The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to 7 bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- and 3 orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don't say it out loud … these apes understand English.
Primitive fish already may have possessed the genetic wiring needed to grow hands and feet well before the appearance of the first animals with limbs roughly 365 million years ago.
Twelve footprints found in the bed of an ancient lake in northern Spain have thrown up the first compelling evidence that some land dinosaurs could swim. The prints paint a beguiling picture of a large, buoyant dinosaur whose clawed feet raked the se
The mysteries had actually been solved by Joseph Davidovits, Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, France, more than two decades ago. Davidovits claimed that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a very early form of concret
"Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum -- ionizing radiation -- to benefit
Female sharks can fertilize their own eggs and give birth without sperm from males, according to a new study of the asexual reproduction of a hammerhead in a U.S. zoo.
Researchers have found that, at the molecular level, water exhibits viscous, even solid-like properties. When molecules of water are forced to move through a small gap between two solid surfaces, the substance's viscosity increases by a factor of
Many writers who are not scientists themselves are trading on the prestige of science and the authority of scientists.
"We injected the cells into mice with damaged retinas due to diabetes or other eye injury. The cells migrated to the injured eye, and incorporated into the entire damaged vasculature. The cells are really smart, and amazingly, knew not to do any
You've heard of the Loch Ness Monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The sea serpents of legend, right? A local diver says he's found something not even the Smithsonian can identify and it's right off the shores of Juno Beach.
The University of Granada study of Gorham's cave on Gibraltar shows the Neanderthal extinction could have been determined by environmental and climate changes, and not by competitiveness with modern humans.
From Papal Indulgences to Carbon Credits
The most thorough probe to date of the genetic underpinnings of the most common form of diabetes has identified a new batch of genes that increases risk for a disease affecting 200 million people globally.
A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is now wiping out bees across the U.S., University of California, San Francisco
Paralyzed lab rodents with spinal cord injuries apparently regained some ability to walk six weeks after a simple injection of biodegradable soap-like molecules that helped nerves regenerate.
A giant mystery organism more than 350 million years old has finally been identified as a humongous fungus. The enigma known as Prototaxites, which stood in branchless, tree-like trunks up to more than 20 feet tall and a yard wide, lived worldwide fr
Argentine scientists said they had created four cloned and genetically modified calves capable of producing human insulin in their milk, a step they said could cut the cost of treating diabetes.
Cells that are supposed to nourish and support other nerve cells instead secrete the poisons that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, researchers reported.
An adolescent female Tyrannosaurus rex died 68 million years ago, but its bones still contain intact soft tissue, including the oldest preserved proteins ever found. A comparison of the protein’s chemical structure to a slew of other species showed a
Spiders love to fly. Hundreds can touch down in an acre of land on a day when conditions are right. And before casting out a silk thread and swooping miles through the air, a spider checks the weather just as a human pilot might do during a pre-fligh
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters. Scientists want to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible
A gene that contributes to obesity has been identified for the first time, promising to explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim. People who inherit one version of the gene rather than another are
Four genes gang up together to help cancer spread throughout the body, researchers said, including one affected by arthritis drugs. And a second study found that 87 different genes work to help make cancer more vulnerable to drug treatment.
The same rules that make Earth plants green may make non-Earth plants yellow, red or green -- but likely not blue, NASA scientists said.
The Purdue University engineers, following mathematical guidelines devised in 2006 by physicists in the United Kingdom, have created a theoretical design that uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke. The design, which res
The fossilised remains of an amphibian which lived more than 245 million years ago have been found in Antarctica, suggesting that the climate during much of the Triassic era was remarkably balmy.
A set of special eyes, similar to our own, keeps venomous box jellyfish from bumping into obstacles as they swim across the ocean floor. Unlike normal jellyfish, which drift in the ocean current, box jellyfish are active swimmers that can rapidly m
British medical researchers have grown human heart tissue from stem cells in a breakthrough reported that offers a possible solution to a shortage of donors for heart transplants.
Scientists have taken the temperature of Earth’s innards, more than a thousand miles beneath the surface, and found that the mercury there soars to about 6,650 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s nearly as steamy as our sun, where the surface reaches 9,980 de
The mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs and other life 65 million years ago apparently did not, contrary to conventional wisdom, immediately clear the way for the rise of today’s mammals.
