From the Examiner, dark chocolate, about as much as a candy bar a day, can help reduce stress. Or rather reduces the amount of the stress hormones, cortisol and catecholamines.
Also from Chicago Tribune blogs, basically lists some ways to get the good benefits of chocolate. Which seems to be non-dutched cocoa.
From New Scientist, a list of how life could have started. I haven’t seen a detailed list like this on abiogeneses. Most of the research looks at replication or metabolism. This ties both together for the first time.
Also a longer article
From the Financial Times, that a scientist that is working on LHC would even do anything to throw away the dream job. This is the kind of job that I’m sure people would kill to get.
For me, it’s been frustrating that I’ve been unable to get and keep a job even closely related to my field. Right now I’m unemployed and wondering if I’ll ever get a job in my field and that any skills that I had are of no use because biology lab procedures are evolving at such a rapid pace that I’m completely useless. Sorry this has become a “poor me” mope.
From Science Daily, German scientists have discovered that using salts (NaCl, CaCl2, MgCl2 and KCl) amino acids will form pyrroles. Pyrroles are important for photosynthesis.
From the Universe today, So how would a scientist know if a newly discovered planet has life? Two scientists will create an equation that will answer the question. Figuring in variables such as the presence of water, habitability, radiation, etc. the equation will determine the likelihood of life arising.
NASA released new images from the revamped Hubble.
Sorry for the crazy headline. From BBC News, in a Hungarian cave, great tits hunt and eat pipistrelle bats. Including eating off the head of the bats. See video and graphic pic by following the link.
From Fox News, Glycine has been found on comet Wild 2. Carbon 13 was used as an indicator of extraterrestrial origin.
From Biology News Net, a look at the fossil relative of the New Zealand’s lesser short-tailed bat shows that walking isn’t due to a dearth of predators and competition. Interesting fact the male lesser short-tailed bats have singing contests.
From Science daily, a new strain of Geobactor, the darling of electricity producers, has been discovered. Using selective pressure, a team from University of Massachusetts Amherst has evolved a strain that forms a thinner biofilm.