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Life Sciences

Newt Finding Might Set Back Efforts to Regrow Human Limbs. Dolphins may be calling each other by name. Bottlenose dolphins swim at a research center in Key Largo, Florida.

Dolphins may be calling each other by name

Dolphins mimic the signature clicks and whistles of close associates, researchers sayMimicking is infrequent and happens when animals separated, report saysSuch communication "unheard of in the animal kingdom beyond people," researcher tells station. Bats Build Mental Maps Of Their Surroundings And Remember Them For Future Flights. Many species of bats use echolocation to orient themselves and to hunt their insect prey, but they also rely on a pretty detailed memory to find their way around, a new study suggests.

Bats Build Mental Maps Of Their Surroundings And Remember Them For Future Flights

Watching Bodies Evolve. A lone yeast cell budding off a daughter cell.

Watching Bodies Evolve

Scientists form new nerve cells. The field of cell therapy, which aims to form new cells in the body in order to cure disease, has taken another important step in the development towards new treatments.

Scientists form new nerve cells

A new report from researchers at Lund University in Sweden shows that it is possible to re-programme other cells to become nerve cells, directly in the brain. Two years ago, researchers in Lund were the first in the world to re-programme human skin cells, known as fibroblasts, to dopamine-producing nerve cells – without taking a detour via the stem cell stage. The research group has now gone a step further and shown that it is possible to re-programme both skin cells and support cells directly to nerve cells, in place in the brain. Geneticists Estimate Publication Date of The Iliad. This story was originally published by Inside Science News Service.

Geneticists Estimate Publication Date of The Iliad

(ISNS)—Scientists who decode the genetic history of humans by tracking how genes mutate have applied the same technique to one of the Western world's most ancient and celebrated texts to uncover the date it was first written. The text is Homer's "Iliad," and Homer -- if there was such a person -- probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found. The "Iliad" tells the story of the Trojan War -- if there was such a war -- with Greeks battling Trojans. The researchers accept the received orthodoxy that a war happened and someone named Homer wrote about it, said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary theorist at the University of Reading in England. Neuroscientists Rely On Gamers To Further Brain Research.

Imagine if every time you kicked back to relax and play some video games, you were also helping scientists get closer to solving complex medical issues.

Neuroscientists Rely On Gamers To Further Brain Research

The implications could be quite powerful, as it is estimated that Earth’s population spends approximately 3 billion per week playing computer games. How the Science of Swarms Can Help Us Fight Cancer and Predict the Future. GigaOm: How researchers are fighting lung cancer using PageRank.

Space

Steer a spaceship with your brain? It's a thought. Cometary billiards: Have you heard, it’s in the stars. Astronomers Think They've Captured The Birth Of The Youngest Planet Ever. The first fractions of a second after the Big Bang. Planck Satellite Data Provides Baby Photo of the Universe. In the beginning there was energy.

Planck Satellite Data Provides Baby Photo of the Universe

When the universe was born 13.7 billion years ago, the temperature was in the quintillions of degrees. SpaceX Dragon Capsule Suffers Glitch after Launch to Space Station. This story was updated at 10:45 a.m.

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Suffers Glitch after Launch to Space Station

ET. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A privately built unmanned spacecraft launched for NASA by the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX blasted into orbit Friday (March 1), but has experienced some sort of malfunction after separating from its rocket, the company says. The robotic Dragon space capsule launched into orbit atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in what appeared to be a smooth liftoff from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m.

ET (1510 GMT). But once in orbit, SpaceX officials reported a problem just after spacecraft separation, when the Dragon capsule was expected to deploy its solar arrays. X's Reusable 'Grasshopper' Rocket Makes Highest Flight Yet. A private experimental rocket that could lay the foundation for a fully reusable launch system has passed its most ambitious test yet, flying 24 stories high and then sticking its landing.

X's Reusable 'Grasshopper' Rocket Makes Highest Flight Yet

Spacex-dragon-capsule-leaves-international-space-station-8549972. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico's Baja California is slated for 12:34 p.m.

spacex-dragon-capsule-leaves-international-space-station-8549972

EDT (1634 GMT). Using the station's 58-foot long (18-meter) robotic arm, astronauts aboard the station plucked Dragon from its berthing port and released it into orbit at 6:56 a.m. EDT (1056 GMT) as the ships sailed 252 miles (406 km) above the planet south of Australia. Flight controllers with privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX as the company is known, then stepped in and remotely commanded Dragon to fire its steering thrusters to leave the station's orbit. "It looks beautiful from here," station flight engineer Thomas Marshburn radioed to Mission Control in Houston as the capsule flew away. Curiosity Is Awake Again And On The Path To Recovery. Mars found to have once been hospitable to microorganisms. On Tuesday, NASA announced that its Curiosity rover has collected a rock sample that indicates that Mars could have supported microbial life at some point in the past. “A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment.

There's Salt Water On The Surface Of Europa, Which Could Be Good News For Extraterrestrial Life. Europa Gives Up Some Of Its Secrets.

Tech Science

Is This The World's Dumbest Drone? This little drone only seems dumb. DJI Phantom RC Quadrotor UAS Review: A Powerful Personal Drone That Knows Its Place. Brace Yourselves, Drone Journalism Is Coming. Drones. How to thrive in battery acid and among toxic metals. Researchers print biometric sensors directly on skin, make wearable health monitors more durable. This Wristband Recognizes When You Write In The Air With Your Finger. Though smartphone technology has evolved to be able to treat your depression and drive your robot, one basic function -- typing -- can still be a total pain. Stabbing at your tiny touchscreen keyboard with club thumbs doesn't make for an effective texting method.

Physics

Physicists Twist Water into Knots. How particle physics improves your life. Diapers. These Machines Made Out Of Molecules Could Be A Manufacturing Revolution. Speed of light may not be fixed, scientists suggest; Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations. Moore's Law Found to Apply to Evolution of Technologies Beyond Transistors. Real Life Phasers Invented, Probably To Heal Not Stun. 11 Emerging Scientific Fields That Everyone Should Know About.

Fantastic Programmable Goo Solves Difficult Math Problems. New Method of Creating Energy Through Water Osmosis Discovered. This Just in: Higgs Boson Still Boring. Rumour points to completely boring Higgs boson - physics-math - 07 March 2013. How the Higgs Boson Might Spell Doom for the Universe.