Science

Analyzing The Language Of Suicide Notes To Help Save Lives

1:20pm May 16, 2013

About a third of people who attempt suicide leave a note. John Pestian and others at Cincinnati Children's Hospital are merging psychology and computer analysis to see if such notes can help diagnose suicidal tendencies in the living.

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A scientist removes the nucleus from a human egg using a pipette. This is the first step to making personalized embryonic stem cells.

Scientists Clone Human Embryos To Make Stem Cells

11:57am May 16, 2013

The achievement is a long-sought step toward harnessing the potential power of such cells to treat diseases. But the discovery raises ethical concerns because it brings researchers closer to cloning humans.

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After President Obama overturned Bush-era policy restricting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in 2009, Nebraska Right to Life led a protest of the research outside the University of Nebraska regents' meeting.

Cloning, Stem Cells Long Mired In Legislative Gridlock

11:53am May 16, 2013

by Julie Rovner

The news that scientists have successfully cloned a human embryo seems almost certain to rekindle a political fight that has raged, on and off, since the creation of Dolly the sheep. It's a fight that has, over the past decade and a half, produced a lot of heat and light and not a lot of policy.

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This map, from the United States Geological Survey, shows the age of bedrock in different regions of North America. Scientists found ancient water in bedrock north of Lake Superior. This region, colored red, was formed more than 2.5 billion years ago.

Water Trapped For 1.5 Billion Years Could Hold Ancient Life

9:25am May 16, 2013

by Adam Cole

Scientists have discovered water that was sealed in Canadian bedrock for nearly half of Earth's history. It may contain the descendants of ancient microbes. The discovery could give scientists new insights into early life on Earth and inform the search for life on other planets.

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Crew members unload a catch of sockeye salmon at Craig, Alaska, in 2005. Researchers say fish are being found in new areas because of changing ocean temperatures.

Go Fish (Somewhere Else): Warming Oceans Are Altering Catches

7:39pm May 15, 2013

by Richard Harris

Fish are moving away from the equator and toward the poles to maintain their preferred water temperature. That means, for example, that fishermen are seeing swordfish normally found in the Mediterranean swimming near Denmark. But in the tropics, there are no fish to replace the ones that are leaving.

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Bly Straub, the lead curator of the Jamestown artifacts, stands in a private storage and display room on Jamestown Island. Straub has traced the history of the artifacts to all parts of the world.

With Rising Seas, America's Birthplace Could Disappear

7:15pm May 14, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

By the end of the century, ocean levels could rise by 2 or 3 feet. That's enough to flood the colonists' first settlement at Jamestown, Va. And it's putting pressure on archaeologists to get as many artifacts out of the ground as quickly as possible — before it's too late.

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Would Mel Brooks' famous 2,000-Year-Old Man have understood modern language? Researchers say there's a possibility.

Could You Talk To A Caveman? Scientists Say It's Possible

5:41pm May 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

Researchers at the University of Reading are speculating that today's languages share a common root dating as far back as the last Ice Age. Words like "mother," "man" and "ashes" are categorized as "ultraconserved," meaning they are survivors of a lost language from which many modern tongues are descended.

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The Promise And Limitations Of Telemedicine

2:07pm May 14, 2013

Telemedicine is nothing new, but advancements in technology have made it even more widely available. Neurologists can now treat Parkinson's patients from miles away, therapists can reach service members overseas, and general practitioners can work in rural areas without actually going there at all.

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Researchers use the 120-foot tower atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii to collect air samples and measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mauna Kea looms in the distance.

Atop A Hawaiian Mountain, A Constant Sniff For Carbon Dioxide

1:22pm May 14, 2013

by Joe Palca

Since 1958, researchers have been measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The remote outpost has just reported a carbon dioxide level of 400 parts per million — the highest it has climbed in the modern age.

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The Plymouth County Beekeepers Association distributed more than 500 crates of honeybees this spring.

For Year-Round Buzz, Beekeepers 'Fast-Forward Darwinism'

6:51pm May 12, 2013

by Katherine Perry

Honeybees are in trouble across the U.S., but one association in Massachusetts is hoping to boost the population in its own area. The bees it currently uses have a hard time surviving the winter and battling other foes that have been killing bees nationwide. So beekeepers in Plympton decided to breed their own.

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