ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2011) - If mice commuted, their brains might find it progressively harder to navigate the maze of Los Angeles freeways. A new study reveals that after short-term exposure to vehicle pollution, mice showed significant brain damage -- including signs associated with memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.

Traditional methods of transmitting data, such as fibre optics or laser-based radar, require roughly 100 photons to transmit a single bit of data. Now a team led by Saikat Guha at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say they can transmit 10 bits on a single photon - a 1000-fold improvement.

Roll over headlines to view top news summaries: Making Skinny Worms Fat and Fat Worms Skinny 'Exploratory' Butterflies Genetically Different Spiders Target Insects' Mate-Luring Signals Huge Natural Arch Found In Afghanistan Warm Water For Cold Winters in Northeast Ocean and River Water for Electricity Blood-Testing Device Can Spot Cancer, HIV Continuing Winter Ice Loss in Arctic Sea Plants Optimize Before Spinning Off New Species Hidden Code Reveals Brain Activity

ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2011) - University of Minnesota researchers are a key step closer to making renewable petroleum fuels using bacteria, sunlight and carbon dioxide.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2011) - Darwin's notion that only the fittest survive has been called into question by new research published in the journal Nature. A collaboration between the Universities of Exeter and Bath in the UK, with a group from San Diego State University in the US, challenges our current understanding of evolution by showing that biodiversity may evolve where previously thought impossible.

MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Cognitive-bias modification may put the psychiatrist's couch out of business

For many teenagers navigating the social challenges of high school, the ultimate goal is to become part of the "popular" crowd. But new research suggests that the road to high school popularity can be treacherous, and that students near the top of the social hierarchy are often both perpetrators and victims of aggressive behavior involving their peers. The latest findings, being published this month in The American Sociological Review, offer a fascinating glimpse into the social stratification of teenagers. The new study, along with related research from the University of California, Davis, also challenges the stereotypes of both high school bully and victim

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) - A brain imaging study at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals a subtle difference between ordinary obese subjects and those who compulsively overeat, or binge: In binge eaters but not ordinary obese subjects, the mere sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a spike in dopamine -- a brain chemical linked to reward and motivation.

How the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life.

The Internet has become not only a tool for disseminating knowledge through scientific publications, but it also has the potential to shape scientific research through expanding the field of metaknowledge - the study of knowledge itself, according to an article published by University of Chicago researchers in the journal Science.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2011) - Think you're overloaded with information? Not even close.

Peak Oil is the point at which petroleum production reaches its greatest rate just before going into perpetual decline. In "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," a new video series from The Nation and On The Earth productions, radio host Thom Hartmann explains that the world will reach peak oil within the next year if it hasn't already. As a nation, the United States reached peak oil in 1974, after which it became a net oil importer. Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and the other scientists, researchers and writers interviewed throughout "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" describe the diminishing returns our world can expect as it deals with the consequences of peak oil even as it continues to pretend it doesn't exist. These experts predict substantially increased transportation costs, decreased industrial production, unemployment, hunger and social chaos as the supplies of the  fuels on which we rely dwindle and eventually disappear. Chomsky urges us to anticipate the official response to peak oil based on how corporations, news organizations and other institutions have responded to global warming: obfuscation, spin and denial. James Howard Kunstler says that we cannot survive peak oil unless we "come up with a consensus about reality that is consistent with the way things really are." This documentary series hopes to help build that consensus. Click here to watch the introductory video, and check back here for new videos each Wednesday.