Painful Math Anxiety
Areas of the brain normally associated with physical pain are activated when people with math anxiety think about doing math.
Second-Generation Smoking
Smoking while pregnant may cause DNA damage not just to the developing baby, but to that baby's future children.
Eyes vs. Faces
Monsters from the role playing game “Dungeons & Dragons” help reveal what’s most important to us.
Podcast for 9 November 2012
SURVIVAL - Why female Komodo dragons die young, a whale that sounded like a person, and algae that flee their predators. Also: how the brain's insulation differs between us and chimpanzees, and why that insulation is so important to social development.
Evolution Roundup
Evidence suggests that an ancestor of modern humans both walked upright and climbed trees.
Forgetting Bad Memories
The brain has two very different mechanisms for erasing bad memories.
Komodo Dragon Housework
Housework may be killing female Komodo dragons at an early age.
Marshmallows Revisited
Children in the classic “Stanford Marshmallow Study” may have been more strategic than we thought.
X-Ray Vision Carrots
Giving vegetables catchier names could get kids to eat more of them.
Blind Navigation Game
A computer game that familiarizes blind people with the layout of a virtual building makes it easier to navigate the real thing.
Long-lived Eunuchs
Over several centuries in Imperial Korea, eunuchs far outlived their non-castrated counterparts.
Podcast for 12 October 2012
WEIRD SCIENCE: Listen to an archival podcast that delves into the weird and wacky side of science: Behind the legend of the chupacabra, does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis? A physiological explanation for near-death experiences, and animals that live without oxygen.
Podcast for 5 October 2012
SOUNDS & SIGNALS: We revisit one of Science Update's most memorable podcasts about the science of communication, from 2009: Prairie dogs sound the alarm, turning bed bugs against themselves, bird songs vary by climate, and improving forensic voice comparison.
Regeneration Roundup
It was once thought that mammals can’t regenerate tissue in the same way that some reptiles do. But new research suggests this might not entirely be the case.
Face Genes
Researchers have identified the first five genes linked to facial structure.
Backwards Hummingbirds
New research reveals how hummingbirds fly backwards.
Socially Deprived Brains
Neglect keeps young brains from developing adequate insulation.
Light Safety Roundup
In-car systems could alert drivers when it’s unsafe to go through a yellow light. And more evidence that light from computers, TVs and other sources contributes to chronic disorders.
Podcast for 21 September 2012
ANIMAL CONSERVATION - Nepalese tigers co-exist with people, aggression is giving Tasmanian Devils cancer, tadpoles keep their personalities when they become frogs, and a new monkey species is discovered in Africa.
Happiness Roundup
Researchers identify a gene that may influence women’s contentment with their lives.
Teen Brains on Pot
Smoking marijuana regularly as a teenager may be associated with cognitive decline later in life.
Podcast for 7 September 2012
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS - A new drug that could block heroin addiction, how mice could speed up AIDS research, and why we're more prone to cancer than our closest living relatives. Also: the two brain chemicals behind sleep paralysis.
Chimps and Punishment
Chimps exhibit many human-like social behaviors, but punishing the crimes of others isn't one of them.