Machines Like Us – Science News

Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human ageing.

A research team from the Department of Electricity and Electronics at the University of the Basque Country’s Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa, led by Victor Etxebarria, is investigating the characteristics of various types of materials for their use in the generation and measurement of precise movements.

New observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that the crust and upper mantle of Mars are stiffer and colder than previously thought.

A new study reveals the genetic identity of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the version responsible for sexual transmission, in unprecedented detail.

Just 12 percent of America’s 228 million adults have the skills to manage their own health care proficiently, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research.

By Mano Singham

Religion has always had its own defenders, called religious apologists, who have tried to find ways to make religious beliefs intellectually respectable and at least somewhat consistent with advances in knowledge in science and other areas. In response to the recent onslaughts on their faith by the new atheists, there has arisen in response what one might call the 'new apologetics', attempts to combat the arguments of the new atheists. But in examining these arguments one is startled to discover that there is really nothing new.

Mount Sinai researchers may have unlocked the key to better understanding the effect addictive drugs have on the human brain.

MIT engineers have improved the power output of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent through technology that could help these environmentally friendly energy storage devices find a much broader market, particularly in portable electronics.

A letter being auctioned in London this week adds more fuel to the long-simmering debate about the Nobel Prize-winning physicist's religious views. In the note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty childish."

This is a clip from FutureWeapons documenting the Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air System). Recent advances in robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence are used to engineer a drone aircraft that can perform naval missions and land on aircraft carriers autonomously. To develop this system, virtual prototyping and simulations are linked to actual aircraft control system hardware so engineers are able to monitor how the computer will operate the aircraft. This will ensure that the robot will perform as expected before it is built.

Using mathematics and a computer model of brain activity, Roberto Fernández Galán, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has shown a direct link between activity in the cortex and the microscopic structure of this neuronal network.

Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) neuroscientists at The University of Queensland have discovered a fundamental component of the process that regulates memory formation.

Catching a football. Maneuvering through a room full of people. Jumping out of the way when a golfer yells “fore.” Most would agree these seemingly simple actions require us to perceive and quickly respond to a situation.

Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and breast cancer.