Latest research news

Oceans teeming with 10 million kinds of microbe, researchers find
The diversity of microbes in the world's oceans may be more than 100 times greater than previously thought, according to scientists working in marine sites near Iceland and elsewhere. The researchers were astonished to find that they had massively underestimated the diversity of single-cell organisms that make up 98 per cent of all life in the oceans. An international team of marine biologists carried out the study with the help of DNA probes which can quickly distinguish between thousands of life forms in a single glass of seawater. Only 5,000 marine microbes have been named and formally described by scientists, but the true number of bacterial species living in the ocean could be between five and ten million, said Mitchell Sogin, director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts.
The Independent , Daily Telegraph , The Mirror

Lakes on Saturn's moon are Titanic
Lakes up to 60 miles long have been discovered on Saturn's giant moon, Titan. Dozens of dark patches are shown in radar images from the Cassini spacecraft, which flew past Titan on 22 July. Scientists believe they are probably frigid lakes of liquid methane, or a combination of methane and ethane. The smallest is 0.6 miles wide, while the largest is 62 miles long - more than two and a half times the length of Loch Lomond. Dr Steve Wall, of Nasa said: "This is a big deal. We've now seen a place other than Earth where lakes are present."
The Scotsman

Chinese tonic helps to control type-2 diabetes
A traditional Chinese medicine said to help patients with diabetes has been given the backing of scientists. The natural plant product known as berberine has been documented in Chinese literature as having a blood sugar lowering effect in people with type-2 diabetes, but it was not known why it has this effect. Now an international team from China, Korea and Australia has demonstrated how berberine helps diabetics. In tests on animals, the researchers from the Garvan Institute in Sydney found berberine was interacting with the body chemistry.
The Scotsman

The bog man still looking his best 2,300 years later
For decades it has been a man's privilege to scoff at the lengths to which women will go to make themselves look beautiful. But go back a few thousand years and the male of the species went to extraordinary lengths to look good, it has been revealed. Scientists examining prehistoric bodies found in the peat bogs of Ireland have discovered evidence of careful grooming on male corpses. One of the bodies, dug up in 2003 at Clonycavan, near Dublin, had Mohawk-style hair, held in place with a gel substance. The other, unearthed three months later 25 miles (40km) away in Oldcroghan by workmen, had perfectly manicured fingernails.
The Times