Mimetic races of Heliconius erato (left) and Heliconius melpomene (right) from the Tarapoto area of Peru.
How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing colour and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin’s day. Now, scientists at Cambridge have found “hotspots” in the butterflies’ genes that they believe will explain one of the most [...]

NIST postdoctoral researcher James Chin-wen Chou with the world’s most precise clock, based on the vibrations of a single aluminum ion (electrically charged atom).
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock based on a single aluminum atom that is now the world’s most [...]

A new study sheds light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants.
A study published in Science, by researchers at Rothamsted Research (an institute of the BBSRC), the Met Office, the Natural Resources Institute, and the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and York, sheds [...]

Artist’s rendering of cell structure.
Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago.

3D illustration of the knee. Damaged cartilage can lead to joint pain and loss of physical function and eventually to osteoarthritis.
Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone [...]

Such a fine place for old pussies to hang out!

Homeleigh retirement village is a perfect place to spend the twilight years, with staff to clean and cook, a garden and immaculate quarters. But forget about signing up – unless you are a cat.
Inside a fully functional house next to Keysborough Animal Shelter in outer Melbourne, [...]

 
The British Library has announced that the Klencke Atlas will have its first-ever public showing this summer as part of a map exhibition.
It is almost absurdly huge – 1.75 metres (5ft) tall and 1.9 metres (6ft) wide – and was given to [Charles II] by Dutch merchants and placed in his cabinet of curiosities.

A swordfish attack punctured an oil loading pipe in Angola recently, causing a three-day delay in tanker shipments of Girassol crude. Total, the French oil company which operates the pipeline, declared force majeure on shipments. Total later said that swordfish had damaged a flexible loading pipe. Declaring force majeure frees an operator from supply obligations [...]

Credit card numbers are so passe. Today’s hackers know the real powerhouse data to steal is emission certificates.
That’s exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.
The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of [...]

Customer records were stolen from
British bank HSBC’s operation in Switzerland
The German government says it plans to buy a CD containing customer data apparently stolen from British bank HSBC’s operation in Switzerland. The move has enraged Swiss officials, but it already appears to be bearing fruit. Berlin expects a wave of tax evaders to turn themselves [...]

According to a new mathematical analysis, the mysterious “3/4 law of metabolism” — proposed by Max Kleiber in 1932 and later described as “extended to all life forms” from bacteria to whales — is wrong.
Apparently, the mysterious “3/4 law of metabolism” — proposed by Max Kleiber in 1932, printed in biology textbooks for decades, explained [...]

Bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae, red) under attack by a neutrophil (blue).
Scientists have long pondered the seeming contradiction that taking broad-spectrum antibiotics over a long period of time can lead to severe secondary bacterial infections. Now researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have figured out why.

In rejecting the soup theory the researchers turned to the Earth’s chemistry to identify the energy source which could power the first primitive predecessors of living organisms: geochemical gradients across a honeycomb of microscopic natural caverns at hydrothermal vents. These catalytic cells generated lipids, proteins and nucleotides which may have given rise to the first [...]

A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to new research.
A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published February 3 in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other [...]

Straight out of China comes “The Machismo!” – billed as “the world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone.” Does that mean there’s more than one? Like, are there other, lesser, not-as-hot cell phones with built-in cigarette lighters? Nothing would surprise me after seeing this.
According to the product description on Chinavasion.com…

An Icey New Idea
An abandoned home has been encased in ice in an effort to draw attention to the housing crisis in the US.
Gregory Holm, a photographer, and Matthew Radune, a New York architect, picked a house in Detroit which had been slated for demolition, from the state’s land bank.
In return, they agreed to pay [...]

Just what we need. Murray Hill Incorporated has just announced its intention to run for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Murray Hill Inc. is believed to be the first “corporate person” to exercise its constitutional right to run for office. As Supreme Court observer Lyle Denniston wrote in his SCOTUSblog, “If anything, the decision in Citizens United [...]

Forest in Maryland.
Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a [...]

Model of a human brain, with the cerebellum, medulla and brain stem visible at lower left.
The brains of infants who die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) produce low levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that conveys messages between cells and plays a vital role in regulating breathing, heart rate, and sleep, reported researchers funded [...]

New research identifies the ’speed gene’ contributing to a specific athletic trait in thoroughbred horses.
Groundbreaking research led by Dr Emmeline Hill, a leading horse genomics researcher at University College Dublin’s (UCD) School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine has resulted in the identification of the ’speed gene’ in thoroughbred horses.

Fossil showing 565 million-year-old animal trail.
Trails found in rocks dating back 565 million years are thought to be the earliest evidence of animal locomotion ever found.

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said. The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did [...]

“Running barefoot or in minimal shoes is fun but uses different muscles,” said Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman. “If you’ve been a heel-striker all your life, you have to transition slowly to build strength in your calf and foot muscles.”
New research is casting doubt on the old adage, “All you need to run is a [...]

These are three rotting fish heads.
Decaying corpses are usually the domain of forensic scientists, but palaeontologists have discovered that studying rotting fish sheds new light on our earliest ancestry.

Increasing magnesium intake may be a valid strategy to enhance cognitive abilities.
New research finds that an increase in brain magnesium improves learning and memory in young and old rats. The study, published in the January 28th issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that increasing magnesium intake may be a valid strategy to enhance cognitive abilities [...]