Research News

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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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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Science

Exploring An Ever-Expanding Universe

1:23pm May 10, 2013

Saul Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate. Perlmutter explains how supernovae and other astronomical artifacts are used to measure the expansion rate, and explains what physicists are learning about "dark energy" — the mysterious entity thought to be driving the acceleration.

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Microexpressions: More Than Meets The Eye

1:23pm May 10, 2013

David Matsumoto, a psychology professor at San Francisco State University, trains national security officials and police officers to recognize "microexpressions"--fleeting, split-second flashes of emotion across someone's face. Matsumoto says those subtle cues may reveal how an interview subject is feeling, helping officials to hone their line of questioning.

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One contemporary analysis links the increase in gender equality in a society with increased sexual empowerment of women and less sexual coercion. But there's more to it than that.

Science

What Does 'Sexual Coercion' Say About A Society?

11:46am May 10, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

Anthropologists have long documented the differences in the extent of sexual coercion — including rape — in different human societies. But is it a vestige of evolutionary history, indicative of cultural activity or governed by power dynamics between females and males?

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A bee inspector checks on a frame of bees to assess the colony strength near Turlock, Calif., in February. More than 30 percent of America's bee colonies died off over the winter.

Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops

10:56pm May 07, 2013

by Dan Charles

The number of honeybees has now dwindled to the point where there may not be enough to pollinate some major U.S. crops, including almonds, blueberries and apples. And this year brought farmers closer than ever to a true pollination crisis.

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Science

This Bat Knows How To Drink

3:15pm May 07, 2013

by Rhitu Chatterjee

The Pallas' long-tongued bat has a neat trick at the tip of its tongue — tiny hairlike structures that fill with blood and stand straight out. This turns the tongue into a nectar-slurping mop at just the right time.

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Science

Scientists Seek To Take The Measure of Antimatter

10:49am May 03, 2013

In 2011, researchers at CERN found a way to trap and hold particles of antihydrogen for about 15 minutes at a time. Jeffrey Hangst, spokesman for the ALPHA project at CERN, describes how scientists are trying to measure basic properties of the particles, such as their mass.

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These robotic flies, which were built in a Harvard lab, can flap their wings independently of each other and fly around while tethered to a power and control wire.

Science

Of Flybots And Bug Eyes: Insects Inspire Inventors

5:49pm May 02, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

Miniaturizing technology is really hard — gears, rotors, belts and pistons that work perfectly at human size just don't work very well at the small scale. So researchers are turning to insects for ideas about how to make tiny flying robots and cameras — and driving a new generation of gadgets.

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The four cuts at the top of this skull "are clear chops to the forehead," says Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley. Based on forensic evidence, researchers think the blows were made after the person died.

Bones Tell Tale Of Desperation Among The Starving At Jamestown

7:48pm May 01, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

The winter of 1609-1610 has been called the "starving time" for the hundreds of men and women who settled the English colony of Jamestown, Va. They ate their horses, their pets — and, apparently, at least one person. Scientists say human bones recovered from the site provide the first hard evidence that the colonists may have resorted to cannibalism.

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