A new study used mathematical modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own.

Group-living animals are led to regulate their activity and to make decisions on how to manage resources, under the action of a variety of environmental stimuli and of their intrinsic interactions. The latter are typically cooperative, in the sense that the activity of a single animal increases nonlinearly with the number of already active ones. 

Archaeologists hope to shed new light on Richard III’s final resting place, with a new dig at the site of the Grey Friars church. Experts will spend a month excavating the choir area of the church, where Richard’s body was discovered, and hope to reveal much more about the medieval friary than was possible during the initial dig.

The team from University of Leicester Archaeological Services hope the new dig may help to uncover:

- More details about Richard III’s burial and its place within the Grey Friars church

It currently takes a long time to measure a bacterial infection's response to antibiotic treatment. Clinicians must culture the bacteria and then observe its growth, in the case of tuberculosis for almost a month, in order to determine if the treatment has been effective.

Using laser and optical technology, an EPFL team of physicists has reduced this time to a couple of minutes. To do so, Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas and Giovanni Longo have exploited the microscopic movements of a bacterium's metabolism.

The liver receptor homolog-1 (Lrh-1) molecule first shown to function in the liver plays a crucial role in pregnancy in mice and has a key role in the human menstrual cycle, according to researchers at the University of Montreal. 

Mice that were genetically engineered not to produce Lrh-1 were unable to create the uterine conditions necessary for establishing and sustaining pregnancy, resulting in the formation of defective placentas. The researchers then showed that Lhr-1 was present in the human uterus and the essential processes related to the success of early gestation. 

What can be logically prior, what must be assumed, what is the metaphysically necessary apriori starting point? Here I present the one necessary before I can focus on understanding time in order to derive Einstein locality. These are crucial steps in rendering quantum mechanics naturally expected,^[1,2] which is the only interesting aim, because Einstein’s relativity alone easily emerges from classical substrates^[4], while the apparent non-locality of quantum mechanics cannot; well, except via brain-in-vat/The Matrix scenarios, but that just underlines how quantum mechanics indeed relates directly to the apriori conditions of phenomena.

India and China were both exempt from restrictions in the Kyoto agreements, because they were considered emerging economies. For that reason, while western nations have reduced their carbon footprints, CO2 emissions worldwide have continued upward.

It's hard to tell people in developing nations that they have to stop progress and can't have air conditioners and will not enjoy things developed nations already have.

Resverlogix Corp. has announced that its Phase 2b ASSURE clinical trial evaluating RVX-208 in high-risk cardiovascular patients with low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) did not meet its primary endpoint of a -0.6% change in percent atheroma volume as determined by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). The RVX-208 treated group had -0.4% plaque regression (p= 0.08).

I have wanted to comment for some time about a number of available “theories of truth.” The occasion has now been presented by the fact that I am writing the fourth chapter of my new book (on whether and how philosophy makes progress, forthcoming from Chicago Press), which is about the surprisingly not-so-straightforward concept of progress (and truth) in science itself, the very discipline normally held to be the paragon of a truth seeking enterprise.

We posted a new preprint from the lab on arXiv and would love your comments.

Crystal Solar has completed a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded Incubator project regarding technology development and manufacturing cost-effectiveness of epitaxial solar cells and modules. Thin epitaxial silicon solar cell  technology has the capability to improve the way silicon is made by eliminating many steps in the current process flow while retaining the high efficiency of mono-crystalline silicon.  

They estimate this could result in reduction of module costs by approximately 50% from today's levels to ~$0.40/W, enabling the cost of solar power to become comparable to existing energy costs in most parts of the world.