Far out! The 2009 Weird Science Awards
Far out, man! Check out tales of ancient marijuana use, four-eared cats and other winners of the Weird Science Awards for 2009.

Microsoft’s Ballmer: Windows 7 is nearly final
Microsoft Corp.’s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time.

The Ultimate Flying Machine: Sexy as a Sports Car, Portable as a Jet Ski
It’s a plane like no other—the wings fold at the push of a button, making it easy to store and trailer. The side windows pop out so pilots can feel the wind, and the cockpit has just a few gauges. Meant to evoke something sporty, like a jet ski, instead of a lumbering Cessna or a tough-to-fly experimental kludge, the plane is supposed to let anyone who can afford the $139,000 price tag become a barnstormer.

U.S. scientists learn how to levitate tiny objects
U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the strange forces of quantum mechanics, and said on Wednesday they might use it to help make tiny nanotechnology machines.

Restoring Trust Harder When It Is Broken Early In Relationship
While betraying trust is never good for a relationship, the results show that early violations can be particularly devastating, and plant seeds of doubt that may never go away.

Ecstasy For Treatment Of Traumatic Anxiety
Treatment with a pharmacological version of the drug ecstasy makes PTSD patients more receptive to psychotherapy, and contributes to lasting improvement.

Positive step for drug from engineered goat
In a surprise move, it seems likely the first genetically engineered animal approved for commercial use won’t be a fast-growing salmon, as was expected, but a goat that produces an anti-clotting drug in its milk.

Compound found in nuts may treat depression, cancer
Although inositol is relatively unknown among the general public, studies have shown it to be effective at reducing the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic attacks.

Hormone Improves Human Ability To Recognize Faces But Not Places
Study participants who had one dose of an oxytocin nasal spray showed improved recognition memory for faces, but not for inanimate objects.

Women’s Brains Recognize, Encode Smell Of Male Sexual Sweat
A new [study] found that socioemotional meanings, including sexual ones, are conveyed in human sweat.

Smarter Men Have More Sperm
Women tend to like smart men because they’re usually more successful and better providers. But here’s another reason: Their sperm is better, a new study says.

Smoking During Pregnancy Fosters Aggression In Children
While previous studies have shown that smoking during gestation causes low birth weight, this research shows mothers who light up during pregnancy can predispose their offspring to an additional risk: violent behaviour.

Parents Not Best Barometer of Kid’s Eating, Exercise Habits
Survey found mismatch between perception, reality

Packing A Lunch For Preschoolers May Not Be A Good Idea
[R]esearchers concluded that, even though parents understand the importance of lunch, they may not know how to consistently pack a nutritious sack lunch for their children.

Eating Habits And Exercise Behaviors In Children Can Deteriorate Early
As children transition from preschool-age to school-age, they may develop eating habits and leisure-time patterns that may not meet current recommendations and may contribute to childhood obesity.

Old-fashioned lifeline
Stricken children thrive with intravenous doses of fish oil

Recognizing Children’s Successes In All Areas May Prevent Teenage Depression
Students’ successes in the first grade can affect more than their future report cards. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers found links among students’ weak academic performance in the first grade, self-perceptions in the sixth grade, and depression symptoms in the seventh grade.

Young Adults Need To Make More Time For Healthy Meals
The results suggest that perceived time constraints may be a common barrier to sitting down for meals. Social eating was associated with greater intake of several healthful foods (e.g., vegetables) and with higher intakes of calcium and fiber among males. In contrast, “eating on the run” was associated with higher intakes of soft drinks, fast food and fat, and with lower intake of several healthful foods among females.

Physical Activity May Not Be Key To Obesity Epidemic
Physical activity has many proven benefits. It strengthens bones and muscles, improves mental health and mood, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer. But Loyola research suggests that weight control might not be among the main benefits.

Americans Consuming More Sugary Beverages
Adults gulping an average of 300 calories every day, study finds.

Common Flu Strain Resistant to Popular Antiviral Drug
But other medications are available that work, CDC officials stress

Protein Might One Day Prevent Blindness
Researchers working with mice have identified a protein that appears to prolong the lives of retinal cells in both healthy and diseased eyes. The discovery could one day lead to treatments that would prevent blindness among people genetically predisposed to develop retinal disease, the scientists said.

Macbeth’s Curse: Link Between Sleeplessness And Paranoia Identified
Research … has identified a link between sleeplessness and paranoid thinking, a theme highlighted in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’.

Nicotine Gum Effective For Gradual Smoking Reduction And Cessation
Nicotine gum has been in use for over 20 years to help smokers quit abruptly yet close to two-thirds of smokers report that they would prefer to quit gradually. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare have now found that smokers who are trying to quit gradually can also be helped by nicotine gum.
Patches worked for me.

Young Blood Fights Cancer
[Researchers] discovered that a transfusion of “young” blood — blood which has been stored for less than 9 days — increased the odds of survival in animals challenged with two types of cancer.

Studies Challenge Framingham Risk Score
The long-standing assessment for heart risk may not be accurate in some cases

Inflammation Markers May Help Predict Stroke Risk
They should be used when assessing traditional risk factors, experts say

New drug combo may boost stem cell production
LONDON (Reuters) – A novel drug combination using Genzyme Corp’s Mozobil shows it may be possible to spur bone marrow into releasing extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream to repair the heart and broken bones, researchers said on Thursday.

Growth Of New Brain Cells Requires ‘Epigenetic’ Switch
[N]euroscientists … have discovered that the birth of new cells, which depends on brain activity, also depends on a protein that is involved in changing epigenetic marks in the cell’s genetic material.

Older Women Who Are More Physically Fit Have Better Cognitive Function
The scientists found that compared to the inactive group, the active group had lower (10 per cent) resting and exercising arterial blood pressure, higher (5 per cent) vascular responses in the brain during submaximal exercise and when the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood were elevated, and higher (10 per cent) cognitive function scores.

9 Genes Are Linked to Alzheimer’s
Researchers have identified nine genes that might make people more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Antipsychotics Up Death Risk in Alzheimer’s Patients
Long-term study says the drugs should only be used short-term, as last resort.

Researchers Gain Insights Into Aging in Mice
[R]esearchers have linked two previously thought-to-be-separate pathways tied to aging, at least in mice, leading to more thought that physically getting older is an orderly and deliberate genetic occurrence. Short-circuiting that process might one day allow scientists to extend life and delay aging, the researchers said.

Japan scientists clone legendary bull
TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese scientists said Thursday they had successfully cloned the ancestral bull of a luxurious brand of beef, possibly opening the way to distribute cloned beef.

This fish has the world’s strangest eyes
Scientists say the spookfish is first known vertebrate to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes.

Tourist finds soldier’s bones at Civil War site
Park officials say a visitor has found the remains of a Civil War soldier at the Antietam National Battlefield in western Maryland.

Egyptian mummy may be 4,300-year-old queen
Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century B.C.

Neanderthals done in by competition
Climate change has become the default scapegoat for nearly every extinction on Earth. But a new study lets climate off the hook for at least one event: the disappearance of Neanderthals.

How big Jurassic flying reptiles got off ground
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Jurassic version of jumbo jets – huge flying creatures weighing hundreds of pounds – is a mystery of dinosaur-era flight: How did something so big get off the ground? A Johns Hopkins University biologist thinks he has figured out the answer.

So Much to Learn About the Oceans From Sand
Rob Holman’s collection of sand from around the world is a valuable teaching tool for how the oceans operate.

Astronomers honor Galileo with a telescopic jackpot
WASHINGTON — Astronomers this year are about to get a windfall of new and improved telescopes of unprecedented power with which to explore the universe.

Orbiter, Finishing a Mission, Offers a Peek at Mars’ Wrinkles
Last month, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter wrapped up its two-year primary science phase, and Mars geologists are wallowing in a bounty of data.

The Pluto Files
Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, has a new book about Pluto in which he recounts life as Public Enemy Astronomer #1. And Pluto is still not a planet.

Brown Dwarfs Don’t Hang Out With Stars
Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called “brown dwarf desert” (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe.

Theory Ties Radio Signal to Universe’s First Stars
A mysterious radio static that seems to pervade the universe has astronomers theorizing as to its source.