studies

Today, a company called DeepDyve launched the largest online rental service for scientific papers, which allows users to rent any article for just 99 cents. Journal articles currently trend toward the obscene ($30 or more), unless you're the lucky dude with a password for a university library. DeepDyve saw an opening in the market and made deals with major scientific publishers to stock 30 million (and growing) articles of tech, med, and scientific interest.

DeepDyve is part of a greater trend of getting scientific info back to the hardworking taxpayers who funded it.

At the so-called Restaurant of the Future in Wageningen, Netherlands, lunch time diners have all sorts of food options. “Animal friendly” meats, fruit juices, cheese slices, bananas, waffles, pretty much anything to suit your appetite. And, you can eat a full meal for only $6.30; it’s a great deal. A deal, that is, as long as you don’t mind a team of scientists studying you as you hit the buffet.

It is well known how we humans respond to immediate stress—through a phenomenon we share with all animals known as fight or flight. During these times of increased threat, our bodies' systems work in concert to raise our heart rate, pump adrenaline, and sharpen our focus. Now scientists working at Northwestern University have discovered that these responses may be coordinated by special stress-receptor neurons, rather than in each cell individually.

Like a flock of chickens hunting grubs and seeds, humans appear to be hardwired to follow a social pecking order. Researchers at the National Institute of Menal Health conducted an experiment in which subjects played a computer game for money. They were told they were competing simultaneously against others whom they couldn't see and were assigned a rank based on their playing skill.

News flash! Scientists prove that swallowing magnets is bad for you. Stop the presses! Smoking hurts wealth as well as health. Eureka! Faraway objects can be hard to see.