Interesting Articles: December 3rd-25th 2006

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology:
* Leggy lizards adapt fast (Science News). Experimental evolutionary biology. How cool is that? If you can't read the article above, read the abstract of the source article, Rapid temporal reversal in predator-driven natural selection (Science).
* Brave Old World: The debate over rewilding North America with ancient animals (Science News). Reports on a lively debate about reintroducing animals to North America that have been extinct on the continent for thousands of years. Although it's not available online, many references are, including two interesting pieces from Nature. If you want a copy of the Science News article, just ask.

Psychology:
* Revving up recall while fast asleep (Science News). It sounds like a bad late night infomercial, but scientists demonstrated applying a minor electrical current at a particular point while someone is sleeping can help improve word recall. The abstract of the source article, Boosting slow oscillations during sleep potentiates memory (Nature), is available online. I wouldn't have believed it had it not been published by such an august journal.

Food and Health:
* L'Chaim: Wine compound lengthens mouse lives (Science News). Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, can counter in mice many of the negative health consequences that come as a result of obesity. But before you go out and drink lots of wine, realize the amount of resveratrol used in the study amounts to the equivalent of 300 glasses a day.
* A Toast to Healthy Hearts: Wine compounds benefit blood vessels (Science News). Scientists identified a heart helping chemical in red wine, traced which wines/production methods/wine growing regions tend to have more of this chemical, and successfully correlated the lifespans of red wine drinkers to the quantity of the chemical as it appears in the local wines. Good science and detective work. The abstract from the source article, Red wine procyanidins and vascular health (Nature), is available online.
* Curry may counter cognitive decline (Science News). A correlation study showed that elderly people who eat curry regularly tend to score better on measures of cognitive function, after taking into account other factors (e.g., health, socioeconomic class). The abstract of the source article, Curry consumption and cognitive function in the elderly (American Journal of Epidemiology), is online.

Biology:
* Low body heat lengthens mouse lives (Science News). Interesting effect. They're not quite sure why. Because mice on low-calorie diets have lower body temperatures, some researchers think lower body temperatures may be a variable mediating between calorie restriction and increased lifespan. The abstract of the source article, Transgenic mice with a reduced core body temperature have an increased life span (Science), is available online.
* Ticking toward Trouble: Long-term rise in heart rate portends death (Science News). I simply like studies that show one can get significant results from analysis of minor changes in ordinary, easily collected data. The press release from American Heart Association provides the details.

Miscellaneous:
* Crusty Old Computer: New imaging techniques reveal construction of ancient marvel (Science News). Sounds like a Game clue.