Science

If you were to list the imperfections of the standard model - physicists' remarkably successful description of matter and its interactions - pretty high up would have to be its prediction that we don't exist.

Savant-like skills, such as astounding memory, perfect pitch or the ability to multiply very high numbers together, may be much more common among people with autism than previously thought.

A new study of about 100 adults with autism shows that one third have skills that stand out, both in comparison with their other abilities and with the skills of the general population. Previous studies put the prevalence of savantism in autistic people as around 1 in 10.

YOU are the victim of identity theft and the fraudster calls your bank to transfer money into their own account. But instead of asking them for your personal details, the bank assistant simply presses a button that causes the phone to produce a brief series of clicks in the fraudster's ear. A message immediately alerts the bank that the person is not who they are claiming to be, and the call is ended.

ARCTIC sea ice is melting so fast most of it could be gone in 30 years. A new analysis of changing conditions in the region, using complex computer models of weather and climate, says conditions that had been forecast by the end of the century could occur much sooner.

A change in the amount of ice is important because the white surface reflects sunlight back into space. When ice is replaced by dark ocean water that sunlight can be absorbed, warming the water and increasing the warming of the planet.

Everything about Jupiter is super-sized, including its colorful, turbulent atmosphere. But there's fresh evidence that one of the planet's most recognizable features, the Great Red Spot, is shrinking. The spot, which is actually an ancient monster storm that measures about three Earths across, lost 15 percent of its diameter between 1996 and 2006, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found.

It shrank by about 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) a day during that time period, said Xylar Asay-Davis, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the study.

For the first time, a robotic system has made a novel scientific discovery with virtually no human intellectual input.

Scientists designed "Adam" to carry out the entire scientific process on its own: formulating hypotheses, designing and running experiments, analyzing data, and deciding which experiments to run next.

Swearing and shouting at a computer has become a common way for people to relieve stress and express anger, research has revealed.

The study by the University of Bolton found that computer rage is now an everyday expression of anger but it could sometimes be beneficial.

Dr John Charlton from the University told Web User: "In our study of 126 participants we found that the majority of people became angry three or four times each month, but more than 10 per cent reported anger occurring 10 times or more.

The relentless bombardment of video, music and information online could permanently alter our brains and trigger neurological disorders, according to an eminent neurologist.

With Western children spending more than six hours per day sat in front of a screen, Baroness Susan Greenfield told the Gartner Identity and Access Management Summit it's no coincidence an increasing number of children are today being treated for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

With the descent of March Madness upon the basketball world, fans can once again anticipate the joy of an underdog triumph. It's one of life's rare joys, the astounding upset. From finding a nice parking space to winning the lottery, it seems everyone enjoys a pleasant surprise.

And why not? Your brain, it turns out, is deep-wired for enjoyment of unexpected rewards, finds a new study. Led by neuroscientist Kareem Zaghloul of the University of Pennsylvania, the study suggests that if you want a lesson to stick, an unexpected reward is what the brain is craving.

Dinosaur fossils recently discovered in northeast China's Liaoning province have bewildered scientists about the evolutionary development of feathers.

The sub-adult Tianyulong Confuciusi, which was covered with feather-like structures, dates back to the early Cretacious Period(144-99 million years ago), when the first dinosaurs emerged - long before anything like feathers had been believed to have started developing.