Category archives: Weekly Selection

Herbal remedy has cancerous side effect Aristolochia plants, which have been used in China for herbal remedies, have been found to cause cancer, according to two studies published in Science Translational Medicine. The plants contain a naturally carcinogenic compound called aristolochic acid, which causes more cell mutations than those caused by tobacco smoke and UV […]

Varied smelling ability linked to genes Scientists at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research sequenced test subjects’ genomes to see if they could predict an individual’s smelling ability, and found clusters of genes that reliably predicted the person’s ability to smell four of 10 chemicals. “All of these genes are on different […]

Methane released from Arctic permafrost could cost trillions worldwide Scientists warn that large amounts of methane that could be released from the melting Arctic permafrost could have a huge global economic impact. The release of 50-gigatonnes of methane over 10 years could cost $60 trillion worldwide, according to a study published in the journal Nature […]

New study of foragers undermines claim that war has deep evolutionary roots One of the most insidious modern memes holds that war is innate, an adaptation bred into our ancestors by natural selection. This hypothesis—let’s call it the “Deep Roots Theory of War”–has been promoted by some intellectual heavyweights. A study published today in Science […]

Dog breeds in Americas trace ancestry to Asian dogs A study found that modern breeds of Chihuahuas, Arctic sled dogs and Peruvian hairless dogs trace their ancestry to dogs that humans brought across the ancient land bridge that connected North America to Northeast Asia. The study compared DNA from Asian and European dogs with archaeological […]

Clouds protect habitable planets from star’s heat According to a recent study that developed a 3D model to explore how clouds affect temperatures on exoplanets, the number of habitable worlds could be double the amount previously thought. The study found that as many as 60 billion exoplanets fall within a habitable zone around their star […]

Poor Math Skills Make a Mortgage Default More Likely Unprecedented numbers of American subprime mortgage holders began defaulting on their loans in 2006, precipitating two years later the most severe global recession since The Great Depression. Pundits have offered numerous theories about what started the mortgage mayhem, but firm evidence has remained elusive. According to […]

Violence against women at epidemic proportions Three in ten women worldwide have been punched, shoved, dragged, threatened with weapons, raped, or subjected to other violence from a current or former partner. Close to one in ten have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner. Of women who are murdered, more than one in […]

The mad hatterpillar These caterpillars are native to Australia and eat eucalyptus trees. Why do they build themselves a hat? No one really seems to know why the caterpillars keep their old heads hanging around. Bug Girl’s Blog When Cleaning fMRI Data is a Nuisance A flaw in data processing could be leading to biases […]

Hope springs eternal: “Pandora’s Promise” and the truth about nuclear energy So why would environmentalists of all people support nuclear power? What changed these people’s minds? Two things, primarily. The Curious Wavefuntion Making and Breaking Compulsive Behaviour When scientists have scanned the brains of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, they’ve seen more neural activity in areas […]