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When we meet new people, we assess their character by watching their gestures and facial expressions. Now a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA suggests that those nonverbal cues are communicating the presence of a specific form of a gene that makes us more or less responsive to others’ needs. [More]

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine Many meat-eating animals have lost their ability to taste sugars over the course of evolution. Sea mammals, spotted hyenas and other carnivores have all shed a working copy of a gene that encodes a `taste receptor' that senses sugars, finds a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . An animal with a diet devoid of vegetables may have little need to detect sugars, says Gary Beauchamp, director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the lead author of the study.

(Reuters) - A slithering, surging population of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, many of them escaped or abandoned pets, appears to be eating its way through many animals native to the sensitive wetlands, according to a new study. Researchers writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc e found what they characterized as "severe declines" in the population of small and mid-sized native mammals in the 1.5 million-acre national park and linked it to the growing presence of Burmese pythons.

By Mo Costandi of Nature magazine Far from expanding your mind, the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms induces widespread decreases in brain activity, researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Psilocybin has been revered for centuries for its ability to induce mystical experiences, and has potential therapeutic value for various psychiatric conditions. [More]

The transition from single-celled to multicellular organisms was one of the most significant developments in the history of life on Earth. Without it, all living things would still be microscopic and simple; there would be no such thing as a plant or a brain or a human. How exactly multicellularity arose is still a mystery, but a new study, published January 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science s, found that it may have been quicker and easier than many scientists expected.

The University of Delaware's Eric M. Furst authored a commentary in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) advance online edition Dec.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador have found that, at just the right temperatures, nanoclusters form and improve the flow of electrical current through certain oxide materials.

When digital cameras focus, they use a complicated and slow system that often doesn't come close to being correct. Humans, however, focus correctly in an instant.

When digital cameras focus, they use a complicated and slow system that often doesn't come close to being correct. Humans, however, focus correctly in an instant

When digital cameras focus, they use a complicated and slow system that often doesn't come close to being correct.

New York City's mayor laughed it up at TechStars Demo Day, claiming the Bloomberg TV show resembles the Jersey Shore and that start-ups should grow to pay "a lot of taxes." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped in front of dozens of young entrepreneurs and hundreds of investors Tuesday and joked about the Jersey Shore and taxes. This was the prelude to TechStars Demo Day in New York City, where 31 start-up founders graduating from the incubator would be presenting their ideas to would-be funders

Introduction Recently we published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reporting a drop in testosterone levels among newly partnered new fathers.

By Melissa Gaskill of Nature magazine Heart-breaking pictures of seabirds covered in black crude oil, arresting as they are, can miss the hidden story of an oil spill's impact on wildlife. Exposure to even tiny concentrations of the chemicals present in oil can also cause harmful biological effects that usually go unnoticed, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Hydrogen is a clean fuel, but making it usually takes fossil fuels, until now: A new discovery allows hungry bacteria to eat dirty water to make the fuel. Hydrogen has potential as a clean-burning fuel. It leaves behind only water as it burns

The risk of death from carbon dioxide leaking from an underground storage site is far less than the risk of getting struck by lightning or killed in a car accident, according to a new study. The research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on naturally occurring CO2 seeping through the ground in Italy, but the study authors say their analysis holds broad implications for industrially captured carbon dioxide that would be injected thousands of feet underneath the earth