Many people are worried about an apocalypse in 2012 purportedly predicted by the Mayan calendar, according to a report by National Geographic News. Survival kits, documentaries, a movie and nearly 200 books are helping to fuel the anxiety.
Meanwhile, researchers have discovered what is being described as a "missing link" dinosaur skeleton that could link the earliest dinosaurs with the large plant-eating sauropods.
And scientists said an asteroid that collided with the Earth almost 2 billion years ago, in what is known as the Sudbury impact, may have stirred the seas worldwide and delivered a huge amount of oxygen to the deep ocean.
Save to Library
Scientists say gene therapy may be on the verge of a resurgence following reports of three recent successes involving a childhood brain disease, an eye disease and a childhood immune disorder.
Obesity appears to be a risk factor for developing life-threatening complications from H1N1 influenza, researchers reported, and patients over age 50 are most likely to die from the virus, but less likely than children and young adults to contract it in the first place.
In other biomedical news, a large study has found that the old way of doing heart bypass surgery, in which the heart was stopped and a heart-lung machine employed during the procedure, works better than newer "off-pump" surgery.
With $170 million in federal grants, teams of stem cell researchers around the U.S. are joining forces in their quest for new therapies for a variety of human disorders.
Scientists have decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, which may eventually prove useful in finding new treatments for both pigs and people. Researchers use pigs to study everything from obesity and heart disease to skin disorders.
The Los Angeles Times was among media outlets to recount the career of French philosopher Claude Levi-Strauss, widely considered the father of modern anthropology. He died recently at his home in Paris at age 100.
Save to Library
The Christian Science Monitor reported that converting SUVs to all-electric vehicles could be an idea whose time has come, particularly if gas prices ever again soar to $4 a gallon, as they did last year.
In other technology news, the Washington Post traced the remarkable rise of GPS technology. Or as the newspaper put it, "America has seen its last Lost Generation."
And a new design for wind turbine blades that makes them "invisible" to aviation radar could be the advance needed to promote the installation of large-scale wind farms around the world, according to Technology Review.
Save to Library
Total Records : 413