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Here are today’s most interesting science, health, and tech news reports. For analysis and commentary from around the Web, check out the hot topics page. For Human Nature’s takes, visit the blog. To add your own take, open or join a discussion thread in the Fray—and please link to the original story so others can participate intelligently in the conversation.
June 6
Britain, having banned guns, will prosecute anyone 16 or older who carries a knife
(Kevin Sullivan and Jill Colvin, Washington Post)
McCain camp endorses warrantless monitoring of phone calls and email|
(Douglas Holtz-Eakin, National Review / Charlie Savage, New York Times)
Company tests drugs that promote growth of new brain cells
(Emily Singer, Technology Review)
Child-care robots become so useful that parents might leave kids with them
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Why the huge racial gap in diabetic amputations?
(Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice / AFP / New York Times)
Study says cancer surgeons remove anal sphincters too often
(David Forman et al, Gut / BBC News)
Two genes plus drugs makes adult cells become embryonic
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Scatological German novel turns raunchy sex into a public topic
(Nicholas Kulish, New York Times / Jason Burke, Guardian)
A restaurant where you can tour the attached slaughterhouse
(Susan Dominus, New York Times)
A progress report on plastic-explosives detectors
(Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review)
The latest regenerative cell therapy for baldness
(BBC News)
June 5
Putting estrogen cream on your penis can prevent HIV infection
(Roger Short et al, PLoS One / AFP)
U.S. use of hunter-killer drones doubles in war zones
(Thom Shanker, New York Times)
Kentucky Derby winner had three steroid injections this year
(Joe Drape, New York Times)
Unprotected teen sex may be increasing again
(Rob Stein, Washington Post)
Flies bred for learning ability die earlier, possibly due to physical cost of neural activity
(Tadeusz Kawecki and Joep Burger, Evolution / AFP)
Court says Arizona’s incest ban doesn’t apply to half-cousins
(Amanda Lee Myers, AP)
Cell-phone carrier gives researchers mobile tracking data on 100,000 customers
(Albert-László Barabási et al, Nature / John Schwartz, New York Times)
More evidence that biological factors make some people fat regardless of appetite
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Critics blast tobacco bill’s menthol exemption as sellout of black kids
(Stephanie Saul, New York Times)
Food prices drive a surge in home vegetable gardening
(Anne Marie Chaker, Wall Street Journal)
A hidden GPS device you can buy to track your car
(John Biggs, New York Times)
Heavy drinking halves the risk of rheumatoid arthritis
(Henrik Kaellberg et al, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases / AFP)
Secondhand smoke increases kids’ risk of hospitalization for infections
(M. K. Kwok et al, Tobacco Control / Reuters)
“Virtual microscope” will store human tissue images for global research
(Scott Thurm, Wall Street Journal)
June 4
Resveratrol slows aging of hearts in mice
(Tomas Prolla et al, PLoS ONE / Will Dunham, Reuters / Nicholas Wade, New York Times)
Drug-company researchers use artificial microbes to mass-produce malaria drug
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Opponents of evolution propose to teach the theory’s “weaknesses”
(Laura Beil, New York Times)
Scientists develop a self-replicating machine
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
British fat-control lobby evangelizes for more gastric bypass surgery
(Katy Guest, Independent)
Fetal tests miss half of all possible chromosomal defects
(BBC News)
Worms that eat their mothers’ skin
(Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Scientists propose genetic explanation for human adults who currently walk on all fours
(BBC News / Ian Sample, Guardian)
Fingerprints are detectable on fired bullet casings due to sweat effects
(James Randerson, Guardian)
The impending market in dog cloning
(Jerome Taylor, Independent)
Latest candidate in the search for small, Earthlike planets
(BBC News / Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph)
Coroner’s report says zoo tiger victim had used pot and alcohol
(Lisa Fernandez, San Jose Mercury News)
Congress debates overdiagnosis and treatment cost of military PTSD
(Hope Yen, AP)
Appetite-control drug is linked to more deaths
(Elena Berton and Avery Johnson, Wall Street Journal)
June 3
China says “weaponization of outer space … is already unstoppable”
(Chris Buckley, Reuters)
Quadriplegic makes avatar walk and talk in Second Life
(AFP)
Kennedy was awake during brain surgery
(Marilynn Marchione, AP)
Company forecasts 5 to 14 percent annual growth in sales of implantable devices and artificial body parts
(Jon Kamp, Wall Street Journal)
Putin critic digitally erased from Russian TV show
(Clifford Levy, New York Times)
New sprinting speed record draws doping suspicion, sans evidence
(Jere Longman, New York Times)
Superficial attractiveness enhancement increases male birds’ testosterone by changing how other birds treat them
(Rebecca Safran et al, Current Biology / Maggie Fox, Reuters)
Two brain components end up 7 to 12 percent smaller in long-term, serious pot smokers
(Murat Yucel et al, Archives of General Psychiatry / Will Dunham, Reuters)
Good luck enforcing Britain’s public-transit alcohol ban
(Cassell Bryan-Low and Emma Charlton, Wall Street Journal)
Utah proposes to relax its alcohol restrictions
(Vauhini Vara, Wall Street Journal)
Growing new brain cells through “neurobics”
(Melinda Beck, Wall Street Journal)
More U.S. troops are facially disfigured thanks to improved survival
(E.A. Torriero, Chicago Tribune)
A robot that walks more like humans
(LiveScience)
Dick Cheney’s cousin marriage joke
(William Branigin, Washington Post)
June 2
Baby born from “unheard of” full-term ectopic pregnancy
(AFP, AP)
Hospital got $200,000 after giving livers to mobsters
(Charles Ornstein and John Glionna, Los Angeles Times)
Girls match boys at math in countries with gender equality
(Paola Sapienza et al, Science / Tamsin Osborne, New Scientist)
Scientist who named global warming proposes to control it with artificial trees
(BBC)
People with Down syndrome now live long enough to get Alzheimer’s
(Sally Sara, New York Times)
Britain proposes to ban sale of cigarettes in packs smaller than 20
(James Macintyre, Independent / John Carvel, Guardian)
Baltimore plans to ban sale of individual small cigars
(Erik Eckholm, New York Times)
Dubai bans tobacco for anyone under 20
(AFP)
Turkey bans smoking in offices and malls
(BBC News)
The worldwide status of smoking restrictions
(BBC News)
British law against drinking alcohol on public transit takes effect
(Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post)
Billboards that monitor and collect data on people who look at them
(Stephanie Clifford, New York Times)
Cameras that monitor what you’re looking at in shop windows
(Justin Mullins, New Scientist)
Britain proposes to criminalize possession of fake images of child sex abuse
(BBC News)
More on New York’s plan to send ambulances for organ harvesting
(Cara Buckley, New York Times)
The latest airplane terrorism surveillance project: cameras in every seat
(Michael Reilly, New Scientist)
A campaign to enlist one million parents for abstinence education
(Rob Stein, Washington Post)
Shipwreck treasure hunting with underwater drones
(Jeff Hecht, New Scientist)
