Microbiologists have discovered a central metabolic pathway in microorganisms and the microorganisms use this pathway to survive under extremely salty conditions, like the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is not dead, in the science sense.  Many microorganisms which inhabit it belong to a group of salt-tolerant archaea (from the Greek archaĩos, from which we also get"archaic“).   Archaea are among the most primordial life forms on earth and have managed to survive in extreme environments. 

For robots to get 'smart', they have to learn to adapt.   University of Vermont roboticist Josh Bongard has created both simulated and actual robots that, like tadpoles becoming frogs, change their body forms while learning how to walk.

Over generations, his simulated robots also 'evolved', spending less time in infant tadpole-like forms and more time in adult four-legged forms.

These evolving populations of robots were able to learn to walk more rapidly than those with fixed body forms and, in their final form, the changing robots had developed a sturdier gait,  better able to withstand being knocked with a stick, than the ones that had learned to walk using upright legs from the beginning.

How can a man who writes an article noting the many positive strides made in eliminating gender discrimination be sexist?    Well, he isn't, but men who go out of their way to help women can be considered sexist, thought it is a more benevolent sexism than the real kind.

New research from the University of Granada warns about the negative effects of "benevolent sexism", a term used for apparently positive ideas and attitudes of men towards women, which are based on the assumption that men must take care of and sacrifice themselves for women.

For policy makers and politicians, there is confusion over what peer review is and how it should be used in policy decision making and, really, how improved technology and new science (including any ethics issues) make critical evaluation by the independent peers of those who create advancements more important than ever.

A. Alan Moghissi, president of the Institute for Regulatory Science, and Michael S. Swetnam, of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, write in Technology&Innovation that review criteria must be identified, the process must be transparent, and over reliance on specific peer reviewers must be avoided.  Institutional, intellectual and personal conflicts of interest must also be avoided.

If you are concerned your child spends too much time playing video games, you're not alone.  And you may be right in your worry.   A new study says video game "addiction" is a global problem and that greater amounts of gaming, lower social competence and greater impulsivity were risk factors for becoming pathological gamers.

A two-year longitudinal study of 3,034 third through eighth grade students in Singapore found approximately 9% of gamers to be pathological players according to standards similar to those established by the American Psychiatric Association for diagnosing gambling addiction. Serious problems like depression, anxiety, social phobias and lower school performance seemed to be outcomes of their pathological play.