Life on Saturn's icy moon? Unlikely, say University of Illinois researchers, and a new model they have created shows it is possible for a frigid, stiff Enceladus without a shifting interior (such as plate tectonics on Earth) to develop fractures and ridges, and convey heat at the rate observed by the Cassini spacecraft since 2004, without liquid water.

The Cassini spacecraft revealed a south polar region of Enceladus with an elaborate arrangement of fractures and ridges, heat radiation and geyser-like plumes consisting of ice crystals and gases such as methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

"They all look the same" is a common expression regarding people of other races.

The “cross-race effect” is one of the most well replicated findings in psychological research and is one reason for the disturbingly common occurrence of eye-witness misidentifications.

The causes of the cross-race effect are unclear. Some psychologists argue that inherent segregation means some people don’t have much practice with individuals of other racial groups and are thus less capable of recognizing distinguishing features. Researchers from Miami University have a different idea. They argue this effect arises from our tendency to categorize people into in-groups and out-groups based on social categories like social class, hobbies, and of course, race.

For the past few months, members of the department of physics at Florida State University have begun using a groundbreaking new research facility to conduct experiments that may help provide answers to just such questions.

RESOLUT -- short for "REsonator SOLenoid with Upscale Transmission" -- is the name of the facility, which is located within the John D. Fox Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory on the FSU campus.

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have demonstrated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that brain activity was increased in stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors who underwent Vision Restoration Therapy (VRT), a rehabilitative treatment that helps these patients recover lost vision.

Researchers, led by Randolph S. Marshall, M.D., M.S., associate professor of clinical neurology at Columbia University, examined the fMRIs of six patients aged 35-77 with vision loss on the same side of both eyes (called homonymous hemianopia) caused by stroke or traumatic brain injury.

A paper published in the Royal Society journal Interface on 15th August 2007 highlights recent research that predicts that the range and severity of the plant disease phoma stem canker is increased by global warming.

A research team led by Rothamsted Research has used a weather-based model developed to predict the start and severity of epidemics of phoma stem canker, a disease of oilseed rape and other brassicas that causes losses of $900M worldwide, to investigate the consequences of predicted climate change scenarios.

Recent probes inside comets show it is overwhelmingly likely that life began in space, according to a new paper by Cardiff University scientists.

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues at the University’s Centre for Astrobiology have long argued the case for panspermia - the theory that life began inside comets and then spread to habitable planets across the galaxy. A recent BBC Horizon documentary traced the development of the theory.

Now the team claims that findings from space probes sent to investigate passing comets reveal how the first organisms could have formed.