Eee PC’s sales success drawing a crowd
San Francisco – Sales of Asustek Computer’s Eee PC have soared in its first few months on the market, but success may be its undoing. Rivals are already developing products to compete with the low-cost laptop PC, market researcher Gartner says.

Self-Righting Object
The Gomboc is a roundish piece of clear synthetic material with gently peaked, organic curves. It looks like a piece of modern art. But if you tip it over, something unusual happens: it rights itself. It leans off to one side, rocks to and fro as if gathering strength and then, presto, tips itself back into a “standing” position as if by magic. It doesn’t have a hidden counterweight inside that helps it perform this trick, like an inflatable punching-bag doll that uses ballast to bob upright after you whack it. No, the Gomboc is something new: the world’s first self-righting object.

Coming soon – spider socks (in packs of 8)
Researchers at Shinshu University have succeeded in injecting spider genes into silkworms to create a thread that is stronger, softer and more durable than conventional silk. A Japanese manufacturer is already experimenting with the thread, and spider socks, stockings and even fishing lines are expected to appear on the market within a few years.

Scientists Reverse Sex Roles in Fruit Flies
Scientists have discovered it is surprisingly easy to reverse sex roles in fruit flies. By changing just one gene, they can make a female perform the courtship ritual of the male… The study has no immediate implications for human sexuality, [researcher Barry Dickson of the Austrian Academy of Sciences] told LiveScience. But it does figure into on an ongoing debate about whether a single gene can profoundly affect behavior or if behavior is too complex to be reduced to the influence of any one gene.

DNA Pioneer’s Genome Blurs Race Lines
James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and winner of the Nobel prize, raised a storm recently when a British newspaper quoted him saying that black Africans are not as intelligent as whites. But his own brilliant DNA seems to blur the lines. A new analysis of Dr. Watson’s genome shows that he has 16 times the number of genes considered to be of African origin than the average white European does — about the same amount of African DNA that would show up if one great-grandparent were African, said Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of deCODE Genetics of Iceland, which did the analysis.
But don’t forget the study I linked to recently that shows European genes don’t confer more intelligence than African genes, anyway.

Personal Convictions May Control Both Behavior and Emotions
Distinct brain regions activated by beliefs and human feelings, study shows… The findings suggest that it may one day be possible to use brain scans to reliably detect belief, disbelief and uncertainty in people. “This would have obvious implications for the detection of deception, for the control of a placebo effect during the process of drug design, and for the study of any higher cognitive phenomenon in which the differences between belief, disbelief and uncertainty might be a relevant variable,” the researchers concluded.

Distorted Self-image In Body Image Disorder Due To Visual Brain Glitch, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2007) — Although they look normal, people suffering from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) perceive themselves as ugly and disfigured. New imaging research reveals that the brains of people with BDD look normal, but function abnormally when processing visual details. The UCLA findings are the first to demonstrate a biological reason for patients’ distorted body image… Affecting an estimated two percent of the population, BDD tends to run in families and is especially common in persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thirty percent of people with BDD suffer from eating disorders, which are also linked to a distorted self-image.

Natural Human Hormone As The Next Antidepressant?
[N]ew evidence shows that Epo [erythropoietin] also “has neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects in animal models and affects cognitive and associated neural responses in humans,” suggesting that it may be a candidate in the treatment of depression.”

Abdominal Fat Tied to High Risk for Coronary Trouble
Waist-hip ratio measurement is a strong predictor of heart disease, Britsh study says

Diagnostic Mammogram Readings Vary by Radiologist
Radiologists’ experience and affiliation often influenced results, study found.

Archaeologists find 2000 year old Roman glue in Germany
London, Dec 8 (ANI): Archaeologists have reportedly found traces of a glue used by the Romans 2,000 years ago near the town of Xanten in Germany. It had lain on what was once the bed of the Rhine for at least 1,500 years. According to researchers at the Rhineland Historical Museum in Bonn, this ancient glue was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires’ battle helmets, made of iron.

Fossils of ancient tank-like mammal found in Andes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists searching for fossils high in the Andes mountains in Chile have unearthed the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago.

Energy source of Northern Lights found
New data from NASA’s Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth’s upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights visible in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

NASA Aims to Look Inside the Moon
As if scanning the moon’s surface for impact blemishes were not enough, NASA now plans to visualize its internal imperfections to solve longstanding mysteries about the moon’s insides.

Mars Rover Finding Suggests Once Habitable Environment
The lame wheel on the NASA Mars rover Spirit has proven an invaluable science tool, turning up evidence of a once habitable environment, scientists said Monday.

Strange Shapes Seen on Mars
SAN FRANCISCO-NASA scientists have discovered what might form some of the weirdest landscapes on Mars, winding channels carved into the Martian surface that scientists have dubbed “spiders,” “lace” and “lizard skin.”… [N]ew observations from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, presented here today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, bolster theories that the intricate patterns may be sculpted by springtime outbursts of carbon dioxide gas from underneath the frozen-carbon dioxide polar ice cap.