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By Jargal Byambasuren

DUNDGOBI, Mongolia (Reuters) - The winter camps of southern Mongolia are quiet during this year's breeding season, after an unusually harsh winter wiped out herds and left nomadic families with little but debt to their name.

By Meredith Wadman

Last month, Joseph Ng, a biologist at the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH), sat down with very mixed feelings to write a job advertisement for a new chair of the biology department. [More]

As BP's initial efforts to stem the flow of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico at its Deepwater Horizon drilling site have fallen by the wayside, the company said Monday it is implementing a plan in the next two weeks to permanently plug the leaking well. If successful, this so-called "junk shot" option--which involves clogging the well's failed blowout preventer with a variety of objects, including golf balls, tires and tennis balls--will be covered with a layer of cement that ensures the well is never used again. [More]

A hug from Mom can help soothe a stressed child, but new research shows that just hearing her voice can initiate the same biochemical responses--even if the mother is speaking over the phone. [More]

Symptoms of sickle-cell anemia often include severe pain and other major medical complications, but a new study shows that the disease might also decrease cognitive abilities in young and middle-aged adults. [More]

To construct the deceptive contraption he would enter in an international illusion contest , Kokichi Sugihara contravened a deeply held intuition: gravity works. Sugihara, a mathematical engineer at Meiji University in Japan, built a set of four ramps, arranged in a cross, on which wooden balls appear to roll uphill, as if pulled by a magnet toward the center. [More]

Working overtime increases your risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), according to a report published May 12 in the European Heart Journal . [More]