Life Science

From the smallest microbe to the largest mammal, Life Science explores the origins, evolution and expansion of life in all its forms. Explore a wide range of topics from biology to genetics and evolution.

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Stress is just around every corner for most of us these days. Reducing it requires you to learn the various types of stress, their different causes and how to deal with them.

By Betty Burrows

This week, a group of London-based scientists requested official permission to begin a three-year study involving stem cells derived from human-cow hybrids.

By Julia Layton

To achieve stability despite quick eye movements, the eyes take before and after shots of an image and compare them. Now, scientists may have finally discovered how.

By Julia Layton

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Hereditary illnesses are passed down from parents to their children like gene traits, and children might inherit a disease even though their parents never suffered from its symptoms. Learn about hereditary illnesses.

By Alvin Eden & Elizabeth Eden

Learn the physiological processes that trigger a coma, how an actual coma differs from television depictions and how often people awaken after months or even years of being in a coma.

By Stephanie Watson

Plants that eat other creatures? It sounds like a genetic experiment gone awry. But there's actually nothing unnatural about it; carnivorous plants have been around for millions of years.

By Ann Meeker-O'Connell

The CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" routinely uses cutting-edge technology to solve crimes, including collecting and analyzing DNA evidence. But catching a criminal using DNA evidence is not quite as easy as "CSI" makes it seem.

By William Harris

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Cloning is the process of making a genetically identical organism through nonsexual means. In this article, we will examine how cloning works and look at possible uses of this technology.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

What is the difference between a hardwood and a softwood? How hard does a tree have to be to be considered hardwood?

With movie titles like "Attack of the Clones" and "The Clone Wars," it's no wonder human cloning makes us anxious. As scientists make startling discoveries cloning animals, are humans next?

By Kevin Bonsor & Cristen Conger

We can see dinosaur and plant fossils at just about any natural museum. What exactly are fossils, though, and how do they form?

By Austin Henderson

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The journal "Nature" recently published a paper describing how a cell transplant had allowed blind mice to see again. What does this mean for humans?

By Tracy V. Wilson

Nearly every cell in your body has the same DNA. It's the hereditary material located your cells' nucleus. But what does it do and why is it so important to all living beings?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Jennifer Walker-Journey

People with face blindness" can see facial features just fine; if they were looking at a face they could describe to you what it looks like. But they cannot retain a memory of it. In severe cases people don't even recognize their own face when they look in the mirror. Learn what face blindness is all about.

By Julia Layton

Medical examiners are attributing an increasing number of deaths while in police custody to a syndrome called excited delirium. The problem is, there's no proof this syndrome exists.

By Julia Layton

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Human beings have always found ways to ward off the effects of sleep deprivation. The newest wake-up pill has all of the benefits of caffeine and amphetamines with none of the down sides.

By Julia Layton

The more you know about your memory, the better you'll understand how you can improve it. Get details on how your memory works and how aging affects your ability to remember.

By Richard C. Mohs

Nothing beats watching a blockbuster on the big screen, but today's home theater systems do an impressive job bringing that experience into your home. In this article, we'll explain how the components of a home theater system re-create the sounds and

By Jonathan Strickland

Scientific studies are showing that lefties are quicker and more adroit in some activities than their right-handed counterparts. How true is this idea?

By Julia Layton

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The trials of being a lefty are numerous. You jostle for elbow room at the table, use scissors that feel funny in the hand and are teased for writing oddly. But do beleaguered lefties get the last laugh in sports?

By Robert Lamb

For Jack and his beanstalk, the sky was the limit, but nature's giants hit a point at which they can't grow any taller. What prevents lofty trees like sequoias from soaring any higher?

By Jacob Silverman

Who hasn't fantasized about bigger biceps? Killer abs? A rear end you could bounce a quarter off? But would you tamper with your genes to achieve that buff body?

By Susan L. Nasr

Herd immunity means that after a certain percentage of a population is immune to a disease, the whole population is. This is usually achieved through vaccination but some are not convinced.

By Alia Hoyt & Molly Edmonds

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How would you like to be the person responsible for changing science and Western civilization? With the "Origin of Species," Charles Darwin did. How did this English gent become the reluctant ambassador of evolution?

By Robert Lamb

More than 50 years have passed since Watson and Crick untangled the structure of DNA and five years have elapsed since scientists finished sequencing the entire human genome. What have we figured out about our genetic material?

By Jacob Silverman