[National Geographic]
The illness suffered by locals following the recent meteorite strike in Peru was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes. The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic.

[BBC]
Scientists have shown how bacteria in space can gain virulence. When Salmonella typhimurium were flown in special flasks on the shuttle, they were found to alter the way they expressed 167 genes. These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive

[Telegraph.co.uk]
A major advance in fertility treatment is signalled today as doctors unveil details of a technique that will allow human eggs to be grown in the laboratory from ovarian tissue samples.

[MSNBC]
A new study of a skeleton of a member of a race of three-foot-tall "hobbits" who lived 12,000 years ago in Indonesia shows that they were a species of human—and that the evolutionary path to Homo sapiens may be far more complex than previously assumed.

[Ponoko]
Now everyone can engage in the manufacturing process through their PCs—bringing personal manufacturing of individualized products to the masses.

[Futurismic]
University of Pennsylvania scientists have demonstrated a memory device that showed extremely low power consumption for data encoding (0.7mW per bit) while writing, erasing and retrieving data 1,000 times faster than conventional Flash memory. Tests also indicated the device would not lose data even after approximately 100,000 years of use. This all has the potential to realize a terabit-level nonvolatile memory device.

[Metaplace]
Our goals are sort of idealistic. We think there are all kinds of things on the Internet that would be improved if anyone could have a virtual place of their own. Right now, there aren't enough good games, for example, and they all seem to be about elves in tights or soldiers in battle armor. Metaplace allows more diversity. Right now, there are lots of people who want to use virtual worlds for research, or education, or business, but it's just too darn hard to get one going. Now you can create a world in just a few minutes and start tailoring it to your needs. Basically, we wanted to democratize the process of making online spaces of all sorts.

[News.com]
Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires.

[News.com]
DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery for Google Earth, said a new high-resolution satellite will boost the accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive.

[MSNBC]
Does exercise lead to neurogenesis?

[Economist.com]
Study shows that some sex differences that look biological are really cultural.

[Telegraph.co.uk]
Man invents water-purifying bottle that can remove bacteria AND viruses.

[The New York Times]
At IBM's research lab, Stuart S. P. Parkin is working on a device that could increase chip data storage by 10 to 100 times. The tech world, obsessed with data density, is taking notice because Mr. Parkin has done it before.

[The Washington Post]
The future of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico hangs in the balance.

[CBC News]
Kudzu: demon or savior plant?

[BBC News]
Researchers demonstrate surprising ways that our eyes function during reading.

[various]
New study suggests smart brains have a liberal bias, tolerating ambiguity and conflict better.

[The Intelligence Daily]
Microchip implants cause fast-growing, malignant tumors in lab animals: damning research findings could spell the end of VeriChip.

[PhysOrg.com]
Physicists at the University of Michigan have used light to establish what's called "entanglement" between two atoms, which were trapped a meter apart in separate enclosures (think of entangling like controlling the outcome of one coin flip with the outcome of a separate coin flip). By manipulating the photons emitted from each of the two atoms and guiding them to interact along a fiber optic thread, the researchers were able to detect the resulting photon clicks and entangle the atoms. Monroe says the fiber optic thread was necessary to establish entanglement of the atoms, but then the fiber could be severed and the two atoms would remain entangled, even if one were "(carefully) taken to Jupiter."

[BBC News]
A colossal collision in space 160 million years ago set the dinosaurs on the path to extinction, a study claims. It is a poignant thought that the Baptistina collision some 160 million years ago sealed the fate of the late-Cretaceous dinosaurs well before most of them had evolved.