A study published Sept. 29 by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the "mark test" can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.

What happens in your brain when you view illusions in which two separate images can be seen?

A major extinction event is under way - but predicting which species will survive could be harder than we thought. That's the conclusion of one of the most accurate analyses ever of diversity in the marine animal fossil record.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2010) - Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new University of Florida study finds.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2010) - Global agricultural expansion cut a wide swath through tropical forests during the 1980s and 1990s. More than half a million square miles of new farmland -- an area roughly the size of Alaska -- was created in the developing world between 1980 and 2000, of which over 80 percent was carved out of tropical forests, according to Stanford researcher Holly Gibbs.

"More than 35 years ago, Matthieu Ricard left a promising career in cellular genetics to study Buddhism in the Himalayas. After earning a doctorate in biology from the prestigious Pasteur Institute in France, Ricard left Paris and moved to Darjeeling, India to study with a great Tibetan master. Today, Ricard draws upon his recent writings, research into brain plasticity and cognitive neuropsychology, and his work with neuroscientists and Buddhist practitioners at the Mind and Life Institute (co-founded by the Dalai Lama), while examining the interconnecting relationship between meditation, brain circuitry, and emotional balance."

"Renegade husband and wife philosophers Pat and Paul Churchland met forty years ago in a college Plato class. Their instincts as philosophers - then and now - run outside the philosophy mainstream. Where most philosophers looked to reason and logic to apprehend the human mind, the Churchlands looked - and look - to science. There is no independent "mind", these two practically say, just the human brain, three pounds of tissue and water, firing away behind all our emotions, beliefs, actions. Consciousness itself, they say, is straight biology, a machine. Once, that sounded esoteric. Now, it's on the frontline of debate over law, soul and life."

"ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) - There's something beyond plain old ignorance that motivates Americans to believe President Obama is a Muslim, according to a first-of-its-kind study of smear campaigns led by a Michigan State University psychologist."

"ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2010) - When given a choice, older people prefer to read negative news, rather than positive news, about young adults, a new study suggests. In fact, older readers who chose to read negative stories about young individuals actually get a small boost in their self-esteem, according to the results."

Researchers have for the first time identified changes in sex hormones associated with bisphenol A exposure in men, in a large population study. BPA is a chemical commonly used in food and drink containers.

"ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2010) - A new study from researchers in Canada and Sweden has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans. The results, from an early phase clinical trial with 10 patients, are published in the August 25th, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine"

New research looks at the effects of studying a form of meditation on brain connectivity. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers in China and the University of Oregon describe experiments on 45 students, some of whom were taught a meditation technique known as integrative body-mind training (IBMT). The researchers used brain imaging techniques to examine fibers connecting brain regions before and after training. Students trained in the IBMT approach for 11 hours or more appeared to develop new fibers in a part of the brain that helps a person regulate behavior. Control subjects did not form the new fibers. But what does the presence of those fibers actually mean -- and what is the meditation technique doing? We'll talk about it.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2010) - Some of us need regular amounts of coffee or other chemical enhancers to make us cognitively sharper. A newly published study suggests perhaps a brief bit of meditation would prepare us just as well.

(AP) -- Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It's not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.

"Researchers at Ohio State University have demonstrated the first plastic computer memory device that utilizes the spin of electrons to read and write data. An alternative to traditional microelectronics, the "spintronics" device could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power."