GENEVA – CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory and creator of the Worldwide Web, on Friday unveiled a new computer network allowing thousands of scientists around the world to crunch data on its huge experiments. Some 7,000 scientists in 33 countries are now linked through the computing network at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to analyze data from its particle-smashing test probing the nature of matter that began last month.

Scientists learn space lessons from Antarctic bases

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – In the depths of the Antarctic winter, expeditioners at Australia's research bases might as well be on the moon. Or on their way to Mars. “When you are in Antarctica you know you can't get out – there's no rescue during winter. And that changes one's mentality,” said Des Lugg, head of polar medicine at the Australian Antarctic Division from 1968-2001 and now a consultant to NASA.

Scientists close to cracking wheat's genetic code

LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists believe they have found a way to map the hugely complex genetic code of wheat, the staple food for 35 percent of the world's population. The move could lead to improved crop varieties that are resistant to drought and disease at a time when surging demand has stoked fears over future grain supply, sending prices soaring to record highs earlier this year.

Calorie overload sends the brain haywire: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Eating too much appears to activate a usually dormant immune system pathway in the brain, sending out immune cells to attack and destroy invaders that are not there, Dongsheng Cai of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues found.

Genes pinpoint people at risk for gout: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have pinpointed three genes related to the high blood levels of uric acid that cause gout in a step that could help identify people at special risk for this common and painful type of arthritis. People who had specific variants of these genes were up to 30 to 40 times more likely to develop gout than those without them, U.S. and Dutch researchers wrote in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday.

Spermicide Coke, stale chips research wins Ig Nobels

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative “Ig Nobel” prizes Thursday. Other winners included physicists who found out that anything that can tangle, will tangle and a team of biologists who ascertained that dog fleas jump farther than cat fleas.

Lack of control seen fueling superstitions

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Lack of control can lead rational people to see patterns even where no true pattern exists, a finding that explains seemingly irrational behavior, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. They said their findings help explain why baseball players perform elaborate rituals or stock analysts sometimes see ominous trends in perfectly innocuous data.

Dark matter and nanotech may vie for Nobel prizes

LONDON (Reuters) – A scientist who helped prove the existence of dark matter and a researcher who used the power of jellyfish to glow green in experiments may win Nobel prizes, Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday. The analysis makes use of the way scientists credit one another for their work to find out who has done the most influential basic research in the fields of