research scientists

The ability to recognize faces is largely determined by your genes, according to new research. Scientists found that identical twins were twice as similar to each other in terms of their ability to recognize faces, compared to non-identical twins.

Researchers also found that the genetic effects that allow people to recognize faces are linked to a highly specific mechanism in the brain, unrelated to other brain processes such as the ability to recognize words or abstract art.

The widespread view of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to early modern humans is challenged by new research.

Scientists examined pigment-stained and perforated marine shells, most certainly used as neck pendants, from two Neanderthal-associated sites in the Murcia province of south-east Spain.

The analysis of lumps of red and yellow pigments found alongside suggest they were used in cosmetics.

(Texas A&M AgriLife Communications) A compound in coffee has been found to be estrogenic in studies by Texas AgriLife Research scientists.Though the studies have not been conducted to determine recommended consumption amounts, scientists say the compound, called trigonelline or "trig," may be a factor in estrogen-dependent breast cancer but beneficial against colon cancer development.

Tiny organisms that covered the planet more than 250 million years ago appear to be a species of ancient fungus that thrived in dead wood, according to new research.

Scientists believe that the organisms were able to thrive during this period because the world's forests had been wiped out.

This would explain how the organisms, which are known as Reduviasporonites, were able to proliferate across the planet.

(Scripps Research Institute) A team of Scripps Research scientists has created a new analog to DNA that assembles and disassembles itself without the need for enzymes.

Because the new system comprises components that might reasonably be expected in a primordial world, the new chemical system could answer questions about how life could emerge.

Not a plant to be seen, the desert ground is too dry. But the air contains water, and research scientists have found a way of obtaining drinking water from air humidity.

The system is based completely on renewable energy and is therefore autonomous.

Dwindling federal funding jeopardizes important animal and biomedical research, together with the institutional research programs that focus on them, a group of scientists warn.

Discovery of an efficient artificial catalyst for the sunlight-driven splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen is a major goal of renewable clean energy research.

Scientists have devised a unique new mechanism for the formation of hydrogen and oxygen from water, without the need for sacrificial chemical agents, through individual steps, using light.

Parents and school nurses take note. Lice are a nuisance and vectors of serious diseases, such as epidemic typhus, in developing regions.

New research indicates that lice may be quite unique in the animal world. In a study published in Genome Research, scientists analyzed the mitochondrial genome of the human body louse and discovered that it is fragmented into pieces -- a remarkable finding in animals that will spark discussion about how it evolved.

It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to new research.

Scientists show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking.