap dancers on heat are the ones to watch - being-human - 11 October 2007 - New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19626255.100&feedId=online-news_rss20 --- Last month, biologist Randy Thornhill challenged the orthodoxy that women do not undergo regular bouts of hormone-induced oestrus, or "heat", when they are at their most fertile - something most female mammals experience (New Scientist, 15 September, p 18). Now a study of the tips men give to lap dancers, conducted by a colleague of Thornhill's, lends further support to the argument for oestrus.

Cheaper running shoes win comfortably - being-human - 11 October 2007 - New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12776&feedId=online-news_rss20 --- Upscale athletic shoes often claim added protection against the bodily wear and tear of running, and indeed some studies suggest that pricier materials can more effectively reduce impact force than cheaper ones. Other evidence, though, suggests that runners wearing fancy footwear are 123% more likely to get injured, possibly because they over-estimate the protection and run with greater impact (British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol 91, page 299).

haha science to the rescue

ScienceDaily: Flavonoids Govern Cell Processes, Enhance Health

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071011205352.htm --- Science Daily — For the first time, scientists from Dresden proved that plant substances such as those found in red wine, soy, or green tea can accelerate or retard vital processes in cells. These molecules bind to the protein actin which is implicated in cell movement and cell division. According to experimental results published recently in Biophysical Journal the ability of actin to join to long chains is either hindered or improved. Surprisingly, it has been shown that these substances also affect the rate at which genetic information is processed in the cell's nucleus.

Tree Frog Inspires New Easy-Off Stickies: Scientific American

Neato!

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=913F4091-E7F2-99DF-319205DF5501B1CC&ref=rss ---

Scotch tape, packing tape, Post-its—no man-made adhesive holds a candle to the sticky world of animal adhesives, where geckos scurry across ceilings and tree frogs leap from leaf to leaf on tacky toe pads without missing a step.