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Charles Darwin's family tree tangled with inbreeding, early death
Charles Darwin 's studies of heredity, adaptation and evolution included many experiments into the effects of crossbreeding and inbreeding in both plants and animals. Such consanguineous pairing often resulted in weaker, more sickly descendants. [More]
Ireland may have to restrict airspace due to ash: IAA
Iran: U.S. should be punished for nuclear "threats"
Boston works through 3rd day without drinking water
Actress Lynn Redgrave dies in Connecticut at 67
Former Princeton head to review U.N. climate panel
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A former president of Princeton University will lead a review of the U.N. panel of climate scientists after errors in a 2007 report used as a guide for fighting global warming, science academies said on Monday.
Economist Harold Shapiro, 74, will chair the 12-member committee that is due to report by August 30 on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
[More]U.S. envoy arrives for Israeli-Palestinian talks
UK Conservatives could secure tiny majority: poll
Apple iPad reaches 1 million sales faster than iPhone
Risk-Taking Behavior in Teens
Say a teenager takes the car without permission and crashes it. Or pole jumps off a bridge into white water. Bruised, broken or worse, arrested, the first words out of a parent's mouth are: What were you thinking? [More]
Southern Hemisphere's Largest Telescope Hamstrung by Optical Problems
SUTHERLAND, South Africa--High on an arid plateau, an international group of visiting astronomers stands squinting into a simmering orange sunset. Giddy just to be here, they scramble atop a cluster of ancient volcanic boulders to peer over the edge of a vast camouflage green overlook. They have been attending an international conference in Cape Town on communicating astronomy with the public and are only too excited to finally be on the grounds of Africa's premier astronomical observatory. [More]
Preventing Hearing Loss
Old age brings with it a host of physical woes, and among the most common is hearing loss. Forty percent of Americans older than 65 suffer from hearing loss, and by 2030 some 65 million Americans will be hard of hearing.
Now joint work by researchers at the universities of Wisconsin, Florida, Washington and Tokyo has uncovered the mechanism behind age-related hearing loss, and with the help of simple chemicals, they have managed to keep old mice hearing as well as young pups.
[More]Indian court convicts Mumbai attack gunman
UAL, Continental to form largest airline
Iraq starts vote recount, may take almost 2 weeks
Ancient glaciation period yields clues to carbon cycle anomalies
Investors skeptical on record Greek bailout
Pakistan Taliban leader alive, threatens U.S. attacks
Taiwan says will not seek U.S. help to fight wars
Brain Hears Just by Seeing
When my toddler hears a strange noise, he’ll say, “Mom, what does that sound look like?” His amusing phrasing innocently mixes sight and sound. But now a study in the journal Nature Neuroscience suggests that the brain actually links the audio with the visual. Because simply seeing a vase shatter activates the part of the brain that handles sound. [More]
