Few modern animals are as deserving of the title "living fossil" as the lowly horseshoe crab. Seemingly unchanged since before the Age of Dinosaurs, these venerable sea creatures can now claim a history that reaches back almost half-a billion years. Scientists have revealed rare new horseshoe crab fossils from 445 million year-old Ordovician age rocks in central and northern Manitoba, which are about 100 million years older than any previously known forms.

  Less sleep can increase a child's risk of being overweight or obese.. A new analysis of epidemiological studies found that with each additional hour of sleep, the risk of a child being overweight or obese dropped by 9 percent.

  Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some biologically diverse coral reefs from the impacts of climate change. A new study finds evidence that an ocean "thermostat" is helping regulate sea-surface temperatures. This research lends support to a much-debated theory that a natural ocean thermostat prevents sea-surface temperatures from exceeding about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) in open oceans. If so, this thermostat would protect reefs that have evolved in naturally warm waters that will not warm much further, as opposed to reefs that live in slightly cooler waters that face more significant warming.

  Using two different endoscopes together is better than using one to stage lung cancer, and is also much more precise and less invasive than the surgical method now most commonly used. This new technique, which uses two small flexible tubes, one of which is inserted into a patient's esophagus to access lymph nodes in the back of the lungs while the other is placed into the trachea, or airway, to reach nodes at the front and sides, was 93 percent accurate in finding malignant lymph nodes in a group of 138 patients.

  Optical clocks might become the atomic clocks of the future. Their "pendulum", i.e. the regular oscillation process which each clock needs, is an oscillation in the range of the visible light. As its frequency is higher than that of the microwave oscillations of the cesium atomic clocks, physicists expect another increase in the accuracy, stability and reliability.

  Research with 400 pairs of 7-year-old twins assessed the genetic and environmental effects on children's physical and social aggression (behaviors such as spreading rumors). Specifically, the researchers found that physical aggression in a friend is likely to interact with genetic tendency towards physical aggression; however, a child's social aggression was not affected by one's genetic disposition. Further, effects of friends' aggression on other children's aggression were only observed within the same type of aggression.

  A new energy-capturing knee brace can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, a cell phone, a motorized prosthetic joint or an implanted neurotransmitter. The researcher, who called the device "a cocktail-napkin idea," says knee joints are uniquely suited for this endeavor.

  Researchers have discovered new cellular mechanisms that lead to in insulin resistance in people with diabetes. The research team identified a 'fat-burning' gene, the products of which are required to maintain the cells insulin sensitivity. They also discovered that this gene is reduced in muscle tissue from people with high blood sugar and type 2-diabetes.

  Scientists have tracked down the cells responsible for neurofibromatosis type 1, a disfiguring, incurable condition and one of the most common hereditary disorders. Neurofibromatosis type 1, or NF1, is a peripheral nervous system condition that afflicts one in 3,500 Americans. Symptoms normally begin to appear by age 10. Though most cases are mild, the disease can lead to disfigurement, learning disabilities, blindness, skeletal abnormalities, loss of limbs and, occasionally, lethal malignancies.

  A new test could greatly extend the survival of infants with Menkes disease, a rare, otherwise fatal disorder of copper metabolism. The test allows for early diagnosis of the condition, when the chance for successful treatment is greatest.

  Scientists have developed new "fluorogen activating proteins" that will become a key component of novel molecular biosensor technology. The FAPs can be used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins and other biomolecules within living cells in real time. Researchers designed the FAPs to emit fluorescent light only when bound to a fluorogen, an otherwise non-fluorescent dye added by the scientists. This feature will allow biologists to track proteins on the cell surface and within living cells in very simple and direct ways, eliminating cumbersome experimental steps.

  Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream US culture, but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.

  Scientists have established a substantial and consistent positive correlation between the kinship of couples and the number of children and grandchildren they have. The study, which analyzes more than 200 years of deCODE's comprehensive genalogical data on the population of Iceland, shows that couples related at the level of third cousins have the greatest number of offspring. These new findings suggest that the recent and dramatic demographic shift experienced in Iceland -- from a rural society to a highly urbanized one -- may serve to slow population growth, as individuals are exposed to a much broader range of distantly related potential mates.

  A novel drug designed to lessen muscle damage from a heart attack has passed initial safety tests in humans. Researchers said that many people may not realize that the heart suffers damage at two major points in a heart attack: first, when a blockage in a coronary artery prevents blood and oxygen from getting to the heart, and then again when the patient undergoes PCI and normal blood flow is restored through reperfusion.