Two papers published this week have proposed explanations regarding the evolution of social monogamy among mammals and especially primates.  Of three competing hypothesis, one proposes that a driving force in establishing social monogamy was the protection of offspring by preventing male infanticide, while the other proposes that social monogamy is the result of female intolerance towards each other and a low population density that simply prevents males from adequately "guarding" females from other males (1).

How would editors at National Review regard the credibility of a controlled market publication that had its economic policy articles written by astrologers using the stars as their evidence?

They might not like it but so what? Can they prove astrologers can't make economic policy? No, it's just flawed logic, sort of like me challenging someone to prove I am not an alien from space. That is the problem with National Review paying someone from the Discovery Institute to spout anti-science nonsense about 35-year-old science under the guise of 'ethics'. Because misunderstanding and logical head-faking is the strategy the Discovery Institute uses to promote doubt about biology in general and evolution in specific.

True efficient wireless power transfer, not just giant machines in a lab or tiny mats under a cell phone, are what we all dream about. Getting rid of cords that force airport travelers to huddle around power outlets like cavemen around an Arctic fire has been the goal for a hundred years.

There are real-world obstacles to overcome, such as what happens to a resonant wireless power transfer system in the presence of complex electromagnetic environments, like metal plates.

If you live in an area where solar power is close to viable, you probably also do not get a lot of rain. Over time, dust and dirt build up on solar panels, leading to a loss of efficiency.

But not enough to warrant washing them, according to an analysis by the University of California, San Diego. 

A longstanding puzzle has been solved.

How do northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus) locate truffles (Gautieria monticola) – bearing in mind that the truffles are a subterranean and ephemeral but primary food source?

Sanjay Pyare (Assistant Professor of GIS and Landscape Ecology, at the University of Alaska Southeast, ) and colleague William S Longland (at the Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV) investigated this question back in 2001, and published the results of their observations in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2001, 79:1007-1015.

In the beginning, there are embryonic stem cells, which divide and increasingly differentiate as they do so. The ensuing tissue cells remain in a stable state, a skin cell does not spontaneously change into a nerve cell or heart muscle cell.

The applications for embryonic stem cells
are many: When nerve tissue becomes diseased, for example, then doctors could take healthy cells from the patient's own skin. They could then reprogram these to develop into nerve cells. These healthy nerve cells would then be implanted into the diseased tissue or even replace it entirely. This would treat, and ideally heal, diseases such as Parkinson's disease. 

Up to 20 percent of infertile couples in America have unknown reasons for their infertility but researchers led by Catherine Racowsky, PhD, director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital, wants to fill in that blank, and hints that it could be exposure to Bisphenol-A (BPA). 

Oxytocin, called the 'love hormone' in popular accounts, affects men and women differently in social contexts, say a group of psychologists. In men it improves the ability to identify competitive relationships whereas in women it facilitates the ability to identify kinship.

Oxytocin is released in our bodies in various social situations. Our bodies release it at highwe levels during positive social interactions such as falling in love, experiencing an orgasm or giving birth and breastfeeding and in previous papers, 
Prof. Simone Shamay-Tsoory from the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Haifa

Raising fish in tanks  doesn't help them all that much when they are released into the wild - but there may be an easy fix: put in hiding places and obstacles. It makes fish smarter and improves their chances of survival in nature, according to a new paper.

Why does that matter? Because conservation fish hatcheries raise cod, salmon, trout and other types of fish and release them in places where their species may be threatened, or where their populations are declining.  

Astronomers have found a new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes. By viewing optical, ultra-violet and soft x-rays generated by heat as the black hole fed, they were able to measure how far the disc was from the black hole.