[Red Nova]
Surprises on Titan.

[National Geographic]
Scientists have found fossil skeletons of a hobbit-like species of human that grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child. The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits, lived with pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons on a remote island in Indonesia as recently as 13,000 years ago. It is believed that the fossils represent a species of human completely new to science, which has been named Homo floresiensis after the island on which it was found.

[New Scientist]
Mice treated with the antidepressant Prozac early in life grow into adults with emotional problems, a new report concludes.

[Wired News]
Theodore W. Berger, director of the Center for Neural Engineering at the University of Southern California, is creating a silicon chip implant that mimics the hippocampus, an area of the brain known for creating memories. If successful, the artificial brain prosthesis could replace its biological counterpart, enabling people who suffer from memory disorders to regain the ability to store new memories. And it's no longer a question of "if" but "when."

[UF News]
Thomas DeMarse, a University of Florida professor of biomedical engineering has grown a living “brain” that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.

[Science Daily]
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory demonstrated that, after deleting large swaths of DNA sequence shared by mice and humans, they were still able to generate mice that suffered no apparent ills from their genomes being millions of letters lighter.

[BBC News]
Human beings have far fewer genes than originally thought, a consortium of scientists have claimed in Nature.

[Engadget]
Interview with Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo, on where the service will go next.

[PhysOrg]
New high-tech shopping carts will offer such features as ongoing pricing and totalling.

[PhysOrg]
Nitrogen, the major constituent of air, usually consists of inert molecules where two atoms are strongly triple-bonded. Now, researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have synthesised a polymeric cubic form of nitrogen where all atoms are connected with single covalent bonds, similar to carbon atoms in diamond.

[Harvard Gazette]
Study suggests protein may extend life by as much as 23%.