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Here's Where Your Backyard Was 300 Million Years Ago

We may use terms like "grounded" and terra firma to mean stability and consistency but geology...

Convergent Evolution Cheat Sheet Now 120 Million Years Old

One tenet of natural selection is a random walk of genes but nature may be more predictable than...

Synchrotron Could Shed Light On Exotic Dark Photons

There are many hypothetical particles proposed to explain dark matter and one idea to explore how...

The Pain Scale Is Broken But This May Fix It

Chronic pain is reported by over 20 percent of the global population but there is no scientific...

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It's difficult to be certain yet but, based on information obtained on the Voyager and Galileo missions, scientists suspect that inside Europa, one of the icy moons of Jupiter, there exist reservoirs of liquid.

The Voyager and Galileo missions also registered fractures and `chaotic´ terrains associated to reddish materials, which contrast with the glacial white of the dominant water ice of the surface.

No one wants to tell someone they can't drive. America was founded on the pioneer spirit and unless we cramp everyone into urban concrete jungles, which are implicated in any number of health, pollution and crime issues, America's vast expanses mean we are a car culture.

But a diagnosis of hemianopia, blindness in one half of the visual field in both eyes, usually as the result of strokes, tumors or trauma, often means the end of driving. But it isn't required in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland and Canada if people can pass a specialized road test.

A survey conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago's Program on Medicine and Religion delves into the relationship between attitudes toward organ donation and the Islamic faith.

Previous surveys have found that Muslims are less likely than other religious groups to believe in organ donation and that religious values may be the obstacle. 

The American Muslims surveyed who interpret negative events in life as punishment from God are less likely to be organ donors than those with a more positive outlook. Overall levels of religiosity among American Muslims did not influence attitudes toward organ donation.  

New technology developed by Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne allows them to detect facial expressions and identify which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, or suspicion.

This could be useful for marketing and video game development, of course, but obviously in driver safety. Fatigue is a risk factor but so is the emotional state of the driver. 

Irritation, in particular, can make drivers more aggressive and less attentive. EPFL researchers, in collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroën, have developed an on-board emotion detector based on the analysis of facial expressions. Tests carried out using a prototype indicate that the idea could have promising applications.

The modern world has a problem. We are undergoing spontaneous mutations caused by radiation, even at low levels. This radiation can break chromosomes into pieces that reattach randomly and sometimes create genes that didn't previously exist.

Actually, that's happening because of nature.  Deep space cosmic rays have been doing that to everything on earth for as long as the planet has existed. Even organic food.

The results of a small clinical trial intervention found that mindfulness-based meditation could lessen some symptoms associated with cancer in teens.

Mindfulness-based meditation sounds fuzzy, because it claims to focus on the 'present moment' and the connection between the mind and body.  But whatever works, works.

Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes implied in living with cancer, as well as the fear of recurrence after remission.