Modified herpes virus identifies (and may kill) cancer cells

Badass.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=altered-virus-calls-out-hidden-canc-2011-05-11

Surprise! Komodo dragons are... venomous?

Apparently so.

“Junk DNA” May Have Triggered Key Evolutionary Changes in Human Thumb and Foot

Results from a comparative analysis of the human, chimpanzee, rhesus macaque and other genomes reported in the journal Science suggest our evolution may have been driven not only by sequence changes in genes, but by changes in areas of the genome once thought of as “junk DNA.”

Cool.

Monogamy gene?

Very weird.

China, making a big mess

"Scientists fear impact of Asian pollutants on U.S."

Just more bad news on global warming

"Thaw of Arctic Soil May Unleash Runaway Warming"

Magpies...

...are self-aware? It really seems like the popular conception of "intelligence", and its distribution among species, is way off the mark.

Trust on my mind...

...and an interesting article over at Scientific American.

Participants who were given a placebo prior to playing the game decreased their rate of trust (that is, how much money they were willing to invest) after they discovered their trust had been violated. Participants who received oxytocin, however, continued to invest at similar rates regardless of whether or not their trusting behavior had been taken advantage of. These behavioral group differences were accompanied by differences in neural responses, as participants in the oxytocin group showed decreases in responses in the amygdala and caudate nucleus. The amygdala is a region of the brain involved in emotion and fear learning, and is rich in oxytocin receptors, whereas the caudate nucleus has been previously linked to reward-related responses and learning to trust . Thus, the authors hypothesized that oxytocin decreases both fear mechanisms associated with a potential aversion of betrayals (via the amygdala) and our reliance on positive feedback that can influence future decisions (via the caudate). This in turn facilitates the expression of trust even after breaches of trust have occurred. Notably, the behavioral and neural results observed were only apparent when participants played the trust game, but not the risk game, suggesting that oxytocin’s effects on trust are exclusive to interactions with real people.

This just in!

"Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life".

We rugged loners who play by our own rules have known this for years. Personally, I like to manifest my slight evil by using kindness to lull people into a false sense of security.

And... that's pretty much it. Just kindness. But I might turn on you at any moment! Very dangerous. Well, slightly dangerous.

I learned something today

I'm deuteranomalous. That means I am "poor at discriminating small differences in hues in the red, orange, yellow, green region of the spectrum." I'm likely to make errors in the naming of hues in this region because they appear somewhat shifted toward red.

So basically, mild red-green colorblindness. You'd think that might've come up before last Winter, when I was arguing with Claire about the colors in a painting and we realized that I was missing some of the subtleties. I mean... wouldn't you expect that to come up at some point during 4.5 years of art school or 2 years of grad school?

Strange animals: Stubble?

"Women prefer men with stubble for love, sex and marriage"

At the same time, it's not unusual for women to prefer a smooth shave when it comes to intimate physical contact, so there's a hidden core to this question -- if you prefer stubble visually but smooth tactilely, which wins out?

Year-old article...

...on the barbarism that is circumcision. Come on, people, why are we even still debating this?

Next candidate for self-awareness: The octopus

http://www.slate.com/id/2192211/

Who need opposable thumbs when you've got all those tentacles? Now they've just got to evolve those land-gills...

Water on Mars!

Sweet.

Locate sustainable/organic food vendors near you

Neat.

http://www.eatwellguide.org/search/advanced