When the Stardust mission returned to Earth with samples from the comet Wild 2 in 2006, scientists knew the material would provide new clues about the formation of our solar system, but they didn’t know exactly how.

Contrary to expectations for a small icy body, much of the comet dust returned by the Stardust mission formed very close to the young sun and was altered from the solar system’s early materials.

New research by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators reveals that, in addition to containing material that formed very close to the young sun, the dust from Wild 2 also is missing ingredients that would be expected in comet dust.

Has substantial progress been made in computers that can see like humans? Not as much as thought, according to MIT researchers. They say recent results are misleading because the tests being used are stacked in favor of computers.

Computer vision is important for applications ranging from “intelligent” cars to visual prosthetics for the blind. Recent computational models show apparently impressive progress, boasting 60% success rates in classifying natural photographic image sets.

The Syrian Archeological Team discovered parts of an architecture that included several tombs and funeral findings at Tal Shair site in the northeastern area of Hasaka dating back to the Middle Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium B.C.

Member of the Executive Bureau and in Charge of Tourism, Archeology and Arts Department Mohammad Shamsuddin in Hasaka Governorate said the team also discovered parts of another architecture made of stones and traditional ancient building blocks dating back to the Islamic period and part of a building dating back to the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C.

He added that the French archeological team also unearthed parts of another building as well as clay jars and spinning tools at Tal al-Faras site dating back to the 4th millennium B.C.

It is commonly suggested by anti-evolutionists that recent discoveries of function in non-coding DNA support intelligent design and refute "Darwinism". This misrepresents both the history and the science of this issue. I would like to provide some clarification of both aspects.

A new study has shed light on the genetic roots of obesity – a condition that is increasing dramatically in North America and has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

The new findings may also help to unlock the mystery of how our nervous systems control obesity.

Researchers at Queen's University and the University of Toronto teamed up to work with tiny, transparent worms that have similar neurotransmitters (chemicals that transmit nerve impulses) as humans. They discovered that when a specific nerve receptor is deleted, the worms lose interest in foraging for food, become slow-moving and accumulate fat at a much higher rate than normal, non-modified, worms.

In discussions about the quality and equity of our educational system, one thing lost in political arguments about unions and ideological bias and No Child Left Behind is empirical data of what difference teachers make in actual education.

A special issue of Public Finance Review tackles the impact of teachers, focusing especially on the hiring and retention of qualified teachers, including in disadvantaged districts.

Some of the topics addressed:

It’s not always best to be first, finds a new study from the Journal of Consumer Research. The researchers examined how consumers evaluate new products and found that many products may actually benefit from having competition, entering the market as followers rather than as the first of their kind.

New types of products are constantly being developed and introduced. When a brand releases a product that has never been offered by any brand before, it is the “pioneer” product, and consumers can’t evaluate it in the same way they evaluate existing products, the researchers explain. For example, Clorox was the pioneer brand for disinfectant wipes.

Other brands that then release similar products are termed “followers.” Mr.

Some elections are tougher than others. If you like John Edwards, who would you reject if he drops out, Clinton or Obama? How we decide against candidates can tell us valuable things about how people make choices.

A new study from the February issue of the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that sometimes asking people to reject an option – rather than choose an option – makes it easier for consumers to decide among options that they don’t particularly like.

“If both the alternatives are attractive, then both provide reasons to choose, and therefore are compatible with the choose task,” explain Anish Nagpal from the University of Melbourne) and Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy from the University of Houston.

2-3 percent of children are born with mental retardation. It can sometimes be attributed to external factors (such as a shortage of oxygen at birth) or to defects in the DNA but, in 80% of the cases involving DNA, scientists do not know which genes are responsible.

Researchers at VIB, the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, connected to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in collaboration with an Australian research team, have discovered that, in a portion of these patients, the mental retardation is caused by a twofold production of two proteins (HSD17B10 and HUWE1). This is the first time that scientists have found that duplication of a protein leads to mental retardation.

Baking soda is one of those wonder substances with useful applications far beyond simple baked goods. We all know we can open a box and leave it in our fridge to combat odors. But as a result of innovative work done by Skyonic Corporation in Texas, baking soda may become one of our greatest weapons against carbon emissions and global warming as well.

Skyonic has developed a “post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration technology that works with any large-scale stationary CO2 emitter” (e.g.- coal, natural gas or oil fired power plant). The process removes heavy metals, acid gasses, and carbon dioxide from conditioned at-temperature flue gas. The carbon emissions are then stored as stable sodium bicarbonate (better-than-food-grade baking soda) for long-term storage as land or mine fill. The clean flue gas is then returned to the plants stack for release.