Stories related to: science experiment

Want to try a heavenly lager? Come November, you might get a chance. Japan's Sapporo Breweries is harvesting barley this weekend from seeds that spent 5 months aboard the International Space Station, the AP reports. It then plans to brew 100 bottles of space beer, though it hasn't figured out yet who will actually get to drink it. More »

Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work together during different life stages. More »

Scientists have reviewed the research Japan uses to justify hunting whales, and they've concluded that it is mostly useless—and very weird, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reports.   Researchers tried to fertilize cow and pig eggs with whale sperm, and to create test-tube whales from frozen sperm.  "It's totally esoteric, very strange research," an Australian scientist said. More »

What were the most important scientific findings of 2007? LiveScience gives you the top 10: Climate change: The IPCC issued its strongest warning yet that humans are causing global warming. Arctic melting: Two studies found retreating arctic ice. Extreme weather: Global warming is contributing—specifically hurricanes and heat waves. Alternative energy: Biofuels’ futures are uncertain as researchers uncovered pros and cons for gasoline’s successors. More »

Ever see an elephant on acid? The Guardian rounds up the most bizarre science experiments of all time, courtesy of New Scientist . Among them: a researcher who injected an elephant with LSD, via rifle, to see if the drug induced aggressiveness. The elephant died. Another involved telling plane passengers they were about to crash, then having them fill out insurance forms—to see if extreme stress impaired cognitive ability. (Yes.) More »

Three decades into a bizarre nature-versus-nurture experiment, Elyse Schein abruptly discovered she and a twin sister had been separated at birth and adopted into separate homes—all in the name of science. They eventually found each other in 2004, and now talked with CBS about their new memoir, Identical Strangers.   More »