Molecular Evolution Is Echoed In Bat Ears
September 5, 2008
Do 68 Molecules Hold The Key To Understanding Disease?
September 5, 2008
Tutankhamen Fathered Twins, Mummified Fetuses Suggest
September 5, 2008 
ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2008) — Two fetuses found in the tomb of Tutankhamen may have been twins and were very likely to have been the children of the teenage Pharaoh, according to the anatomist who first studied the mummified remains of the young King in the 1960s.
Robert Connolly, who is working with the Egyptian authorities to analyse the mummified remains of Tutankhamen and the two stillborn children, will discuss the new findings at the Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt Conference at The University of Manchester on September 1, 2008.
Mr Connolly says: “The work carried out by Catherine Hellier in Norway and I suggests that the two fetuses in the tomb of Tutankhamen could be twins despite their very different size and thus fit better as a single pregnancy for his young wife. This increases the likelihood of them being Tutankhamen’s children.
“I studied one of the mummies, the larger one, back in 1979, determined the blood group data from this baby mummy and compared it with my 1969 blood grouping of Tutankhamen. The results confirmed that this larger fetus could indeed be the daughter of Tutankhamen.
“Now we believe that they are twins and they were both his children. The forthcoming DNA study on them by Dr Zahi Hawass’s group in Egypt will contribute another key piece to this question.”
Mr Connolly, Senior Lecturer in Physical Anthropology at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, adds: “It is a very exciting finding which will not only paint a more detailed picture of this famous young King’s life and death, it will also tell us more about his lineage.”
More than 100 delegates from 10 countries, including the Director of the Cultural Bureau of the Egyptian Embassy in the UK and researchers from Egypt’s Conservation of Medicinal Plants project in Sinai and the British Museum, are attending the conference, hosted by the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester, in conjunction with the National Research Centre in Cairo, Egypt, and sponsored by The Leverhulme Trust.
Robot Helicopter Teaches Itself How to Fly
September 3, 2008 A new artificial intelligence system allows a robotic helicopter to teach itself how to fly and even do challenging stunts, just by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers.
The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own, its inventors say.
The stunts are “by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer-controlled helicopter,” said Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley.
Federal plan would cut habitat for endangered peninsular bighorn sheep nearly by half
September 2, 2008 
‘Big Dog’: ‘Most Advanced Quadruped Robot’ Can Go Anywhere Regardless Of Terrain
August 16, 2008 It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next.
Scientists closer to developing invisibility cloak
August 14, 2008 
AFP/Getty Images Photo: A ray of light travels through a prism. The age-old fantasy of making yourself invisible…
"Elite" HIV wife may hold secret to AIDS vaccine
August 12, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus — even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his.
Surpassing Nature, Scientists Bend Light Backward
August 12, 2008 
Fingerprint Test Tells What a Person Has Touched
August 9, 2008 With a new analytical technique, a fingerprint can now reveal much more than the identity of a person. It can now also identify what the person has been touching: drugs, explosives or poisons, for example.
Writing in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, R. Graham Cooks, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, and his colleagues describe how a laboratory technique, mass spectrometry, could find a wider application in crime investigations.
The equipment to perform such tests is already commercially available, although prohibitively expensive for all but the largest crime laboratories. Smaller, cheaper, portable versions of such analyzers are probably only a couple of years away.
111-Year-Old Reptile Will Finally Be a Dad
August 7, 2008 
Maybe he was just waiting for that special female, or it might have been the cancerous growth that was removed from his genitals. Whatever the case, Henry, this 111-year-old reptile, mated for the first time in decades and will be a father.
Mother Earth Naked: A Modern Masterpiece
August 5, 2008 
World's Smallest Snake Found In Barbados
August 5, 2008 
The snake named Leptotyphlops carlae, as thin as a spaghetti noodle, is resting on a US quarter. Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University, discovered the species and determined that it is the smallest of the more than 3,100 known snake species
Rock Reunites Antarctica and North America
July 28, 2008 A solitary chunk of granite, small enough to heft in one hand, is key evidence that Australia and parts of Antarctica were once attached to North America, a new study suggests.