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June 1858 was an especially trying month for Charles Darwin, both personally and professionally. The great scientist and devoted father, then 49 years old, was coping with two gravely sick children at home—one of whom would soon die. And at the same time, he received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, a respected fellow scientist whose keen observations about native wildlife might have been welcome reading under other circumstances. This particular dispatch, however, contained far more than Wallace’s notes about Ternate, the remote island in the Dutch East Indies he was visiting....

People intuitively recognize the importance of self- esteem to their psychological health, so it isn’t particularly remarkable that most of us try to protect and enhance it in ourselves whenever possible. What is remarkable is that attention to self-esteem has become a communal concern, at least for Americans, who see a favorable opinion of oneself as the central psychological source from which all manner of positive outcomes spring. The corollary, that low self-esteem lies at the root of individual and thus societal problems, has sustained an ambitious social agenda for decades....

Negotiations over an outcome text to frame expectations at next week’s sustainable development conference in Rio de Janeiro were tense yesterday, with disputes not resolved on international technology transfer and finance for green economies in the developing world, among a host of other issues. Sources on the ground in Rio, where pre-conference talks are ongoing, said the mood surrounding the negotiations is pessimistic about the likelihood that a final outcome document will be agreed to by the end of today, when the “prepcom” meetings are supposed to produce an agenda....

Many of the 582 million acres governed by four federal agencies in 11 western states and Alaska are as rich in fossil fuels and renewable energy as they are biologically diverse and scenic, and that presents a challenge to the Obama administration as the planet warms. Federal lands across the country are an important component in America’s fight against climate change in part because they protect forests that act as a carbon sink....

By Mark Schrope of Nature magazineThe X Prize Foundation today announced the winners of its year-long, US$1.4-million challenge to spur development of improved oil-collection systems for use during spills. The victorious team almost doubled the competition’s minimum threshold for success, and more than tripled previous best efforts.During last year’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, conventional oil-collection techniques were found to be woefully inadequate. According to US government estimates, a massive mobilization of vessels was able to skim up only 3-4% of the 650 million liters of oil that entered the Gulf’s waters....

(Corrects byline. No change to text.) By Reuters Staff ROME (Reuters)Fewer babies were born in Italy in 2014 than in any other year since the modern Italian state was formed in 1861, new data show, highlighting the demographic challenge faced by the country’s chronically sluggish economy. National statistics office ISTAT said on Thursday the number of live births last year was 509,000, or 5,000 fewer than in 2013, rounding off half a century of decline....

In the movie thriller Memento, the principal character, Leonard, can remember everything that happened before his head injury on the night his wife was attacked, but anyone he meets or anything he has done since that fateful night simply vanishes. He has lost the ability to convert short-term memory into long-term memory. Leonard is driven to find his wife’s killer and avenge her death, but trapped permanently in the present, he must resort to tattooing the clues of his investigation all over his body....

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazineAn Irish mathematician has used a complex algorithm and millions of hours of supercomputing time to solve an important open problem in the mathematics of Sudoku, the game popularized in Japan that involves filling in a 9x9 grid of squares with the numbers 1-9 according to certain rules.Gary McGuire of University College Dublin shows in a proof posted online on January 1 that the minimum number of clues–or starting digits–needed to complete a puzzle is 17; puzzles with 16 or fewer clues do not have a unique solution....

Worldwide, women suffer higher rates of eating disorders and obesity than men do—and a recent study may help explain why. Gene-Jack Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory used PET scans to look at brain activity in fasting men and women as they were exposed to the sight, smell and taste of their favorite food. Some subjects of each gender were then told to try to ignore their craving for the food. In men, this willful inhibition directly affected brain metabolism—the group suppressing their craving had less activation in the limbic and paralimbic regions, which control awareness of hunger and desire for food....

Researchers are preparing to scrutinize nature on tiny scales by stretching supercooled atoms into room-length waves as they drop them down a 100-meter vacuum tube. The experiment will seek ripples in the bizarre quantum realm: potential fingerprints of missing dark matter and, in future iterations, new frequencies of gravitational waves. Collaborators have raised $12.3 million to turn an Illinois mine shaft into the world’s largest atom interferometer—the Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor, or MAGIS-100....

The blades of a wind turbine are typically designed to be replaced about every 20 years. This means that, as wind energy becomes more popular, more and more of these hulking fiberglass structures will be discarded, and many of them could end up buried in the ground. To encourage recycling the blades instead, one research team has developed a binding resin—the ingredient that holds their fibrous material together—that can be transformed into more valuable substances....

When an earthquake strikes, seismic waves spread from the epicenter, following the patchwork quilt of faults and geology in California, for example. The violent shaking these waves may trigger can topple buildings, rupture water mains and wreak havoc on industrial infrastructure. But by making quick computer analyses in seismographic stations near the epicenter, warnings can be relayed in seconds, allowing people to take safety precautions and critical infrastructure to be shut down, scientists reported this week at the fall conference of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco....

For a complete list of our coverage, see our In-Depth Report “The Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis” The Main Points Key Developments to Know about the Japan Nuclear Crisis [Updated] Confused by the fast-changing pace of events? Here are the bullet points to know By The Editors | April 5, 2011 Reactor Status Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fukushima Power Plant By Steve Mirsky | March 12, 2011 What Happens During a Nuclear Meltdown?...

Who is more persuasive: A person who expresses great certainty about his or her views, or a person who is less sure? If you are like most people, your intuition is that certainty makes you more persuasive. And this makes sense. A person who expresses certainty seems better informed; perhaps more credible. Most of us have had the experience of being persuaded by someone simply because they were so sure about what they were saying....

Cleaner coal, nuclear, solar, wind: these are some of the options for power generation to feed the U.S.’s electric power requirements. That need is expected to grow by 30 percent during the next 25 years, according to the Energy Information Administration, even with a slew of energy-efficiency measures and improvements to the grid infrastructure that delivers the electricity. But the primary source of electricity in 2034, according to a new projection from consulting firm Black & Veatch, will be natural gas....

There is now a glimmer of hope that the back-and-forth debate over the remains of the so-called Hobbit can be settled. Indonesian authorities have reopened Liang Bua cave, the site of the Hobbit’s discovery, giving Australian archaeologists renewed access, according to the BBC. And Fox News reports that excavators have discovered a new, larger chamber under the cave that is connected to it. The cavern is reportedly filled with bones of assorted animals—and could contain new Hobbit specimens....

The scenario is all too common—children who are abused develop an attachment to their abuser that interferes with their desire to seek help or leave the situation. Experts have struggled to understand this seemingly destructive behavior, but the underlying causes have remained hidden. Now new research from scientists who study attachment in rats offers insight into what may be happening in abused children’s brains. Rats are especially responsive to smells during infancy, which may help foster the parental bond....

Editor’s note: We’re posting this story from our September 2006 issue because of recent FDA action on ATryn. In the milk of 30 genetically modified goats on GTC Biotherapeutics’s farm in Charlton, Mass., is a drug that can literally make your blood flow—the human protein antithrombin, which inhibits clotting. In a dramatic reversal, after European regulators rejected this drug (called ATryn), they now look ready to approve it later this year....

Dear EarthTalk: How are scientists using DNA to conserve wildlife? – Jake Summerlin, Newark, NJ Traditionally, conservation biologists have relied on field observation and sample and statistical analysis to help them understand the dynamics behind species loss, but today genetics is taking on an increasingly important role in helping quantify the biodiversity around us and even save some threatened species. According to researchers at King Saud University who reviewed various DNA analysis technologies used in wildlife conservation for the Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, the newly emerging discipline of conservation genetics has proven instrumental in creating better management plans for so-called “genetically deteriorated” wildlife populations....

Here’s something to think about as you sip that morning mochaccino: Deforestation, climate change and the proliferation of pests and fungal pathogens are putting most of the world’s wild coffee species at risk of extinction. At least 60 percent of wild coffee species are considered “threatened,” according to a study published this week in Science Advances. And fewer than half of all the wild species are safeguarded in so-called germplasm collections—banks for seed and living plants kept in protected areas as backups....