Scientific American - Biology

Social Clicks: Sounds Associated with African Languages Are Common in English

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.

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More with Maryn: McKenna on Antibiotic Resistance

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:10:08 EST

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]

Temperatures--Not Acid--Could Cook Coral to Death

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:01:00 EST

One of the biggest natural tragedies of recent years is the deterioration of Australia's Great Barrier Reef , a vast structure of coral off the continent's east coast that supports a profusion of wildlife. In addition to overfishing and nutrient pollution, the world's largest natural structure has suffered from rising ocean temperatures. But, perhaps less well known, Australia's west coast has some massive reefs of its own, offshore in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Massive stony corals of the genus Porites swell to the surface, and new research published February 2 in Science suggests those located in the colder waters farthest south are growing better than ever --thanks to warming ocean temperatures.

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Newfound Alien Planet Is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST

A potentially habitable alien planet -- one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface -- has been found around a nearby star.

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Controversy: Can Repeat Concussions Cause Lou Gehrig's Disease? (preview)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:05:00 EST

Kevin Turner was a premier athlete in the National Football League, a fullback who could run, catch and block. At 6' 1" and roughly 230 pounds, he was slightly undersized for his position, but he had tremendous thrust in his legs and used all of it to launch himself into players who were bigger than he was. He played for the New England Patriots from 1992 to 1994, then joined the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he stayed until his abrupt retirement in 1999. Some called him “the Collision Expert”--a nickname he got because of the gouges he collected on his helmet.

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Inside Story: What Happens When Brain Hits Skull

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

Concussion, the most common among traumatic brain injuries, which occurs 1.7 million times a year in the U.S., represents a major public-health problem. It occurs when there is a sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head, a process depicted here in this animation.

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Scorpion Armor Inspires Sand-Resistant Surfaces

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:20:08 EST

It’s tough to be a machine in the desert: particles of dirt and sand work their way into moving parts, where they abrade turbines, motors, pipes and other equipment. To avoid this costly wear and tear, researchers are taking lessons from a desert native: the yellow fat-tail scorpion.

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Concussion Is a Serious Problem for Child Athletes

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

The dangers of life in the National Football League made headlines in 2009, when a study commissioned by the NFL found that retired players were 19 times more likely than other men of similar ages to develop severe memory problems. The obvious culprit: continued play after repeated head injuries. Indeed, head injury can imitate many types of neurodegenerative disease, including Parkinson’s disease and, as journalist Jeffrey Bartholet reports in “The Collision Syndrome,” on page 66, perhaps even amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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Penetrating Piscine Patterns: X-Rays Reveal What's Beneath Fishes' Scales [Slide Show]

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:30:00 EST

X-rays of fish skeletons that scientists use to study evolutionary development are now displayed as art. A new exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History will feature 40 x-rays of sea creatures laid out in evolutionary sequence. X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside-Out showcases the work of the museum’s scientists. X-rays allow researchers to study fish structures without dissections. The exhibition opens to the public on February 4 and runs until August 5.

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Fecal Transplants: The Straight Poop

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:47:08 EST

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about fecal transplants, which have proven to be exceptionally effective at remodeling the intestinal microbiome and curing C. diff infections, but which remain in regulatory limbo. Web sites related to this episode include www.marynmckenna.com , Swapping Germs: Should Fecal Transplants Become Routine for Debilitating Diarrhea? [More]

Spider Parting Gift Makes Him Sterile Father

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:11:08 EST

To a female orb web spider, a suitable male can look like a mate--and a meal. For these spiders, the dating game has turned into a deadly dance of evolutionary one-upsmanship.

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Honey Helps Heal Wounds

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:30:08 EST

Honey soothes a sore throat. Now research suggests that it could also help fight serious skin infections.

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Proteus: How Radiolarians Saved Ernst Haeckel

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:48:00 EST

Ernst Haeckel around Christmas 1860, when he was 26, the year after he returned from Italy.

Ernst Haeckel had spent an unhappy year practicing medicine when his parents finally consented to pay for a year of scientific study and travel in Italy. It was 1859, and he was 25. He had discovered a passion for biology and a talent for art during his college years, but his parents had pushed for practicality. If there was ever an antidote for practicality, it’s Italy.

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New Cornell High-Tech Campus Recalls Former Research Glory of Small New York City Island

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

The aging Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island--soon to be the site of Cornell University's new NYC Tech Campus --holds a significant place in 20th-century medicine. [More]

New Cornell Campus to Cultivate High-Tech Industry in New York City [Slide Show]

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST

For years New York City–based universities have been opening satellite campuses worldwide, whether it is New York University's sites in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv or Columbia University's Global Centers in Beijing and Nairobi. Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa is returning the favor in a big way, partnering with Ithaca, N.Y.–based Cornell University to build a campus on New York City's Roosevelt Island . [More]

Drug Addiction May Make Users More Vulnerable to Stress

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Mood disorders such as depression are known to increase drug abuse risk. Yet mounting evidence suggests that substance abuse also makes people more vulnerable to depression and the negative effects of stress, according to Eric J. Nestler, chair of neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine . He and his team reported new details about the link between depression and drug abuse in Neuron in August.

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Redefining Autism: Will New DSM-5 Criteria for ASD Exclude Some People?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:30:00 EST

People have been arguing about autism for a long time--about what causes it , how to treat it and whether it qualifies as a mental disorder. The controversial idea that childhood vaccines trigger autism also persists, despite the fact that study after study has failed to find any evidence of such a link. Now, psychiatrists and members of the autistic community are embroiled in a more legitimate kerfuffle that centers on the definition of autism and how clinicians diagnose the disorder. The debate is not pointless semantics. In many cases, the type and number of symptoms clinicians look for when diagnosing autism determines how easy or difficult it is for autistic people to access medical, social and educational services. [More]

Animals Get the Upper Paw, or Hoof, or Claw (preview)

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

In journalism, there’s what you call your dog-bites-man situation. Which is anything too common and expected to be a good story (unless the dog is one of those Resident Evil hellhounds, or the man is Cesar Millan). An example of a dog-bites-man science story is yet another confirmation of Einstein and relativity.

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Brain Likely Encodes the World in 2 Dimensions

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

When we drive somewhere new, we navigate by referring to a two-dimensional map that accounts for distances only on a horizontal plane. According to research published online in August in Nature Neuroscience , the mammalian brain seems to do the same, collapsing the world into a flat plane even as the animal skitters up trees and slips deep into burrows.

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Fetal Armor: How the Placenta Shapes Brain Development (preview)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

The placenta is unique among organs--critical to human life yet fleeting. In its short time of duty, it serves as a vital protective barrier to the fetus. The organ’s blood vessels--which resemble tree roots in this image by Norman Barker, associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine--also deliver essential oxygen and nutrients from the mother to her developing baby. Still, the placenta has been vastly underappreciated. Scientists are taking a closer look and finding that it is much more than a simple conduit: it actively protects the fetus and shapes neurological development.

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