Science News

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., recently unveiled the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins , the museum's new permanent exhibition on human evolution . There visitors can trace some six million years of human prehistory, from apelike creatures such as Sahelanthropus to anatomically modern Homo sapiens , from the first tool makers to the first artists. Paintings, sculptures, fossil replicas and even a few original fossils--including a Neandertal skeleton from Iraq--combine with interactive displays to bring humanity's extraordinary odyssey into full view.

View a slide show of images from the exhibition [More]

For the last few years, environmental groups have been calling for the protection of the giant Palouse earthworm ( Driloleirus americanus ), an incredibly rare species (seen only a few times in the past 110 years) that was said to be more than a meter long, smell like lilies and spit at its attackers.

But now scientists have, for the first time since the 1980s, found two live Palouse earthworms, and it looks like the legend doesn't live up to the hype.

Fourteen contestants of all shapes and sizes are vying to win U.S. EPA 's version of the televised weight-loss competition "The Biggest Loser." Each will go on a diet with online tips from the show's fitness trainer, Bob Harper. A final weigh-in will decide the contest in October.

That's where the similarities end.

When Randy Cortright of the University of Wisconsin found an aromatic fluid floating in his beaker that smelled just like gasoline, he thought he had a problem. After all, the chemical engineer wanted to make fuel from plants for the hydrogen economy that was supposed to boom about now. Instead, when he put the fluid in a chromatograph, he found it had all the hydrocarbon components of a high-octane gasoline . [More]

When you were growing up, your mother probably told you to sit up straight, because good posture helps you look confident and make a good impression. [More]

If you've ever driven up to a mountain pass, you know that the higher you climb, the colder it gets. But on clear, calm days, it can actually be colder in the valleys. That's because under high-pressure systems, cold air slides down mountain slopes and pools down below. In the Oregon Cascades, ridgeline temperatures have clocked in at 27 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those in a valley 2,600 feet below. [More]

In the late 1990s Dirk G. Soenksen imagined a new future for pathology. At the time, pathologists often sat on telephone books to get a good view through their microscopes, yet Soenksen’s children viewed high-resolution monitors when merely playing Nintendo. “Why can’t microscopists look at computer monitors, too?” he wondered.

That question sent Soenksen on an extended journey, beginning in his garage. After 18 months of intense laboring, he emerged as the head of a newly created digital-pathology company called Aperio, which he now runs in Vista, Calif. Beyond merely moving images of diseased tissues from microscopes to computers, his technology--as well as that of other start-ups and even established health care companies--promises to make anatomical pathology, which involves the interpretation of biopsies, far more quantitative. This advance should, in turn, enhance the accuracy of diagnosing diseases and help physicians track the effectiveness of a treatment so that any needed changes can be made promptly.

Except for a smattering of neo-Social Darwinists, religious nuts and arms merchants, everyone wants world peace, right? In a truly peaceful world, nations would not just stop fighting wars; they would cut back their armies and arsenals to levels sufficient for self-defense and internal policing. [More]