As far as we know, no dog can compose music, no dolphin can speak in rhymes, and no parrot can solve equations with two unknowns. Only humans can perform such intellectual feats, presumably because we are smarter than all other animal species--at least by our own definition of intelligence.Of course, intelligence must emerge from the workings of the three-pound mass of wetware packed inside our skulls. Thus, researchers have tried to identify unique features of the human brain that could account for our superior intellectual abilities. But, anatomically, the human brain is very similar to that of other primates because humans and chimpanzees share an ancestor that walked the earth less than seven million years ago. [More]

Watch a pigeon dodge traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian. The bird seems to be the very embodiment of unfulfilled potential--it can fly, and yet it walks. Of course, during World War II, pigeons did a fair amount of flying, carrying messages between the front and command posts. But full pigeon promise was never realized. Because the birds were denied the chance to show what they could do in the air--as pilots.The story of pigeon pilots, as well as all else pigeon, is told in the new book Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World, by Courtney Humphries. She ex­­plains that the idea of using pigeons as pilots first occurred to a young B. F. Skinner in 1940, when he watched a flock do some fancy man­­euvering. (He presumably did not get the idea from watching the movie Flight Command, which came out the same year and featured a pilot played by Walter Pidgeon.) [More]

The most sparsely populated county in Wales is Britain's happiest place - but Edinburgh the least happy, say researchers.

Brazil's Supreme Court puts off ruling on the status of an indigenous reserve disputed by Indians and farmers.

The New York attorney general announced an agreement that would require Xcel energy, a builder of coal-fired plants, to disclose to investors the financial risks of global warming.

Recent advances in cervical cancer prevention mean that controlling the disease in developing countries is becoming feasible for the first time, experts say. Developments such as highly effective vaccines against the human papilloma virus (HPV) and promising new screening tests provide an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the disease in poor countries, where pap smear screening has largely failed because it is too expensive and too complicated to implement.

Injury-inducing collisions aren't the only safety issues football coaches and trainers need to worry about, physiologists say. High temperatures and humidity can also take a serious toll on players wrapped up in pads and uniforms.

Scientists have transformed one type of ell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.] If you’ve ever spent time with toddlers, sooner or later you’ll hear the word “Mine!” It’s usually followed by an adult saying, “Now, now, you have to learn to share.” But a study in the August 28th issue of Nature suggests we may be wasting our breath. Because kids in the preschool set have no interest in making sure everyone gets their fair share. [More]

Biologists at Harvard have converted cells from a mouse's pancreas into the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed in diabetes.