When aliens come to Earth to investigate life here, they don’t simply beam up a specimen and start probing. (And they’re also, by the way, not disproportionately interested in the anus.) Only a novice prober would do a simple beam-and-probe, and would surely get a quick rap on a proboscis from the instructor. The problem with abducting an animal of interest, all by itself, is that you can’t understand an animal without an appreciation of the environment the animal inhabits.

Take 2 minutes with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and you too will know how to pee in space.  And the origins of shooting stars.   He starts with "when you go to the bathroom on Earth, you are relying on gravity, pretty heavily... imagine if you were halfway done and someone shut off the gravity, it would be a mess..." and it just gets better from there.  You'll never look at the sky the same way again.

The January 12th earthquake in Haiti killed an estimated 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. Now, researchers are returning to the island this week to determine whether the quake could trigger another major event to the east or west of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. Most aftershocks occur within weeks of the initial quake and the team urgently needs to get to the site to make a detailed assessment before crucial geological information disappears.

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new material that could help with the remediation of nuclear waste that behaves much like a Venus Flytrap, permanently trapping only its desired 'prey,' the radioactive ion cesium. The results were published online this week in Nature Chemistry.

The synthetic material, made from layers of a gallium, sulfur and antimony compound, is very selective. The researchers found it to be extremely successful in removing cesium -- found in nuclear waste but very difficult to clean up -- from a sodium-heavy solution. (The solution had concentrations similar to those in real liquid nuclear waste.)

Malaria and cholera take devastating tolls in the developing world. Mosquito-borne Malaria kills more than 1 million people annually and no vaccine currently exists. Cholera, a diarrheal illness
that is common in developing countries, can be fatal and the lone vaccine is too expensive to prevent outbreaks after floods.  Despite the challenges posed by the malaria and cholera, University of Central Florida biomedical researchers say they have developed what may be the first low-cost dual vaccine for both

Historians at University College London say they have discovered part of an ancient Roman law code called the Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code. The discovery was made after researchers pieced together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment. The fragments were being studied at UCL as part of 'Projet Volterra' – a ten year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context.

Corcoran and Salway found that the text belonged to the Codex Gregorianus, a collection of laws by emperors from Hadrian (AD 117-138) to Diocletian (AD 284-305), which was published circa AD 300. Little was known about the codex's original form and there were, until now, no known copies in existence.

A series of articles in the January 26 issue of PNAS illustrates recent progress in applying evolutionary theory to a range of questions in medicine and public health, and may lead to medical students soon being tested on evolution in medical entrance and licensing exams.

So what does evolution – a theory that deals with changes over many generations – have to do with preventing and treating disease in our lifetime? A lot, some scientists say. "There are many ways you can use evolution to improve medical care and medical research," said psychiatrist Randolph Nesse of the University of Michigan.

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats facing. But the discovery of a previously unknown feedback shows that it has instead helped  shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades.

Now, the hole in the ozone layer is steadily closing, and its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, according to a study appearing later this in week Geophysical Research letters.

Antioxidants have received a lot of attention in recent years for all the health benefits they supposedly provide. Some studies have suggested that they may play a role in lowering cancer and heart disease risk, slowing the aging process, and treating  neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. But recent research shows that antioxidants may also cause harm--specifically, they may impair muscle function.