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"How many mammal species live in the forest? It sounds like a simple question, but the actual distributions of shy, small or rare mammals are often murky, confounding conservationists seeking to protect them. Yet a paper published online on Tuesday in the journal Molecular Ecology explores a new way to track biodiversity: by capturing flies that feed on carcasses. The flies' stomachs offer DNA diaries of their recent meals, giving scientists clues to which animals live and die in the forest. "The animals are there, but you just don't see them," said Fabian Leendertz, a wildlife epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and an author of the paper. "Those flies will find them and will tell us what is there"

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"uBiome is a citizen science project that allows the public access to cutting edge sequencing technology to understand their health through the microbiome. How does the microbiome affect my health? We are all covered in trillions of microbes -- in fact, they outnumber human cells 10:1. The trillions of bacteria live on and in us are collectively called the microbiome. Like the rainforest, the healthy human microbiome is a balanced ecosystem. The correct balance of microbes keeps potential pathogens in check and regulates our immune system. Microbes also perform essential functions such as digesting food and synthesizing vitamins. Studies have also linked the microbiome to human mood and behavior, as well as many gut disorders, eczema, and chronic sinusitis."

"People swap bacteria all the time-through sneezes and coughs, through hugs and sex, or through touching the same surfaces. Then there are people who swap bacteria because a doctor deliberately transplants faeces from one into the other. This isn't a bizarre medical perversion. It's usually a life-saving gambit. Faecal transplants-which are exactly what they sound like-are used to treat people who suffer from intense diarrhoea following rounds of antibiotics. The goal is simple: recalibrate the beneficial bacteria in a person's gut to fight off the ones that are causing them harm."

"A new bioprinter developed at a hackerspace can print living cells for less than the cost of an iPod touch. 3-D bioprinters have the potential to change the way medical research is conducted, even print living tissue and replacement organs, but they are expensive and highly specialized. They literally build living structures, like blood vessels or skin tissue, cell by cell, revolutionizing biomedical engineering. Unfortunately, they're expensive, rare, and require a Ph.D. (or two) to operate successfully. Frustrated by their cost and exclusivity, a group of makers at the DIYbio hackerspace BioCurious are developing a system open to anyone with a soldering iron and a serious passion for cell biology."

"These findings clearly state that there is a relationship between summer suicide rates and biochemical (e.g., plasma L-TRP and melatonin levels, [3H]paroxetine binding to blood platelets), metabolic (serum total cholesterol, calcium and magnesium concentrations), and immune (number of peripheral blood lymphocytes and serum sIL-2R) variables.[18] Another study focused on the association between depression, suicide, and the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). They state that "depression is accompanied by a depletion of n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids".[22] Their methodology involved taking periodic blood samples-every month for one year-of healthy volunteers, allowing them to analyze the "PUFA composition in serum phospholipids and [relating] those data to the annual variation in the mean weekly number of suicides". They used an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to document their results, finding that PUFA like arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid all occurred at significantly lower rates in winter than in summer months. The association between depression, suicide, and PUFA rates is indicative of there being a biological factor in seasonal effects on suicide rates"

This web page is designed to give everyone an idea of what our universe actually looks like. There are nine main maps on this web page, each one approximately ten times the scale of the previous one. The first map shows the nearest stars and then the other maps slowly expand out until we have reached the scale of the entire visible universe.

"We were determined to build one singular AI. This means Remi is capable of handling complex requests easily. Things like 'Can you get me a taxi to my meeting with John Smith and find me a good coffee on the way' are simple for Remi."

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"When the right microorganisms are at work, immune cells involved in the development of autoimmune illnesses like psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and arthritis, can develop anti-inflammatory properties. Scientists at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona, Switzerland, have now made this discovery. Their work is published in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature*. The scientists were able to prove that particular fungi activate the immune cells involved in the development of certain illnesses, whereas other microorganisms, in particular bacteria that are found naturally on our skin, lend an anti-inflammatory function to them. "This not only demonstrates that the composition of our microflora has a decisive role in the development of chronic illnesses, but also that the key cells causing illness can develop an anti-inflammatory 'twin'," explained Dr. Christina Zielinski, first author of the study."

"The 18th-century philosopher David Hume (much quoted by Mr. Lehrer) didn't have an M.R.I. scanner at his disposal, but he framed the question in much the same way. His major work, "A Treatise of Human Nature," explored the ways in which habit, or "custom," rules our lives. Hume's experiments with perception - how we respond to colors, distance, numerical sets - prefigure the rigorous science of Professor Kahneman. His intent was to show us "the natural infirmity and unsteadiness both of our imagination and senses." Consciousness, like philosophy itself, stands on a "weak foundation.""

How can a computer accumulate a massive body of knowledge? What will Web search engines look like in ten years?

"It seems like his brain isn't working quite properly and according to new findings, it may not be. Researchers have begun to explore the cognitive impairment that men experience before and after interacting with women. A 2009 study demonstrated that after a short interaction with an attractive woman, men experienced a decline in mental performance. A more recent study suggests that this cognitive impairment takes hold even w hen men simply anticipate interacting with a woman who they know very little about. Sanne Nauts ... Daisy Grewal is a researcher at the Stanford School of Medicine, where she investigates how stereotypes affect the careers of women and minority scientists."

If there is organic life deep under the ice on Europa, why would we need to disturb it at all? Potential source of unknown viruses etc. Risks of releasing something are low I guess, but the assumption that whatever may be there needs Earth-like conditions to survive and multiply is dangerous.

"It is a widely accepted principle of distributive justice that goods should be distributed to individuals according to their contribution, i.e., people should receive equal pay for equal work (equity principle)...Recently, neuroscientific studies have begun to address neural processes underlying social and economic phenomena like e.g., reactions to norm violations, status concerns, and reactions to unfair behavior. These studies have convergingly identified brain regions that are important for these aspects of social behavior. One consistent finding is that activations of the dopaminergic mesolimbic ("reward") system, especially the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) do not exclusively reflect material self-interest, but also social aspects

""We probably have underestimated the role our microbial flora play in modulating disease risk," says Daniel Rader, a heart disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Rader, who was not involved in the study, says that gut bacteria may not be as big a factor in causing heart disease as diabetes or smoking, but could be important in tipping some people toward sickness. Researchers led by Stanley Hazen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, didn't start out to study gut bacteria. In fact, says Hazen, he had "no clue - zero," that intestinal microbes were involved in heart disease. "I'd never even considered it or thought of the concept." Hazen and his colleagues compared blood plasma from healthy people to plasma from people who had had heart attacks, strokes or died to see if substances in the blood could predict who is in danger from heart disease. The researchers found 18 small molecules associated with fat buildup in the arteries. One of the best predictors turned out to be a byproduct made when gut bacteria break down a fat called choline (also known as lecithin). The more of this byproduct, called trimethylamine N-oxide or TMAO, a person or mouse has in the blood, the higher the risk of getting heart disease, the researchers found. Gut bacteria are actually middlemen in TMAO production. The microbes convert lecithin to a gas that smells like rotten fish. Then an enzyme in the liver changes the foul-smelling gas to TMAO."

"But, "one has to be cautious. This is exciting science in rodents, but you can't just extrapolate to humans," says Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist and neuroscientist at UCLA's Center for Neurobiology of Stress who was not involved in the new study. Drug and food companies that make probiotics - beneficial bacteria taken in a pill or eaten in food such as yogurt - hope the products can help relieve depression, improve weight loss and cure other conditions, but there is little evidence in people that probiotics can accomplish those goals, Mayer says. "It's almost like science fiction; you can imagine the most amazing things because so little is known about it," he says. But, "So far there's really no evidence that probiotics affect emotions in humans." "

""Experiments with amoebae that usually live as individuals but must also join with others to form multicellular bodies to complete their life cycles showed that cooperation depends on kinship. If amoebae occur in well-mixed cosmopolitan groups, then cheaters will always be able to thrive by freeloading on their cooperative neighbors. But if groups derive from a single cell, cheaters will usually occur in all-cheater groups and will have no cooperators to exploit. A multicellular body like the human body is an incredibly cooperative thing," Queller says, "and sociobiologists have learned that really cooperative things are hard to evolve because of the potential for cheating. "It's the single-cell bottleneck that generates high relatedness among the cells that, in turn, allows them to cooperate, " he says."

Solve for X is a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Radical in the sense that the solutions could help billions of people. Radical in the sense that the audaciousness of the proposals makes them sound like science fiction.