The Discovery Files

Two chemists at Brown University have streamlined the conversion of waste vegetable oil into biodiesel, eliminating the need to use corrosive chemicals to perform the reactions.

Researchers at The Ohio State University found that mice that were persistently exposed to light at night exhibited 50% more weight gain, even when holding their physical activity and eating habits constant, than counterparts who were not exposed to light at night.

People who have been blind from birth make use of the visual parts of their brain to refine their sensation of sound and touch, according to an international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Cognitive psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California have shown that an image displayed too quickly to be seen by an observer can be detected if the participant first hears the name of the object.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a potential new tool for medical diagnostics, testing food and water for contamination, and crime-scene forensics.

Engineers and physicians from NorthShore University Health System have developed a method to detect lung cancer by merely shining diffuse light on cells swabbed from patients' cheeks. In their study, the analysis technique was able to differentiate individuals with lung cancer from those without.

The evolution of computer systems has freed us from keyboards and now is focusing on multi-touch systems, but little is known about the long-term stresses on our bodies through the use of these systems.

A team of researchers has found that early hominids living in what is now northern Kenya ate a wider variety of foods than previously thought. Rich in protein and nutrients, these foods may have played a key role in the development of a larger, more human-like brain in our early forebears.

Cornell University researchers find that emotions can alter a child's memory and that these distortions could directly impact court cases by affecting decisions made about the reliability of a child witness.

Researchers have discovered why strands of some fluids containing polymers form beads when stretched, findings that could be used to improve industrial processes and for administering drugs.

While the ways in which the cells of drug resistant bacteria become resistant are understood at the cellular level, until now, the bacteria's survival strategies at the population level remained unclear. A new study at Boston University and Harvard University reveals that a surprisingly small percentage of bacteria actually become highly resistant "supermutants." In fact, most of the bacteria in their study survived without being resistant to the effective dose of antibiotics in the environment.

Isolating a gene that allows a type of fern to tolerate high levels of arsenic, Purdue University researchers hope to use the finding to create plants that can clean up soils and waters contaminated by the toxic metal.

New findings from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center may help explain the mechanics behind the widely documented phenomenon of living creatures being totally frozen and then successfully brought back to life.

Princeton University scientists may have discovered the oldest fossils of animal bodies. These findings push back the clock on the scientific world's thinking regarding when animal life appeared on Earth.

While the evolution from the Neolithic stone wheel to the sleek wheels of today's racing bikes can be seen as the result of human ingenuity, it also represents how animals, including humans, have come to move more efficiently over millions of years on Earth, according to a Duke University engineer.