Paleontologists and some in biology have long believed that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs.

Researchers at Oregon State University contend they have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs.

It's been known for decades that the femur, or thigh bone in birds is largely fixed and makes birds into "knee runners," unlike virtually all other land animals, the OSU experts say. What was just discovered, however, is that it's this fixed position of bird bones and musculature that keeps their air-sac lung from collapsing when the bird inhales.

Jellyfish blooms are up almost everywhere and it's going to become a menace.  The reason?   Over-fishing and excess nutrients from fertilizers and sewage, say researchers from The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency.

"Dense jellyfish aggregations can be a natural feature of healthy ocean ecosystems, but a clear picture is now emerging of more severe and frequent jellyfish outbreaks worldwide," says CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and University of Queensland scientist Dr Anthony Richardson.

According to a research abstract presented  at SLEEP 2009, adolescent obesity is associated with having less sleep and eduction in sleep could be related to a higher caffeine intake, more hours of technology use and increased symptoms of sleep disorders such as snoring.

Results indicate that children who slept less consumed more caffeine and had more hours of screen time (use of television, Internet, computer and video games). A higher body mass index (BMI) was also associated with shorter sleep duration. More hours of screen time were also associated with higher caffeine consumption. 

There was a time when offshore platforms were secure communities in which production was controlled by closed processes that were isolated from the external world.   Not so today.  With modern integrated operations, offshore-onshore contact is transparent and may of the processes out on the platform are controlled by onshore personnel via networked PCs.

Oil company data security is inadequate, and production systems are at risk of attack by hackers, viruses and worms.

Integration and onshore control has several advantages but a big disadvantage is a fall in information security. When onshore and offshore networks are linked together, the chances of attacks by viruses and hackers increase.

Vegetarians must have felt a little left out when hearing stories of startling weight loss by people consuming nothing except bacon and cheddar cheese.

It was only a matter of time before a study came along showing that vegetarians could get thin too.  Of course, the secret ingredient was, as always, participants consuming fewer calories than  they burned.  Again.

But the non-weight benefits are worth discussion.   Overweight individuals who ate a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet high in plant-based proteins for four weeks lost weight and experienced improvements in blood cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

If you've ever been an engineering student, taught engineering or hired a young engineer, this will sound familiar: tales of students splitting up group projects so they don't have to work together or a student stating he didn't bother with the directions but still got the right answer or students who do the whole project an hour before class.

Expert engineers waiting to happen?  Maybe some day, but that stuff irks hiring managers in the real world, where huge mistakes and sloppy work bring on costly overruns and maybe lawsuits.