Research News

Big Sibling's Big Influence: Some Behaviors Run In The Family

12:02pm May 01, 2013

by Alix Spiegel

Psychologists have long known that children often model their behavior on the actions of parents or peers. But science has only recently begun to measure the influence of siblings. An older brother's or sister's behavior can be very contagious, it turns out — for good and for bad.

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Three PhoneSats, like the one seen here during a high-altitude balloon test, were launched into space on Sunday. The slightly modified cellphone satellites cost a few thousand dollars in parts.

Can You Hear Me Now? Cellphone Satellites Phone Home

6:59pm April 26, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

Never mind the big-budget NASA satellites. A team of young engineers has tricked out a few off-the-shelf cellphones and sent them to space. The smartphones are already above us, sending images and data back to ham radio operators on Earth.

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Science

Studying Earth To Learn About Mars

10:21am April 26, 2013

Southern Utah's landscape looks a lot like images from the Mars rovers. Marjorie Chan explains how Utah geology might help explain data sent back from Mars missions. Charles Killian describes how people are simulating what it might be like to one day live and work on Mars.

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Flooding from Superstorm Sandy damaged Gordon Fishell's basement lab at NYU in Manhattan. Almost all of his research mice died.

A Tale Of Mice And Medical Research, Wiped Out By A Superstorm

2:46am April 26, 2013

by Jon Hamilton

When Superstorm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan last year, thousands of lab animals drowned and many scientists lost months or even years of work. The specialty animals can be very difficult to replace, but researchers say the loss of animal life is emotionally devastating and difficult to get over.

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What Does Modern Prejudice Look Like?

10:08am April 23, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

Most Americans think of prejudice as animosity toward people in other groups. But two psychologists argue that unconscious bias — often in the form of giving some people special treatment — is the way prejudice largely works in America today.

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Members of the research team fend for themselves in a communal kitchen (while fending off persistent ants) before heading out for a challenging day on the reef.

This Scientist Aims High To Save The World's Coral Reefs

9:52pm April 22, 2013

by Richard Harris

Ken Caldeira is trying to come up with a big solution to the problem of increasingly acid oceans: antacids for coral reefs. That might keep the reefs from being destroyed by humans' use of fossil fuels. And that's not his only big idea. But even Caldeira admits that his audacious plan could fail.

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The small squares superimposed on this image of the Milky Way galaxy show where in the sky the Kepler telescope is hunting for Earth-like planets. Kepler, which launched in 2009, has identified more than 100 planets.

Kepler Telescope Spots 3 New Planets In The 'Goldilocks Zone'

10:26pm April 18, 2013

by Joe Palca

The planets orbiting far-off stars are close to Earth-sized and are a distance from their suns that makes their surfaces neither too hot nor too cold. Since launching in 2009, the Kepler telescope has identified more than 100 planets.

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An older man performs exercises in Mumbai, India. Research suggests that moderate physical exercise may be the best way to keep our brains healthy as we age.

How Exercise And Other Activities Beat Back Dementia

8:45am April 16, 2013

by Patti Neighmond

"What's good for the heart is good for the brain," one neuroscientist says. In addition to physical exercise, researchers say mental exercise, socializing and a good diet can help preserve memory.

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Lou Ann Schachner, 84, and Jay Schachner, 81, are volunteers with the Northwestern University SuperAging Project. They keep track of all their plans in a shared calendar. She loves to cook and study French and he is a part-time tax lawyer.

Inside The Brains Of People Over 80 With Exceptional Memory

8:45am April 16, 2013

by Michelle Trudeau

Research into why some people have strong memory well into old age suggests that their brains are different from their peers. Some parts of the brains of "superagers" responsible for attention, thinking and memory seem to be spared the typical age-related shrinkage.

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Looking To Nature For Antibiotic Inspirations

1:03pm April 12, 2013

Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacterial cells, employ an arsenal of chemical weapons. Microbiologist Vincent Fischetti of Rockefeller University describes using tricks learned from the phage in developing new antibiotics that may be effective even where others fail.

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