[Washington Post]
Scientists have produced the first direct evidence that fat accelerates aging, possibly speeding the unraveling of crucial genetic structures inside cells that wither with age. A team of researchers from the United States and Britain found that the more a person weighs, the older their cells appear on a molecular level, with obesity adding the equivalent of nearly nine years of age to a person's body.

[Science Daily]
Study by UCLA and Veterans Affairs neuroscientists explains the persistent sleepiness of narcolepsy and reveals the existence of a brain system that is most active during rewarding, positive experiences. Preliminary work indicates that replacement of the natural wake-inducing chemical hypocretin can prevent cataplexy and reverse the sleepiness of narcolepsy.

[Nature]
Inventors have fashioned an interactive computer display from a curtain of fog. The FogScreen uses ceiling-mounted air jets to create a vertical, turbulence-free slice of air a few centimetres thick, into which a fine mist of water is pumped. An ordinary projector can be used to display images on the resulting wall of fog.

[Evolutionary Psychology]
An evolutionary argument for the role of dreams in the development of human cognitive processes.

[Better Humans]
New techniques permit genomic DNA sequencing of cave bear extinct for ten thousand years. Early hominids may be next.

[New Scientist]
11 steps to a better brain.

[New Scientist]
Longevity effects of caloric restriction shown to be primarily based on lowered quantities of protein and fat in diet of fruit flies.

[Nature.com]
Gamma-ray bursts from nearby supernovas of giant stars or a collision between neutron stars could have showered our planet with nitrate, an essential nutrient for plants, helping plants colonize the land about 440 million years ago.

[Science Daily]
Love may be a lateralized brain function, like speech; links seen to stalking, suicide, clinical depression, even autism.

[The Christian Science Monitor]
A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, it looks like the real thing.