Surprising Science

In just 3,000 years, an evolutionary microsecond, Tibetans have developed a unique version of a gene that helps them adapt to living at high altitudes. This according to a study published in Science.

Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku, who writes the Dr. Kaku’s Universe blog for Big Think, is appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” tonight at 11:30 to talk about […]

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, made assumptions quite different from Stephen Hawking’s dire warnings about aggressive alien life. Should we keep looking?

In a scientific experiment, men selected women with small feet and long thighs as the most attractive, while women selected men with small wrists. Evolutionary success could explain their choices.

A baby’s first smiles are not likely an expression of inner emotion but “first smiles teach infants the positive associations attached to a smile that we adults already feel,” says one professor of psychology.

While genes and lifestyle play their respective role in the aging process, deeper research further delineates between the two. Living past 100 may be in the genes, says Scientific American.

“Boys’ voices are breaking earlier; girls are developing breasts as young as six. But why?” Danish researchers began investigating when a church choir could not find enough pre-pubescent boys.

“Blood drawn with a simple needle stick can be coaxed into producing stem cells that may have the ability to form any type of tissue in the body.” This according to three new studies.

The idea that espionage always relies on cutting-edge technology is a myth, says The Christian Science Monitor, which divulges the five oldest, and still most effective, spy tricks.

The USDA is addressing the American health epidemic: “For the first time ever, our official dietary guidelines might address access to healthy food for poor people,” says Salon.

Researchers have demonstrated that “the neural circuitry that controls the sleep/wake cycle in humans may also control the sleep patterns of 17 different mammalian species.

Imaging technology has now been used to assemble the first comprehensive map of global soil moisture that covers all land areas of the world, except for frozen soils at high latitudes and in some mountain regions.

A new concept aircraft from Lockheed Martin could pave the way for supersonic flights over land by shushing the sonic booms created by the planes.

“What would you get if you crossed a whale with a shark?” asks Sid Perkins. “Maybe something like Leviathan melvillei, a long-extinct, hypercarnivorous whale with teeth longer than any T. rex ever had.”

Albert Einstein once said something very profound. He said the Universe could have been chaotic, random and ugly—and yet we have this gorgeous synthesis at the origin of the Universe […]

The struggle to overcome Tourette’s syndrome or even severe stuttering increases cognitive control in the prefrontal cortex because individuals suppress purely reflexive behavior.

“Apple’s legions of devotees should brace their hipster selves for an inevitable fall from grace,” says Dennis Kneale at the Daily Beast after sampling Google’s yet-unreleased smartphone.

MIT engineers have completed a four year project to develop a car with foldable wings, in other words, a flying car. The vehicle is powered by unleaded gasoline and goes for $200,000.

Though the Islamic world has “fallen behind” recent scientific times, the oil-rich states of the Middle East are seeking to diversify their economies. The New Scientist says science and technology appear promising.

NPR recounts how a modest scientific conclusion about classical music’s effect on spatial reasoning led to a nation obsessed with making their unborn babies listen to Mozart.

“A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals,” says The New York Times. Researchers find benefits to being a bit airy.

The design of the human jaw actually makes it 40-50 percent more efficient than for all great apes, Australian researchers have found.

Are some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones and so on — fueling slaughter and rape in Congo? The New York Times on the campaign for “clean” minerals.

Retired physician and emeritus professor Arthur Rivin shares insights on the increasingly common disease which 5.3 million Americans also have.

“Wearing fake goods makes you feel a fake yourself, and causes you to be more dishonest in other matters than you would otherwise be.” The Economist looks at faux fashionistas.

The New Scientist reports on one biochemist and one visual artist teamed up to investigate the ever blurring line between nature and technology—a post-humanist future, they call it.

By examining the brain patterns of people who demonstrate courage in the face of fear, scientists are hoping to find a way to rid people of their most irrational phobias.

By mid-century there will likely be 9 billion people on the planet, consuming ever more resources and leading ever more technologically complex lives.

“For me, the lesson…is that obstacles can also be advantages, that who we become is deeply influenced by what we cannot do” — Jonah Lehrer on stuttering and Tourette’s.