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Key concepts Water [More]

Snakes are misunderstood. They’re not slimy.

Alright, let’s see how well you do on this quick test. Can you guess which sample came from the North Pacific Garbage Patch and which came from the South Pacific Ocean?

Journalist Jeffrey Bartholet talks about his June Scientific American magazine article on the attempts to grow meat in the lab and editor-in-chief Mariette Dichristina talks about the cover piece in the May on radical energy solutions. [More]

Red colobus monkeys in Uganda's Kibale National Park are being hunted to extinction--by chimpanzees. According to a study published May 9 in the American Journal of Primatology , this is the first documented case of a nonhuman primate significantly overhunting another primate species

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine A long-term study of children from Romanian orphanages suggests that the effects of childhood stress could be visible in their DNA as they grow up.

By Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib for Nature magazine For Scott Cornman, the honeybee genome is a prized resource, yet he spends much of his time removing it. [More]

By Jeff Tollefson of Nature magazine Staff have been cut, contractors laid off, offices closed and even furniture disposed of. [More]

Calling all birders! eBird is one of several Cornell Lab citizen-science projects aimed at better understanding our feathered friends as well as other wildlife [More]

The search for alien civilizations is returning to its roots. In the latest chapter of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, researchers are using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to check out some of the distant worlds being discovered in droves by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.

The search for the genetic roots of psychiatric illnesses and behavioral disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and ADHD has a long history, but until recently, it was one marked by frustration and skepticism. In the past few years, new techniques have begun to reveal strong evidence for the role of specific genes in some cases of these conditions but in a way few people expected. To understand what makes the new discoveries so novel, it’s necessary to appreciate how our genes can go wrong.

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government on Tuesday approved a binding 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 versus 1990 levels. "By making this commitment, we will position the UK a leading player in the global low-carbon economy, creating significant new industries and jobs," Prime Minister David Cameron said. [More]

Inhaling cigarette smoke or smoggy air is clearly not great for your health. And exposure to various kinds of smoke has been associated with cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cataracts

The lush riverside vegetation sways as a herd of elephant wends its way between the broken pools. Standing at the top of an embankment, a half-grown male is watching a larger elephant trudge up the slope toward it. Without warning, the youngster squats down on his haunches (just like a dog) and launches himself down the slope.

Editor's Note: This post was intially published May 12 on the World Science Festival's Web site .