The "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes,  the location and behavior of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system, a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust, could bring scientists closer to predicting large eruptions. 

Researchers worked in Afar (Ethiopia) and Iceland, the only places where mid-ocean ridges appear above sea level. Volcanic ridges (or "spreading centers") occur when tectonic plates rift or pull apart. Magma injects itself into weaknesses in the brittle upper crust, erupting as lava and forming new crust upon cooling. 

Magma chambers work like plumbing systems, channeling pressurized magma through networks of underground "pipes". 

Robots don't understand subtlety - what is effortless to a human, like pouring juice into a cup, is a challenge for a machine. While one hand holds the glass bottle firmly, the other one must gently grasp the cup.

Researchers at Saarland University together with associates in Bologna and Naples have developed a robotic hand that can accomplish both tasks and the actuator is barely larger than a human arm. They use a novel string actuator, making use of small electric motors to twist strings, making the new robotic hand suitable as a helper around the house or in catastrophic scenarios.

The robotic hand was recently presented during a meeting at the Forschungszentrum Informatik in Karlsruhe. 

Will review reports published with articles enhance peer review quality? 

Some microorganisms lose the ability to perform a function that appears to be necessary for their survival, and yet they still somehow manage to endure and multiply. How can that be? 

One hypothesis says microbes that shed necessary functions are getting others to 'do that work' for them, an adaptation that can encourage microorganisms to live in cooperative communities. Yes, genetic inter-organism cooperation and adaptive gene loss.

Scientists think they have found a way to prevent and possibly reverse the most debilitating symptoms of the rare, progressive childhood degenerative disease called ataxia-telangiectasia, or A-T disease, that leaves children with slurred speech, unable to walk, and in a wheelchair before they reach adolescence.

People don't always see it , especially if social change does not move fast enough for their special interest, but the military has always been on the forefront of social issues. 

A famous American general, John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, got that nickname because he proudly commanded the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry - the "Negro Cavalry" as Native Americans of the 19th century called them - and Pershing didn't want it any other way.  He wanted to win and that meant the best people.

We are fortune here at Science20 to have come across an early work by Gaston Leroux.  This manuscript was dated to 1899, suggesting it was an early, discarded draft of the work that later came to be known as "The Phantom of the Opera".  Current speculation is Gaston changed the setting at the beheast of his editor.  Here, then, is the unabridged transcript of that early draft.  It is set in the historic 1899 Paris Academie des Sciences, and begins with the arrival of two new managers to this prosperous yet troubled place.

[Secretary] "Welcome, new Branch Heads, to our Paris Laboratory!  We owe our success to Professor Carlotta, though we do have a new post-doc named Christine Daei.  Good luck with the upcoming grant season!"