Small Wonders: April 19, 2011

In this week’s edition: dinosaur sex, the chemistry of the Bloody Mary, and an elephant caught red-handed.

* A young bonobo displays traits that look a lot like autism.

* How did dinosaurs have sex?

* Beware radioactive bananas. (Or not.)

* Can we love our pets and our planet at the same time? Behold the sustainable pet movement.

* Gizmodo’s got a great package on the future of brain-enhancing drugs.

* A researcher breaks down why the Bloody Mary is so damn delicious.

* Why “collaborative clinical trials” might be the best way forward for drug development.

* A survey reveals how doctors use Twitter.

* A cheating elephant is caught on tape.

* A review of a new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History discusses how paleontology is redefining itself: “What’s crucial is not bones but biology.”

* A newly discovered saber-toothed beast was a ferocious hunter. Of plants.

* Animal skeletons help scientists recreate the old ecosystems of Yellowstone National Park.

* The problem with all those “gay caveman” headlines.

* “Faux-tosynthesis:” How an artificial leaf could generate power.

* Newborns can now be easily tested for the immune-system-sabotaging “bubble boy disease.”

* Elizabeth Taylor’s secret life–as a clinical trial subject.

Image: Wikimedia/Pierre Fidenci

The Small Wonders: April 19, 2011 by Wonderland, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.