Unlike humans, zebrafish are able to regenerate amputated appendages.
The search for the holy grail of regenerative medicine — the ability to “grow back” a perfect body part when one is lost to injury or disease — has been under way for years, yet the steps involved in this seemingly magic process are still poorly understood.

the Mercury Surface

A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet’s surface, atmosphere and magnetic field.

Illustration of rat with spinal injury. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California
The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries — a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage.

With the battle between the iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Google’s Android heating up, what we need now is another mobile operating system, right? Well, that’s what Samsung thinks anyways, as it has just announced its entry into the mobile operating system game with Bada. If you must ask, the name means “ocean” in Korean, showing [...]

Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google’s search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.
In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once [...]

The Sands of the Sahara desert have finally told a tale of loss of mythical proportions.

“The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.
Bronze weapons, a [...]

This image represents “copolymer micelles,” tiny drug-delivery spheres that could be used in a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries. The bottom graphs show data indicating damaged spinal cord tissue recovered its “action potential,” or ability to transmit signals, after treatment with the micelles.
Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a [...]

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope captured this infrared image of a giant halo of very fine dust around the young star HR 8799.
Before our planets found their way to the stable orbits they circle in today, they wiggled and jostled about like unsettled children. Now, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has found a young star with evidence [...]

The Mojave Desert. As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new Cornell study. That could lead to deserts with even less plant life than they sustain today, say the researchers.

As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new Cornell study. That could lead to [...]

Artist’s rendering of viruses. Scientists have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body’s immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells.
Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body’s immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their [...]

White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) checking its nails
Research at the universities of Liverpool and Oxford into the finger length of primate species has revealed that cooperative behavior is linked to exposure to hormone levels in the womb.

Air passengers are facing a new tax at India’s New Delhi airport – to pay for dog catchers to trap packs of strays who chase planes.
Air traffic experts estimate that as many as five flights a day are delayed by dogs running after planes on the tarmac as they try to take off.
“In most places [...]

Hemigraphis alternata, or purple waffle plant, one of the highest ratedornamentals for removing indoor air pollutants.

Air quality in homes, offices, and other indoor spaces is becoming a major health concern, particularly in developed countries where people often spend more than 90% of their time indoors. Surprisingly, indoor air has been reported to be as much [...]

New data from rats with head-mounted microscopes shed light on how we put the world together seamlessly while we move around.
By building a tiny microscope small enough to be carried around on a rats` head, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have found a way to study the complex [...]

Body maps in our brain may influence how we perceive our physical bodies — for example, if there is a lot of brain area associated with our right arm, we will view it being as longer compared to our left arm.
There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of [...]

Eating a meal quickly, as compared to slowly, curtails the release of hormones in the gut that induce feelings of being full, according to new research.
According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), eating a meal quickly, as compared to slowly, curtails the release [...]

Royal Raymond Rife Microscope #2

Royal Raymond Rife, “genius scientist”, trained for six years at the Carl Zeiss Optical Company in Germany and became the inventor of powerful microscopes, leading to the discovery of a revolutionary therapy for viral diseases.
 
Pictured above is his second microscope which will be included as lot 113 in the Bonhams sale 10th [...]

Power that literally ROCKS!

Rochus Jacob designed and built the Murakami Chair. As the user rocks back and forth during the day, the chair charges a battery that powers the lamp. Jacob writes: I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the [...]

Several winners were announced as top inventors for 2009
The DaVinci Institute, a futurist think tank and host of the 5th annual Colorado Inventor Showcase announced the award winners at the event held November 3rd at the Denver University Cable Center. Winners in the six categories accepted their honors as the evening came to a close.  [...]

New research confirms that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.

In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed [...]

Nazca Lines in the Peruvian Desert.
An ancient South American civilisation which disappeared around 1,500 years ago helped to cause its own demise by damaging the fragile ecosystem that held it in place, a study has found.

Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) shows that an intense star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud named 30 Doradus is also a source of diffuse gamma rays.
Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called “starburst” galaxies, plus a [...]

Young tyrannosaurs did serious battle against each other.
We all know adolescents get testy from time to time. Thank goodness we don’t have young tyrannosaurs running around the neighborhood.

The Irish accent has beaten its French counterpart as the world’s sexiest.
Men with an Emerald Isle brogue came top in a poll of 5,000 women worldwide, while the French accent only came fourth, just ahead of Australian.
Italian was second. In third place was the Scottish burr. English was sixth and Swedish was seventh, with Spanish, [...]

New research finds that a quick glance at someone’s facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression.
Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a quick glance at someone’s facial structure may [...]