News
Scientists found a few years ago that migrating fish, like Salmon, that unerringly return to the same river year after year to mate, have deposits of an iron-rich compound at the front of their head. These iron crystals pick up the Earth's magnetic field, almost like an in...
Why have fruit juice at lunchtime, rather than breakfast? Fructose, the fruit sugar, is rapidly absorbed and increases blood sugar levels quickly, thereby stimulating insulin production. As a result of the insulin the blood-sugar level falls and there is a surge of low-den...
European Carp species are taking over Australian rivers and streams and driving out native varieties of fish to the extent that scientists are planning GM warfare to kill off the invaders. The problem has become so bad that now 90% of the fish stocks in Australia's Murray-...
Scientists can now add mouse to the list of animals which have had their genetic blueprint decoded. The work was done here in Cambridge at the Sanger Centre, where the human genome was mapped, and at several centres in the US. The work shows that mice have about 30,000 gen...
As world cup fever hits the nation, a researcher from the University of Wolverhampton has confirmed something that football fans have long suspected - that referees are swayed by the crowd. Alan Nevill found that the shouts of angry fans can put the referee off penalising ...
Accurate weather forecasting, even with supercomputers, relies on getting a detailed picture of the atmosphere at any moment in time and then predicting what the air will do next. Measurements are taken using weather balloons, remote weather stations, ships and buoys. By t...
Scientists at Johns Hopkins in the US have found that how well a male Starling sings is a strong indication of the health of his immune system and hence his suitability as a mate. Dr. Duffy and Dr. Ball looked at the singing abilities of 16 adult male European Starlings in...
American researchers have developed a magnetic plastic that changes its magnetic strength depending upon the colour of the light shining on it. When blue light is shone on the material it nearly doubles the strength of its magenetic field, an effect which the inventors thi...
"Your train has been delayed because of leaves on the line" says the crackly British Rail announcement. This problem causes havoc for rail commuters, and cost Railtrack £60 million in 1999. But it could be a thing of the past thanks to a sci-fi invention to...
Last week we revealed the truth about beer bellies - this week we turn our attention to another bane of life, and reveal the shocking truth about red wine stains. What do you do when you spill red wine on your cream carpet? Let me guess - you rush to the kitchen and splash...
Whenever your football goes a bit flat, your game suffers because you can never find the football pump. Now scientists in the US have invented the world's first soccer ball with a self-contained pump. Using computers to analyse the dynamics of a football in play, scientist...
