Monthly Archives: April 2003

The tooth fairy had better start coughing up: Baby teeth may be worth a whole lot more than some spare change under the pillow. They’ve been found to contain a rich supply of stem cells, the powerful precursor cells of … Continue reading →

If scientists want to study ancient DNA, they usually extract it from fossils, the remains of ancient plants and animals. But molecular biologists from the University of Copenhagen found DNA in dirt instead. They drilled cores up to 100 feet … Continue reading →

Sheep may help shed light on why some human births are premature. Researchers have long suspected that a mother’s nutrition plays a key role in gestation length but, until now, a link hadn’t been shown. According to a study in … Continue reading →

Archeologists have discovered the oldest known depiction of a deity found in the Americas, a 4,000-year-old gourd fragment incised with an image of the Staff God, a principal god in the South American pantheon. The Staff God, a fanged, splay-footed … Continue reading →

A study by biologists at Tufts University has found that female fireflies prefer males with longer-lasting flashes. It seems that a longer flash is related to the quality of the “nuptial gift” he can give to his mate, report Sara … Continue reading →

According to meteorologists, typhoons never occur near the equator. Why? Because the Coriolis effect, which gives spin to the wind due to the rotation of the Earth, is weakest there. That spin helps form the violent, swirling, circular wind-driven thunderstorms … Continue reading →

Our prehistoric ancestors may well have eaten human flesh regularly, John Collinge of University College London and his colleagues state in the April 11 Science. They say cannibalism is the most likely explanation for their discovery that genes protecting against … Continue reading →

What becomes a legend most? How about getting stuffed and placed in a museum? Dolly, the poster-sheep of cloning, has found a final resting place at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dolly, the most famous sheep since Mary’s little … Continue reading →

In the animal kingdom, females usually prefer to mate with the most elaborately ornamented males — the peacock with the showiest tail or the songbird with the most complex song. It’s long been speculated that these showy sexual displays give … Continue reading →