Category Archives: boston globe

In yet another example of how monkeylike humans are (or how humanlike monkeys are), monkeys can link sounds to specific facial expressions, report researchers in the June 26 Nature. Rhesus monkeys communicate using their faces and voices. Among their most … Continue reading →

Opposites don’t attract, at least in regard to choosing a long-term mate, say researchers at Cornell University in a study published online last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Peter M. Buston and Stephen T. Emlen … Continue reading →

Here’s some great news for particle-physics enthusiasts: A new type of subatomic particle has been discovered! And for you non-particle-physics enthusiasts, here’s a primer: Quarks are the elementary particles that make up the subatomic particles that make up atoms that … Continue reading →

Sex among the arachnids isn’t particularly romantic to the human eye: female spiders routinely attempt to munch on their mates during or after copulation. And it makes sense: The females need the extra nutrition for their offspring-to-be. Most males try … Continue reading →

People feel pain differently, and brain scans prove it, Robert Coghill of Wake Forest University and his colleagues reported last week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their experiment, the researchers put … Continue reading →

The sky’s not the limit for lightning discoveries: In the past few years, scientists have observed new high-altitude electrical phenomena called sprites, elves, and blue jets. Now Han-Tzong Su of National Cheng Kung University of Taiwan and his colleagues report … Continue reading →

Are you a night owl late for your day job again? Tell your boss to blame your genes. British researchers from the University of Surrey report in Sleep, the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep … Continue reading →

Researchers from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology of Japan are growing decaffeinated coffee plants. Shinjiro Ogita and colleagues report in the June 19 Nature that they have genetically modified coffee plants to repress a key caffeine-making gene, thereby … Continue reading →

Just like bats (and submarines), dolphins send out sonar signals to navigate as well as home in on prey. They emit high-pitched sounds and then process the echoes that are bounced back from distant objects to obtain a picture of … Continue reading →

Hairy humans just aren’t sexy, report British researchers in the Royal Society’s Biology Letters last week. That’s the reason why humans are hairless, instead of furry like almost all other mammals. The old theory of human hairlessness supposes that we … Continue reading →