On:

Human evolution may have been shaped by our pets. But if humans want to avoid food poisoning, they shouldn’t feed their pets in the kitchen.

In LiveScience.com, Jeremy Hsu quotes paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman as saying, “Once you undergo that funny ecological transition that hardly any other animal has made, you have double the advantage if you become extremely alert and extremely observant of what other animals are doing, where they are, how they move, how they communicate with each other. The animal connection runs through the whole [human history] and connects the other big evolutionary leaps, including stone tools, language and domestication. Instead of being isolated discoveries, there’s a theme here. It’s very deep and very old.”
read more

On:

Global warming is being blamed for the 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton, which is an essential part of the marine food chain: If there is no more plankton, there will be no more fish. Not only that, phytoplankton produce half the oxygen we breathe.
read more

On:

The solar cycle usually works like this: Every 11 years there is a period of intense solar activity. But the sun has been unusually quiet for years now. However, scientists have obtained evidence that a new cycle of solar activity is starting. The onset of a new wave of such activity had been expected to be well underway by 2009, but the Sun remained surprisingly quiet. Now, in 2010 there are finally signs of the cycle re-appearing. Researcher Steve Smith says, “It’s exciting to see the return of aurora to mid-latitudes,” referring to the periodic occurrence of emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere that have intrigued observers from ancient to modern times.
read more

On:

The next generation of computers will try to duplicate the way the human brain works, meaning that they may be able to SEE and HEAR in the future. They may even be able to feel emotions. Meanwhile, our brains are becoming more like computers: It has been discovered that integrative body-mind training (IBMT), which was adapted from traditional Chinese medicine in the 1990s in China (where it is practiced by thousands of people) can change the part of the brain called the anterior cingulate, which regulates emotions and behavior. IBMT is not yet available in the US.
read more