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Science Student Gender Gap: A Continuing Challenge:

Interactive classes don’t necessarily solve the performance imbalance between the genders in physics classes, according to a new study that stands in stark contrast to previous physics education research. In fact, while students as a rule benefit from interactive classrooms, the teaching technique may even increase the imbalance in some cases.

Chad has more on this study.
Paying Taxes, According To The Brain, Can Bring Satisfaction:

Want to light up the pleasure center in your brain? Just pay your taxes, and then give a little extra voluntarily to your local food bank. University of Oregon scientists have found that doing those deeds can give you the same sort of satisfaction you derive from feeding your own hunger pangs.

Sleep Disturbances Among The Elderly Linked To Suicide:

Self-reported sleep complaints among the elderly serve as a risk factor for completed suicide, according to new research. The study, conducted by Rebecca Bernert of Florida State University, focused on data that were collected among 14,456 community elders over a 10-year period. During this time frame, 21 individuals died by suicide. When each suicide was matched to 20 randomly-selected controls, it was discovered that disturbances in sleep, independent of depression, predicted an increased risk for eventual death by suicide.

Pride May Not Come Before A Fall, After All:

The Bible got it wrong. Pride only goes before a fall when it’s hubris — excessive pride that veers into self-aggrandizement and conceit. But otherwise, this emotion is fundamental to humans and healthy self-esteem, says Psychology Asst. Prof. Jessica Tracy.

Music: Mirror Of The Mind:

The long supposed connection between mind and music has been further demonstrated by an international collaboration of physicists led by Simone Bianco and Paolo Grigolini at the Center for Nonlinear Science at the University of North Texas. A statistical analysis reveals a remarkable similarity between the distributions produced by music compositions and brain activity.

Fruit Bats Are Not ‘Blind As A Bat’:

The retinas of most mammals contain two types of photoreceptor cells, the cones for daylight vision and colour vision, and the more sensitive rods for night vision. Nocturnal bats were traditionally believed to possess only rods. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and at The Field Museum for Natural History in Chicago have discovered that nocturnal fruit bats (flying foxes) possess cones in addition to rods. Hence, fruit bats are also equipped for daylight vision. The researchers conclude that cone photoreceptors might be useful for spotting predators and for social interactions at periods of roosting during the day. Flying foxes often use exposed treetops as daytime roosts, where they assemble in large colonies (Brain, Behavior and Evolution, online May 2007).

Disappearing Common Birds Send Environmental Wake-up Call:

Birdsongs that filled the childhoods of countless baby-boomers are rarely heard wafting on today’s spring breezes….Once-familiar avian spectacles now elude young birdwatchers…It’s not your imagination… A new analysis by the National Audubon Society reveals that populations of some of America’s most familiar and beloved birds have taken a nosedive over the past forty years, with some down as much as 80 percent. The dramatic declines are attributed to the loss of grasslands, healthy forests and wetlands, and other critical habitats from multiple environmental threats such as sprawl, energy development, and the spread of industrialized agriculture.

Whale Has Super-sized Big Gulp:

How does the largest animal on earth survive on a diet of the smallest of prey? By having a jaw that spans a quarter of its body length, an enormous mouth that goes from the head to the belly button, and by doing lots of “lunges,” according to UBC zoology PhD candidate Jeremy Goldbogen.

Bacteria Can Hide Out In Cells For Weeks:

A major cause of human and animal infections, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria may evade the immune system’s defences and dodge antibiotics by climbing into our cells and then lying low to avoid detection. New research shows how S. aureus makes itself at home in human lung cells for up to two weeks.

Single-celled Transformers: Marine Phytoplankton Changes Form To Protect Itself:

A tiny single-celled organism that plays a key role in the carbon cycle of cold-water oceans may be a lot smarter than scientists had suspected. Researchers report the first evidence that a common species of saltwater algae — also known as phytoplankton — can change form to protect itself against attack by predators that have very different feeding habits.

Why Was The Racehorse Eclipse So Good?:

Scientists from the Royal Veterinary College and the University of Cambridge are researching what made the undefeated 18th Century horse, Eclipse, such a great champion. The genetics research is giving insights into the origins of the world’s thoroughbred racing stock, including the sensational 1867 Derby winner, Hermit.

‘Divorce’ Among Galapagos Seabirds Investigated:

Being a devoted husband and father is not enough to keep an avian marriage together for the Nazca booby, a long-lived seabird found in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.

Biologists Unravel The Genetic Secrets Of Black Widow Spider Silk:

Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the “dragline silk” of the black widow spider — an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.

…and much more good stuff under the fold…

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Lizard Moms Dress Their Children For Success:

Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, “dressing” their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother’s influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as adults.

Bird Song Study Gives Clues To Human Stuttering:

Researchers at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) in Houston and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City used functional MRI to determine that songbirds have a pronounced right-brain response to the sound of songs, establishing a foundational study for future research on songbird models of speech disorders such as stuttering.

Trade Protection Denied For Two Shark Species Prized For Fins, Says World Wildlife Fund:

Two shark species highly prized for their meat and fins have not gained trade protection under CITES, the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, say World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC.

Physicist Cracks Women’s Random But Always Lucky Choice Of X Chromosome:

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky.

Color Pattern Spurs Speciation In Tropical Fish:

A team of researchers from McGill University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) has provided the first example of how colour patterns on a coral reef fish species can drive its evolution into many distinct species.

Massive Herds Of Animals Found To Still Exist In Southern Sudan:

Aerial surveys by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society confirm the existence of more than 1.2 million white-eared kob, tiang antelope and Mongalla gazelle in Southern Sudan, where wildlife was thought to have vanished as a result of decades-long conflict. Despite the war, some species of wildlife in Southern Sudan, last surveyed more than 25 years ago, have not only survived but have thrived east of the Nile River in numbers that rival those of the Serengeti.

Rove Beetles Act As Warning Signs For Clear-cutting Consequences:

New research from the University of Alberta and the Canadian Forest Service has revealed the humble rove beetle may actually have a lot to tell us about the effects of harvesting on forests species. Rove beetles can be used as indicators of clear-cut harvesting and regeneration practices and can be used as an example as to how species react to harvesting. It has been found that after an area of forest was harvested, the many forest species, including rove beetles, decreased dramatically. As the forest regenerated, it never fully replicated the full characteristics of the older forest it replaced.

Ancient DNA Traces Woolly Mammoth’s Disappearance:

Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a “genetic signature” of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths’ migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out.

For more, see this and this.
Scientists Propose The Kind Of Chemistry That Led To Life:

Before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage – so experts believe. But what preceded these pre-life steps? A pair of UCSF scientists has developed a model explaining how simple chemical and physical processes may have laid the foundation for life. Like all useful models, theirs can be tested, and they describe how this can be done. Their model is based on simple, well-known chemical and physical laws.

The Fisherman Is A Predator Like Any Other:

For Peru fishing is a prime source of foreign exchange, second only to mining. The country’s anchovy fishing fleet, which seeks the Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens, is the world’s largest single-species fishery, with an average of 8% of global landings. For safety and monitoring purposes, vessels have the statutory obligation to be equipped with satellite geopositioning indicators, seeing that industrial-scale fishing is prohibited within a band of 5 nautical miles (about 9 kilometres) from the coast. This satellite device, the vessel monitoring system (VMS), gives the real-time position of the vessels to an accuracy of 100 m, communicated to bodies responsible for vessel movement recording and scientific monitoring of fishing.

The Insect Vector Always Bites Twice:

The reality of the threat from vector-borne diseases has been recognized and the problem is prompting research scientists to take a strong interest. Most of these infections, classified as emerging or re-emerging diseases, are linked to ecosystem changes, climatic variations or pressure from human activities. Malaria, sleeping sickness and so on lead to the death of millions of people in the world. African countries are particularly strongly hit. The expansion of Dengue fever and the recent epidemics of Chikungunya and West Nile disease illustrate the trend.