The aim of the research is to develop a more efficient way of producing meat than rearing animals.

At a major science meeting in Canada, Prof Mark Post said synthetic meat could reduce the environmental footprint of meat by up to 60%.

"We would gain a tremendous amount in terms of resources," he said.

Professor Post's group at Maastricht University in ( Read more... )

Katherine Harmon, "Zombie" Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees, Scientific American, January 3, 2012
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A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. Instead, the pile ended up revealing a previously unrecognized suspect in colony collapse disorder-a mysterious condition that for several years has been causing ( Read more... )

The Western Black Rhino of Africa was declared officially extinct Thursday by a leading conservation group.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said that two other subspecies of rhinoceros were close to meeting the same fate.

The Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino "probably ( Read more... )

You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com

Head Transplant: The Truly Disturbing Truly Real Story from Jim Fields on Vimeo.
A short documentary by Jim Fields about neuroscientist Robert White, including footage of a brain kept alive (sort of) outside a body, and a monkey head transplant. Bits of it are quite disturbing. The article I found it in is a good read, too.