Metal 'Snakes' Fall Far Short of Life

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratories have observed nickel filings ordering into rows atop a special fluid. With precisely structured electromagnetic fields surrounding them, the snake-like rows undulated in their beakers.

The Apobetics of Aesthetics: A Hairy Problem for Evolution

Why do men have beards and women do not? Deep in the brain, the hypothalamus produces surges of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, a small chemical that acts like a key to turn on the manufacture and export of follicle-stimulating hormone and leutenizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland.


The 'Mystery' of Octopus Fossils

Around 150 years ago, Charles Darwin asserted that “no organism wholly soft can be preserved.”1 He concluded this based on the assumption that fossilization required long periods of time.


Fossil Fibers Befuddle Dinosaur Evolution

Evolutionary museums and textbooks have often portrayed modern birds as the descendants of dinosaurs, a story that has been presented without empirical support. Now, a new "feathered" dinosaur discovery has thrown a wrench into the already dysfunctional machinery of the dino-to-bird tale.


Scientists Seek Second Genesis

The invention of a synthetic life form is a dream shared by many scientists, and they are beginning to see it as a possibility that is achievable within a decade.

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