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By Science Daily The genome of an extinct Australian frog has been revived and reactivated by a team of scientists using sophisticated cloning technology to implant a “dead” cell nucleus into a fresh egg from another frog species. The bizarre gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silus — which uniquely swallowed its eggs, brooded its young in its stomach and …

By Becky Crew Bioprinting technology allows researchers to produce tissues and organs by growing cell networks over carefully designed ‘scaffolds’. Recently bioprinters have been used to producethicker and healthier human tissue, and to print stem cell structures for use in new osteoarthritis treatments. Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia are right now working on using …

By Ciaran Jones The charity watchdog has launched a probe into a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses where a church elder sexually abused women and children. Paedophile Mark Sewell, 53, faces a “very substantial” prison term when he is sentenced tomorrow after being found guilty of eight historic sex offences. The disgraced businessman and former Butlins holiday …

By Liz Ahlberg A new generation of miniature biological robots is flexing its muscle. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a class of walking “bio-bots” powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses, giving researchers unprecedented command over their function. The group published its work in the online early edition of …

By Rachael Rettner Your brain on psychedelic drugs looks similar to your brain when you’re dreaming, suggests a new study that may also explain why people on psychedelics feel they are expanding their mind. In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 15 people before and after they received an injection of psilocybin, the hallucinogen …

By Science Daily Like a line of falling dominos, a cascade of molecular events in the bone marrow produces high levels of inflammation that disrupt normal blood formation and lead to potentially deadly disorders including leukemia, an Indiana University-led research team has reported. The discovery, published by the journal Cell Stem Cell, points the way to potential …

By Brendan Nyhan Do Americans understand the scientific consensus about issues like climate change and evolution? At least for a substantial portion of the public, it seems like the answer is no. The Pew Research Center, for instance, found that 33 percent of the public believes “Humans and other living things have existed in their present form …

By Andrew Buncombe   Police in Pakistan have launched a murder inquiry after a young woman was reportedly beaten to death by a Muslim holy man who was trying to “exorcise demons” from her. Reports said the 24-year-old woman from Lahore, Zeenat Bib, had been suffering from undiagnosed problems for some time and that her …

By Joseph Brownstein Among the many nutrition supplements trumpeted for potential health benefits, fish oil supplements have been among the most ballyhooed. But as the research on fish oil rolls in, it’s unclear whether the supplements provide all the touted benefits, or are as harmless as claimed. Some of the possible benefits of fish oil that appeared in early …

By The National Secular Society Eleven children whose parents refused places at a Hindu faith school in the London borough of Redbridge have been left with no school place for September. Families of children allocated places at Avanti Court Primary School in Essex refused the places, saying the school’s religious ethos is at odds with …

By Brian Clark Howard   With average global temperatures expected to rise more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) over the coming decades, a new report from a leading U.S. environmental group warns that future summers are likely to be filled with more misery, from more prolific poison ivy and biting insects to worsened air and …

By Will Dunham   So you say all you want to do is to take a few minutes to sit down and think without anyone or anything bugging you? Maybe that is true. But you might be in the minority. A U.S. study published on Thursday showed that most volunteers who were asked to spend …