Artist’s impression of the new source HLX-1
A new class of black hole, more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, has been discovered by an international team of astronomers.

How much light is reflected and how much is absorbed depends on two factors
It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist.

Mice fed on a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids can sprint faster
Between the 1932 and 2008 Olympic Games, world record times of the men’s 100m sprint improved by 0.6 seconds due to improved training techniques and technological advances. Imagine if this improvement could be achieved by a simple change in diet. Scientists at the [...]

The Mexican Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) lives a very long life compared to closely related animals such as mice
Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history—significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the cover of the July 2009 print issue of [...]

An illustration of a dust storm on Mars.
For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet.

 flowers show signs of evolution.
Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have zeroed in on the genes responsible for changing flower color, an area of research that began with Gregor Mendel’s studies of the garden pea in the 1850’s.

Tweet frickin’ tweet!

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Everyone in Iran uses it, BBC radio presenters bang on about it incessantly and mega celebs use it to throw crumbs to their adoring fans. Yep there seems no stopping the rise of Twitter.
Well soon you’ll be able to get a degree based around the microblogging sensation (BA Hons Twit IIi?) as City [...]

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms
A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

New research sheds light on how alcohol alters the way brain cells work.
Alcohol’s inebriating effects are familiar to everyone. But the molecular details of alcohol’s impact on brain activity remain a mystery. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies brings us closer to understanding how alcohol alters the way brain [...]

apply skin cream in order to stimulate the gene into action
Vaseline, a known molecule from apples and a gene network encapsulated in algal gelatin are the components of a possible gene therapy which literally gets under the skin.

Nematode
Caltech researchers studying the nervous control of nematode mating behavior have produced video footage of a male worm preparing to mate with a hermaphrodite.

Two Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins swimming off the coast of Oahu.
We can only marvel at the way that dolphins, whales and porpoises scythe through water. Their finlike flippers seem perfectly adapted for maximum aquatic agility. However, no one had ever analysed how the animals’ flippers interact with water; the hydrodynamic lift that they generate, the drag [...]

Since its launch in 1990, Ulysses has constantly monitored how much stardust enters the Solar System from the interstellar space around it.
After 18.6 years in space and defying several earlier expectations of its demise, the joint ESA/NASA solar orbiter Ulysses will achieve ‘end of mission’ on 30 June 2009. The final communication pass with [...]

 
This image shows that after 36 hours nearly every target cell (round gray spheres) has ingested a nanocapsule containing a small-interfering RNA (in red).
It is now possible to engineer tiny containers the size of a virus to deliver drugs and other materials with almost 100 percent efficiency to targeted cells in the bloodstream.

The platypus is helping Australian researchers to better understand ovarian cancer.
Researchers from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and University of Adelaide believe our oldest mammalian relative may help us to better understand ovarian cancer.

 
University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor David Clayton
When a zebra finch hears a new song from a member of its own species, the experience changes gene expression in its brain in unexpected ways, researchers report. The sequential switching on and off of thousands of genes after a bird hears a new tune offers [...]

 
Doctors have known for decades that foods like white bread and corn flakes aren’t good for cardiac health.
Doctors have known for decades that too much carbohydrate-laden foods like white bread and corn flakes can be detrimental to cardiac health. In a landmark study, new research from Tel Aviv University now shows exactly how these high [...]

 
A flock of homing pigeon flying
Using a “neurologger” specially designed to record the brain activity of pigeons in flight, researchers reporting online on June 25th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have gained new insight into what goes through the birds’ minds as they fly over familiar terrain.

 
 piranhas teeth
How did piranhas — the legendary freshwater fish with the razor bite — get their telltale teeth? Researchers from Argentina, the United States and Venezuela have uncovered the jawbone of a striking transitional fossil that sheds light on this question. Named Megapiranha paranensis, this previously unknown fossil fish bridges the evolutionary gap between flesh-eating [...]

 
Scientists have developed the ability to take regular cells from a pig’s connective tissues, known as fibroblasts, and transform them into stem cells.
For years, proponents have touted the benefits of embryonic stem cell research, but the potential therapies still face hurdles. Side effects such as tumor development, a lack of an effective and long-term animal [...]

 
Lamprey mouth
In addition to providing fundamental insights into the early evolution of the estrogen receptor, research by a team at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine may lead to a contraceptive for female lampreys – a jawless fish considered an invasive pest species in the Great Lakes region of the United States. [...]

 
Artificial liver for drug tests.
If you have hay fever, headaches or a cold, it’s only a short way to the nearest chemist. The drugs, on the other hand, can take eight to ten years to develop. Until now animal experiments have been an essential step, yet they continue to raise ethical issues. “Our artificial organ [...]

 
A comet is thought to have caused Tunguska explosion
The mysterious 1908 Tunguska explosion that leveled 830 square miles of Siberian forest was almost certainly caused by a comet entering the Earth’s atmosphere, says new Cornell University research. The conclusion is supported by an unlikely source: the exhaust plume from the NASA space shuttle launched a [...]

 
This is the first of a pair of artist’s representations showing what one of the
galaxies inside a blob might look like if viewed at a relatively close distance.
The “coming of age” of galaxies and black holes has been pinpointed, thanks to new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This discovery helps resolve [...]

 
Enlarged microscopic image of sand grains
University of Chicago researchers recently showed that dry granular materials such as sands, seeds and grains have properties similar to liquid, forming water-like droplets when poured from a given source. The finding could be important to a wide range of industries that use “fluidized” dry particles for oil refining, plastics [...]