Discovery tells the strange story of the island-dwelling goat that was more like a reptile than a mammal:

The tiny goat, which stood about 19 inches tall at the shoulder, took on characteristics of cold-blooded reptiles, a first for a mammal, in order to survive life on the island of Majorca, where food sources were few and far between.

In doing [...]

Science Daily reveals the chemical link between passionate desire and passionate jealousy:

Previous studies have shown that the oxytocin hormone has a positive effect on positive feelings. The hormone is released in the body naturally during childbirth and when engaging in sexual relations. Participants in an experiment who inhaled the synthetic form of the hormone displayed higher levels of altruistic [...]

The DaniWeb IT forum offers proof that, for at least one skilled professional, prostitution is a better way to pay the bills than programming:

Dr Magnanti is a developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology specialist, and turned to prostitution in 2003 when she was having money troubles during the final stages of her PhD thesis. The 34 year old told the [...]

No, really. Despair… sweet, sweet despair… sometimes, the Daily Telegraph says, it’s just stupid to be hopeful. And, the BBC adds, every so often, gloom is as good as it gets.

Telegraph:
In total 41 people were told their colostomy was reversible and they could undergo a second operation to reconnect their bowels after several months and get rid of [...]

Click to embiggen.

This is a different way of looking at planet Earth. It’s an image from the ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft. The sliver of land you see on that crescent is the South Pole. The camera, suitably enough, is named OSIRIS – the Rosetta Orbiter Imaging System. Rosetta isn’t meant for translations between dead languages, though. It’s designed to [...]

NASA inspires my hopes again. I’ll look up at the moon and know there’s water up there:

“The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich,” said Colaprete. “Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, [...]

Wired has a lovely story about a charismatic creature that has no mouth, lives inside dead whale bones and is part of a very complicated family:

Since the discovery by Vrijenhoek and other MBARI researchers of Osedax, other species have been found in whalebones off the coast of Sweden and Japan. (Some of their names hint at the genus’ [...]

Pharyngula passes on a very interesting offer:

I had my doubts about this; I got an offer from ASPEX corporation to let people get free scanning electron micrographs of just about anything. They make a desktop SEM, and all you have to do is fill out a form and mail it in with your sample [...]

Discovery News has me imagining the text of a classified ad in the ARCHAEOLOGY – PRE-CHRISTIAN section…. Found: Persian army. Lots of mileage, but well-preserved:

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses [...]