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Extraterrestrial source confirmed for comet's amino acids

If influenza was a stock, I wouldn't touch it. PETER GROSS, chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, responding to a White House report that warned a resurgence of swine flu - or H1N1 - could kill 30,000 to 90,000 Americans this fall

PETER GROSS, chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, responding to a White House report that warned a resurgence of swine flu - or H1N1 - could kill 30,000 to 90,000 Americans this fall

The fruit fly has evolved a method for arranging the tiny, hair-like structures it uses to feel and hear the world that's so efficient a team of scientists in Israel and at Carnegie Mellon University says it could be used to more effectively deploy wireless sensor networks and other distributed computing applications.

It sounds like something a guided missile would do. Foxes seem to zero in on prey using Earth's magnetic field. They are the first animal thought to use the field to judge distance rather than just direction.

ETHEREAL quantum entanglement has been captured in solid crystals, showing that it is more robust than once assumed. These entanglement traps could make quantum computing and communication more practical.

Mystics will tell you that meditation transforms the mind and soothes the soul. But what does science have to say?

HAVING a larger waistline may shrink your brain.

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) - New research just published in the journal Science by a team of chemists at the University of Georgia and colleagues in Germany shows for the first time that a mechanism called tunneling control may drive chemical reactions in directions unexpected from traditional theories.

Our intrepid reporter performs an intimate act in an fMRI scanner to explore the pathways of pleasure and pain

COULD the structure of space and time be sketched out inside a cousin of plain old pencil lead? The atomic grid of graphene may mimic a lattice underlying reality, two physicists have claimed, an idea that could explain the curious spin of the electron. Graphene is an atom-thick layer of carbon in a hexagonal formation. Depending on its position in this grid, an electron can adopt either of two quantum states - a property called pseudospin which is mathematically akin to the intrinsic spin of an electron. Most physicists do not think it is true spin, but Chris Regan at the University of California, Los Angeles, disagrees. He cites work with carbon nanotubes (rolled up sheets of graphene) in the late 1990s, in which electrons were found to be reluctant to bounce back off these obstacles. Regan and his colleague Matthew Mecklenburg say this can be explained if a tricky change in spin is required to reverse direction. Their quantum model of graphene backs that up. The spin arises from the way electrons hop between atoms in graphene's lattice, says Regan. So how about the electron's intrinsic spin? It cannot be a rotation in the ordinary sense, as electrons are point particles with no radius and no innards. Instead, like pseudospin, it might come from a lattice pattern in space-time itself, says Regan. This echoes some attempts to unify quantum mechanics with gravity in which space-time is built out of tiny pieces or fundamental networks (Physical Review Letters, vol 106, p 116803). Sergei Sharapov of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev says that the work provides an interesting angle on how electrons and other particles acquire spin, but he is doubtful how far the analogy can be pushed. Regan admits that moving from the flatland world of graphene to higher-dimensional space is tricky. "It will be interesting to see if there are other lattices that give emergent spin," he says.

From the machinery of life to the fate of the cosmos, what can't science explain?

Those who are easily distracted from the task in hand may have "too much brain".

ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011) - Imagine an insect repellant that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET -- the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellants -- but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants.