Rock soil droplets formed by heating are part of the evidence used to content that a disastrous cosmic impact 12,900 years ago triggered the Younger Dryas cold period but they most likely instead came from Stone Age house fires, according to new research of soil from Syria.

The Younger Dryas lasted a thousand years and coincided with the extinction of mammoths and other great beasts and the disappearance of the Paleo-Indian Clovis people.

In the 1980s, some researchers put forward the idea that the cool period, which fell between two major glaciations, began when a comet or meteorite struck North America.

Noninvasive brain scans, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, have led to basic science discoveries about the human brain and have also been wildly misused, claiming to correlate everything from the biology of voting to ideas like that people with messy offices are racist.

Though fMRI-based claims get lots of mainstream media attention, along with most weak observational studies, the actual value for society hasn't been there.

But it could be, according to a review of other studies in Neuron. They even believe brain imaging can help predict an individual's future learning, criminality, health-related behaviors, and response to drug or behavioral treatments.

The mythology among the people who really care about what is happening on the left or the right is that the people opposite them are uneducated and being exploited by elites.

The opposite is true: Polarized people tend to be highly educated. Sorry, Republicans, those Democrats did not register for the wrong party because they are dumb. and sorry, MSNBC viewers, Rush Limbaugh is one of the smartest people in America, whether you like his show or not. 

But that means some polarization is good. An educated public is a crucial element to a democratic society and educated people will have stronger opinions than those who always waffle and take the middle ground and say it depends on what the definition of something is.

Biofuels have long been studied and, like many alternative fuels, given corporate subsidies by the government, but they haven't made much progress. And that isn't just because subsidies discourage innovation, it is because of biology. Lignin, which helps cell walls thick in plants, is tough.

Plant geneticists have discovered the gene regulatory networks that control cell wall thickening by the synthesis of the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.  If they can know it, and understand it, they can modify it, and that may mean viable biofuels.

In a new ESO image of LDN 483 and its surroundings, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent), some of the stars are missing.

But it's not a portent of doom, it's space pollution - gas and dust are obscuring Lynds Dark Nebula 483. LDN 483 and its dark cloud are intriguing because such clouds are the birthplaces of future stars. 

A 12-year study of two measles-containing vaccines has found that seven main adverse outcomes were unlikely after either vaccine.

The study conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center included children ages 12 to 23 months from January 2000 through June 2012 who received measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) or separately administered, same-day measles-mumps-rubella and varicella (MMR + V) vaccines.

A total of 123,200 MMRV doses and 584,987 MMR + V doses were evaluated.