Deforestation could impact global food production by triggering changes in local climate, according to research on albedo (the amount of the sun's radiation reflected from Earth's surface) and evapotranspiration (the transport of water into the atmosphere from soil, vegetation, and other surfaces) as the primary drivers of changes in local temperature.

A microstimulator and geomagnetic compass attached to the brains of blind rats allows them to spontaneously learn to use new information about their location and navigate through a maze nearly as well as normally sighted rats.

The findings show the incredible flexibility of the mammalian brain but also suggest that a similar kind of neuroprosthesis could help blind people walk freely through the world.

In a study of more than 6,500 pairs of twins, researchers found that more than half of the differences between pupils performance on the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) can be explained by differences in genetics.

The research found that although IQ showed the strongest relationship with exam scores other genetically influenced traits such as personality and behavior also explained individual differences in achievement. Intelligence accounted for more of the heritability of GCSE results than any other single domain but the joint contribution of pupils' self-belief, health, behavior problems, personality, well-being, and perceptions of home and school, collectively accounted for the same amount again.

The scientific community is facing a 'pollution problem' in academic publishing, one that poses a serious threat to the "trustworthiness, utility, and value of science and medicine," according to Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, director of the Division of Medical Ethics in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Medical Center.

A prostate cancer test using gold nanoparticles costs less than a $1 and yields results in minutes - results show it to be more sensitive and more exact than the current standard test for early-stage prostate cancer, the less precise PSA test that's now used. 

Rice is well-equipped with an effective immune system that enables it to detect and fend off disease-causing microbes but sometimes nature needs a hand.

A new study shows that rice immunity gets boosted when the plant receives a receptor protein from a completely different plant species, a result which may help increase health and productivity of rice, the staple food for half of the world's population, at least in countries that don't ban food science.