|  Australia's ugly mammals fail to catch the eye of scientists, study shows SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pushed out of the limelight by cuddly koalas and kangaroos, Australia's less glamorous native bats and rodents have failed to catch the eyes of scientific researchers, a new study shows. Just 11 percent of scientific studies on Australian wildlife since 1901 have looked at native bats and rodents, although they make up 45 percent of all species, says the study published in the Mammal Review Journal. ... Read More » Australia's ugly mammals fail to catch the eye of scientists, study shows  | Pushed out of the limelight by cuddly koalas and kangaroos, Australia's less glamorous native bats and rodents have failed to catch the eyes of scientific researchers, a new study shows. Just 11 percent of scientific studies on Australian wildlife since 1901 have looked at native bats and rodents, although they make up 45 percent of all species, says the study published in the Mammal Review Journal. Australia has already had some unique bat species become extinct and there is a risk more could follow without anyone noticing, said Trish Fleming, a wildlife biologist from Murdoch University.
| Read More » Now you're talking: human-like robot may one day care for dementia patients  | By Paige Lim SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With her brown hair, soft skin and expressive face, Nadine is a new brand of human-like robot that could one day, scientists hope, be used as a personal assistant or care provider for the elderly. The 1.7-metre tall Nadine was created in the likeness of its maker, Nadia Thalmann, a visiting professor and director of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University's Institute of Media Innovation who has spent three decades researching into virtual humans. Nadine is not commercially available, but Thalmann predicted robots could one day be used as companions for people living with dementia.
| Read More » Ancient Burial Ground with 100 Tombs Found Near Biblical Bethlehem  | An ancient necropolis that once held more than 100 tombs from as far back as 4,000 years ago has been discovered near the Palestinian town of Bethlehem in the West Bank. In 2014 a team from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Palestine excavated some of the tombs, and in 2015 a joint Italian-Palestinian team surveyed the necropolis and created a plan for future exploration. The archaeologists found that the necropolis covered 3 hectares (more than 7 acres) and originally contained more than 100 tombs in use between roughly 2200 B.C. and 650 B.C.
| Read More » How Speedy Beetles 'Ski' Across the Water  | Prakash, an assistant professor with the Department of Engineering at Stanford University in California, filmed the beetles as they skittered over plates filled with water, explaining in a statement that working with them in the lab was difficult because they were hard to find when they got loose. "Although these potholes are being generated by the insect itself," Prakash added.
| Read More » Rare Amber-Entombed Lizards Preserved in Amazing Detail  | The tiny, trapped fossils, found in Myanmar, represent an unparalleled sampling of species diversity for tropical lizards from the Cretaceous era, which lasted from 145.5 million years ago to about 65.5 million years ago. The fossils are astonishingly well-preserved, the researchers said, including specimens with intact skin, visible skin pigment and soft tissues — and in one case, a lolling tongue. One individual's spindly toes earned it the nickname "Nosferatu," after the long-fingered silent-movie vampire, said study co-author David Grimaldi, a curator in the division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
| Read More » Earth's Fiery Depths Filled with Brimstone  | Earth's inner core is a metallic mix of iron and light elements such as sulfur, hydrogen and silicon, a new study finds. This isn't the first time scientists have proposed that Earth's fiery depths are filled with brimstone, another name for sulfur. Researchers at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, mimicked the inner core in a laboratory equipped with a laser-heated diamond anvil cell.
| Read More » Zika Virus May Infect, Kill Neural Stem Cells The Zika virus may infect and kill a type of brain cell that is crucial for brain development, according to a new study done in human cells growing in lab dishes. Although the results don't prove the Zika virus can cause the condition called microcephaly in babies, the findings do suggest where and how the virus may cause damage in the brain, the researchers said. The researchers showed that the Zika virus can infect brain cells, in lab dishes; however, the researchers still don't know if the same thing happens to cells in a developing fetus that is infected with the virus, Song added. Read More » The Brain Science Behind Raising the Tobacco Buying Age to 21 San Francisco's new tobacco ordinance — which raises the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 — could help improve the health of a new generation of people by preventing addiction, health officials said. Nationally, 18-year-olds can buy tobacco products, including cigarettes and cigars. These new policies could lead to better brain development among young adults who might have otherwise chosen to smoke at a younger age, said Brian King, the deputy director for research translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health. Read More » Time short to protect Africa's food supply from climate change - scientists  | By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Without action to help farmers adjust to changing climate conditions, it will become impossible to grow some staple food crops in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, with maize, beans and bananas most at risk, researchers said on Monday. In a study of how global warming will affect nine crops that make up half the region's food production, scientists found that up to 30 percent of areas growing maize and bananas, and up to 60 percent of those producing beans could become unviable by the end of the century. Six of the nine crops - cassava, groundnut, pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum and yam - are projected to remain stable under moderate and extreme climate change scenarios.
| Read More » Doesn't Make Scents? Snakebite Causes Man to Lose Ability to Smell In an unusual medical case, a man in Australia lost his sense of smell for more than a year after he was bitten by a venomous snake, according to a new report of his case. The man has since regained some of his sense of smell, but he is still unable to fully detect smells the way he did before his encounter with the reptile, called the mulga snake, said the doctors and other experts who examined the man's neurological condition about a year after he was bitten and who wrote the report of his case. "As far as I know, he is still affected but somewhat improved," said Kenneth D. Winkel, a toxinologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who co-authored the report. Read More » Time short to protect Africa's food supply from climate change - scientists By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Without action to help farmers adjust to changing climate conditions, it will become impossible to grow some staple food crops in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, with maize, beans and bananas most at risk, researchers said on Monday. In a study of how global warming will affect nine crops that make up half the region's food production, scientists found that up to 30 percent of areas growing maize and bananas, and up to 60 percent of those producing beans could become unviable by the end of the century. ... Read More » Can You Outrun a Supervolcano? Maybe, Study Finds  | Can you outrun a supervolcano? "I wouldn't recommend anyone try to outrun a volcano, but there's a few of us that could," said Greg Valentine, a volcanologist at the University at Buffalo in New York. By analyzing rocks trapped in volcanic ash, Valentine and his colleagues discovered the lethal ash flow spread at street speeds — about 10 to 45 mph (16 to 72 km/h).
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