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Brain Cells With Alzheimer's Disease Grown in a Petri\nDish

There’s a new tool for researchers in pursuit of a cure for\nAlzheimer’s disease: lab-grown brains. For the first time,\nneuroscientists from Massachusetts General Hospital have grown\nfunctioning human brain cells that develop Alzheimer’s disease in a\npetri dish. The breakthrough offers researchers a new method to\ntest cures and decipher the origins of the disease. Dishing up\nAlzheimer’s To be clear, a fully functioning brain is not what’s\ngrown in the lab. Rather, what results is a culture

People Are More Swayed by Things That Look Sciencey

Anyone who's paged through a women's magazine will recognize\nthis strategy: to make a product seem better, surround it with a\nscientific glow. \"Clinical trials show lashes grow up to 400%\nfuller!\" \"27% reduction of dark spots in 10 weeks!\" \"Ceramides!\"\nDoes this actually help convince people to hand over their cash? A\nstudy using promotions for fake drugs suggests that might be the\ncase. \"Graphs equal truthiness,\" says Aner Tal, a researcher\nat Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. \"Tha

Giant Storm Rocks North Atlantic Like a Hurricane

As attention focuses on Hurricane Gonzalo, now expected\nto batter Bermuda on Friday, a truly gargantuan storm that roiled\nthe North Atlantic with hurricane strength winds earlier this week\nhas, well, slipped through the cracks. You can see it in the image\nabove, acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite on Wednesday. Although\nits fierce winds spanned a significant portion of the North\nAtlantic Ocean, churning the waters so violently that waves towered\nas high as 50 feet, it had no name. That

Inherited Memories: Too Good To Be True?

In December last year, researchers Brian Dias and Kerry\nRessler made a splash with a paper seeming to show that memories\ncan be inherited. This article, published in Nature Neuroscience,\nreported that if adult mice are taught to be afraid of a particular\nsmell, then their children will also fear it. Which is pretty wild.\nEpigenetics was proposed as the mechanism. Now, however,\npsychologist Gregory Francis says that the data Dias and Ressler\npublished are just too good to be true: Too much

Will We Have Nuclear Fusion Reactors Within a Decade?

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Wednesday said its engineers had\nmade a breakthrough in the race to build a nuclear fusion\nreactor. The company’s secretive research unit, Skunk Works, claims\nthat within a decade it’ll develop and deploy a nuclear fusion\nreactor that’s powerful enough to light over 80,000 homes, yet\nsmall enough to fit in the back of a truck. If the company\nsucceeds, it would mark a major milestone in mankind’s pursuit of a\nviable nuclear fusion power source. Nuclear Fusion’s Allure

As Tropical Storm Ana Heads Toward Hawaii, Hurricane Gonzalo\n— a \"Monster\" Storm — Guns for Bermuda

The storms just keep on coming. Earlier this week, Typhoon\nVongfong whacked Japan and Tropical Cyclone Hudhud slammed into\nIndia. With maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, Hudhud\nleft at least 22 dead and caused much mayhem. Oh, and did I mention\nTropical Storm Fay, which knocked out power to much of Bermuda last\nweekend? Now, we've got Tropical Storm Ana in the Pacific, which is\nheading toward Hawaii, and Hurricane Gonzalo in the Atlantic taking\naim on Bermuda — and perha

\“Good Enough\” Tanks Won WWII

Sometimes a \"good enough\" military technology can achieve\nvictory over better military technologies. Such a fact probably\ngave very little comfort to the five-man crews of U.S. Sherman\ntanks who faced an uphill battle against more powerful German tanks\nduring World War II. British tank crews gave Sherman tanks the\nunflattering nickname \"Ronson\" — a grim reference to\nthe Ronson cigarette lighter's ad slogan \"lights first\nevery time\" and the unfortunate fact that Sherman tanks often\nburned aft

Sea Otters' Strong Teeth Are Similar to Early Humans'

For sea otters, a trip to the dentist is no sweat. The\nprotective enamel on their teeth is more than twice as strong as\nhumans' enamel — but it wasn’t always this way. Long ago,\nscientists say in a new study, early humans’ teeth were just as\nstrong as sea otters’ clam-crunching pearly whites. And this\nfinding could be a key to understanding our earliest ancestors’\ndietary habits. Chipping Teeth Tooth enamel in most animals is\ncomprised of tiny prism-like crystals clumped together to\nform

Once-In-a-Lifetime Experiences Are Both Joyous and\nDepressing

Skydiving, winning a sexy sports car or scaling Mt. Everest\nsure sound like extraordinary experiences that would fill us with\nboundless joy to last a lifetime. But a new study finds that's not\nalways so: extraordinary experiences can actually generate unhappy\nfeelings as well, because others in your ordinary social group are\nunable to relate to your stories. Extraordinarily Isolated To test\nthe effect of extraordinary experiences on social dynamics,\nresearchers set up a simple experiment

These Tiny Animals Live Only on Driftwood

Maybe you gave your last realtor a long series of must-haves:\na washing machine in unit, proximity to the train, a gas stovetop.\nBut there's no way you're as picky as the driftwood hopper. This\nminute crustacean will only live in rotting chunks of driftwood.\nDavid Wildish, a marine zoologist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada,\nis one of very few scientists who study tiny animals called\ntalitrids. These crustaceans include sand hoppers (also known as\nsand fleas) along with ocean-living species

Frozen Poop Pills Can Cure Intestinal Infections

The healing powers of poop are now available in pill form —\nand a new study has found that just two days of the treatment can\ncure a dangerous infection that kills 14,000 Americans per year.\nThe pills take the place of fecal transplants, which have gained\ncredibility in recent years as a method of\ntreating Clostridium difficile infection, but which require\ndelivery by enema or a tube down the digestive system. Scientists\nsay the pills, which contain filtered, healthy fecal matter, offer\na

Emodiversity: A Mix of Emotions Is Healthiest?

\"Emodiversity\" - a life containing a balance of different\nemotions - is good for you. So say psychologists Jordi Quoidbach\nand colleagues in a rather cool new paper (pdf). In two large\nsurveys (with a total of over 37,000 responders), conducted in\nFrance and Belgium, Quoidbach et al. show that emodiversity is an\nindependent predictor of mental and physical health – such as\ndecreased depression and doctor’s visits – over and above mean\nlevels of positive and negative emotion. They de

NASA: September Was Warmest on Record

This just in: The global average temperature in September was\nthe warmest in a record dating back to 1880, according to an update\nfrom NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. That makes it two\nmonths in a row: August was also the hottest on record by NASA's\nreckoning. Later this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric\nAdministration will release its own, independent calculation of how\nSeptember 2014 stacked up. Sometimes NOAA's calculation differs.\n(But this month, I wouldn't bet o

What Really Drives Academic Citations?

Citations are today the international currency of the\nscholarly economy. In theory, academic citations are the gold\nstandard measure of the 'impact' of a piece of work. If it gets\nother academics talking then it's important. But why do individual\nacademics cite particular articles? A paper out now in the Social\nStudies of Science journal suggests a complex set of reasons: A\ntaxonomy of motives to cite. The Swedish authors, Martin G Erikson\nand Peter Erlandson, say that: The four categ

Jack-O-Lantern Sun

This is no Rorschach test — the Sun really does look like a\nJack-O-Lantern in this image captured on October 8th by NASA's\norbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory. To be sure, we're looking at\nthe Sun in two particular wavelengths (171 and 193 Angstroms) that\nhave been colorized in Halloween-appropriate gold and yellow.\nWhether the folks at NASA decided to render this image of the Sun\nin those two particular wavelengths because they knew it would\nproduce a Halloween-like appearance is your gu

Typhoon Vongfong Lashes Okinawa, Poses Threat to Japanese\nMainland Over the Weekend

As I'm writing this, Typhoon Vongfong is slamming Okinawa and\nwill soon pass directly over it. Vongfong has been lashing the\nJapanese island with winds exceeding 50 miles per hour for most of\nthe past 12 hours. The typhoon's forecast track takes it on a\nprojected course along the length of Japan this weekend, posing\nsignificant risks of flooding and mudslides, especially in areas\nhard hit by Typhone Phanfone, which left at least seven dead\nin Japan earlier this week. As a followup to a

Stem Cell Breakthrough Puts Type 1 Diabetes Cure In\nReach

Harvard scientists have announced a breakthrough that could\neventually allow millions of diabetics to shed the yoke of daily\ninsulin injections. It took over 15 years of trial and error, but\nresearcher Douglas Melton and his team have discovered a method to\ntransform human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing cells\nwhich can then be injected into the pancreas. The discovery has\ngenerated a new wave of momentum in the field, with research labs\nacross the country already working to rep

Glittering Curtains of Auroral Fire on #SpaceVine

U.S. astronaut Reid Weiseman sure is having fun up on the\nInternational Space Station. Two days ago, he spent six hours and\n13 minutes on a spacewalk And when he hasn't been outside the ISS\nwith the Earth rushing by more than 200 miles below him he's been\nbusy taking pictures and shooting little Vine video clips (not to\nmention working out on a treadmill, having fun with physics,\nand doing the myriad science experiments that have to get done). He\nhas also been posting really cool loopi

For Disguise, Female Squid Turn On Fake Testes

Did you know this week is International Cephalopod Awareness\nDays? I'll assume your gifts are in the mail. Today is dedicated to\nsquid, and you can't have total cephalopod awareness without\ndiscussing fake squid testes. This post was first published in\nSeptember 2013. The best way to stay out of trouble, if you're a\nshimmery, color-changing little squid, might be to paint on some\npretend testes. Scientists have found that certain female squid can\nswitch on and off a body pattern that make

Every Day Wonders: Sun Dogs Over the Rockies

As I was picking up Moe, my Labradoodle, from doggie daycare\na couple of days ago, I noticed bright, rainbow-like features on\neither side of the setting sun. So I grabbed my camera, zoomed in,\nand took some shots. In the photo above, you're looking at a\nclassic \"sun dog,\" part of a halo around the sun caused by\nplate-like crystals in clouds. There was another sun dog on the\nother side of the sun when I shot this photo. (And btw, for a pic\nof Moe, an actual dog, go here.) If you're

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