NEWS IN BRIEF The hominid’s unusual build may place it in humankind’s lineage 04.11.13 | more >>

NEWS IN BRIEF Fermentation process could become important new production method for artemisinin 04.11.13 | more >>

Throw some electrons onto the surface of a topological insulator and they seemingly become invincible, effortlessly bypassing obstructions along their route. Now researchers have crafted a structure that empowers particles of light to do the same thing. The first demonstration of a topological insulator for photons, reported April 10 in Nature, could lead to improved optical transmissions that ... 04.11.13 | more >>

President Barack Obama has drawn a line in the sand in his ongoing fight with budget-cutting lawmakers when it comes to future federal funding for research and development. He’s calling for reversing recent spending cuts to most sectors of R&D spending and adding new funds for many areas next year — despite tough fiscal times. 04.10.13 | more >>

Ancient leftovers indicate that the earliest pottery was used by hunter-gatherers for cooking, thousands of years before farming communities began heating their food in vessels. 04.10.13 | more >>

To usher in a big advance in brain imaging, scientists simply had to cut the fat. By subbing out light-blocking fatty molecules, a new technique turns mouse brains almost fully transparent while retaining their structure and nearly all their important molecules, researchers report in the April 11 Nature. 04.10.13 | more >>

NEWS IN BRIEF Highlights from the annual AACR meeting, Washington, D.C., April 6-10, 2013 04.10.13 | more >>

Dinosaur embryos lived fast and hatched young.

The oldest dino embryos ever discovered — hundreds of miniature bones dating to nearly 200 million years ago — show that some dinosaurs grew rapidly inside their eggs and probably had brief incubation periods, researchers report in the April 11 Nature. The work marks the first time scientists have tracked the development of dinosaur embryos. 04.10.13 | more >>

One of the most passionately disputed arguments over a scientific name has finally come to an end. After 200 years of ambiguity, years of fierce debate and a record number of formal comments on the proposed name, a commission has declared gigantea the one true species term for the Aldabra giant tortoises. 04.09.13 | more >>

WASHINGTON — A newfangled drug candidate featuring an antibody that totes a tumor-killing toxin can knock down ovarian cancer in some patients. In the first test of the experimental drug in people, scientists gave it to 44 patients with advanced ovarian cancer that was resistant to the effects of platinum-based chemotherapy, a standard treatment. 04.08.13 | more >>

A perennial topic of locker room banter and sex columns has caught the attention of scientists: Do women find bigger penises more attractive? The answer, it turns out, is yes. But it’s not a purely bigger-is-better relationship. The attractiveness of a larger penis is intertwined with height and body shape, new research suggests. 04.08.13 | more >>

NEWS IN BRIEF More jarring flights are likely, simulation suggests 04.08.13 | more >>

Drop that hamburger, put down the can of Monster Energy and back away from the body building pills.

A nutrient found in red meat and added to energy drinks and supplements may crank up people’s risk of heart disease, a new study suggests. Bacteria in the gut digest the nutrient, L-carnitine, and help turn it into an artery-hardening chemical — particularly in meat eaters, researchers report April 7 in Nature Medicine. 04.08.13 | more >>

NEWS IN BRIEF 3-D printed material resembles body tissue in form and perhaps function 04.05.13 | more >>

NEWS IN BRIEF Neighbors unnecessary for recovery 04.04.13 | more >>

View the video A computer can decode the stuff of dreams. By comparing brain activity during sleep with activity patterns collected while study participants looked at certain objects, a computer learned to identify some contents of people’s unconscious reveries. 04.04.13 | more >>

Rats that will go to great lengths to get a cocaine fix might blame a group of sluggish neurons. Controlling the problem may come down to a flick of a light switch: Stimulating those brain cells with lasers reduces the addicted rats’ cocaine use, researchers report in the April 4 Nature. 04.04.13 | more >>

Tiny components of amyloid plaques, the notorious protein clumps found littering the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, might fight inflammation. Researchers report that several of these sticky protein fragments, or peptides, glom onto inflammatory compounds and reverse paralysis in mice that have a condition similar to multiple sclerosis. A fragment of tau protein, which shows up in ... 04.03.13 | more >>

A $2-billion experiment on the International Space Station has released the first data from its unprecedented census of the charged subatomic particles whizzing by Earth. Although the results, presented April 3 at a seminar at CERN in Geneva, largely confirm previous observations, researchers hope they will lead to discovering the identity of dark matter, an invisible form of matter that ... 04.03.13 | more >>

The building of western North America wasn’t a simple construction job. Multiple sections of seafloor slid beneath the continent and each other like conveyor belts, researchers suggest, bringing islands in from different directions and pasting them to the western edge of North America in a jumble of rugged terrain. 04.03.13 | more >>

President Barack Obama has unveiled a long-term neuroscience research initiative that will develop new tools and technologies to study human and animal brains on larger scales than currently possible. Announced April 2, the BRAIN Initiative could ultimately help researchers better understand human behavior and thought and develop new ways to diagnose, treat and cure neurological and ... 04.02.13 | more >>