Science and Tech

The Atlantic Ocean has experienced the highest level of hurricane activity since the medieval era, circa 1000 A.D., when cyclone activity might have been even more intense.

No wonder communications between various cultures can sometimes get lost in translation. A new study suggests that people from different parts of the world don't necessarily use the same facial expressions to show their emotions.

The findings overturn a long-held assumption that facial expressions are universal and can be used reliably to convey emotions in cross-cultural situations.

"He's taken? Tell me more!"

It's a typical line dropped by fictional characters like Samantha Jones, that saucy publicist from Sex and the City. But these days, you'll also hear it on any given girls' night out, as single ladies swirl their cocktails and share tales of romantic pursuit.

It started as the brainchild of two University of Minnesota professors and became a global sensation.

It remains the most widely used personality test in the world, assessing the emotional stability of millions of people.

But now the legendary MMPI -- the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test -- is stirring up some emotional turmoil of its own.

From behind their bedroom doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a nude or seminude picture of themselves or others online -- a "digital tattoo" that could haunt them for the rest of their lives, according to a poll being released today.

It would be several hours before the first wave of tubers floated by.

On this summer morning, researchers had the Little River all to themselves. They were in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee looking for hellbenders, the largest salamander in North America, an amphibian whose size is exceeded only by the giant salamanders of China and Japan.

Sue Pederson knows that the teenage boys in her treatment program have trouble making conversation. They may not know what to talk about; or once they get started, when to shut up.

That's one of the striking features of people with Asperger's syndrome: they struggle with the social skills that come so naturally to others.

Nancy Rabalais didn't need any fancy testing equipment to know something was wrong in the waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Researchers have mapped a 3,000-square-mile dead zone off the Louisiana coast, smaller than had been forecasted but more severe than in some past years.

In 20 years of writing this column, more than 1,000 of these gems have left my fingertips and ended up in your brain-cells in one form or another. In those two decades, we have learned much. I thought I would share the best information in this week's space.

Things I have learned as a columnist:

When the riders of the Tour de France compete in time trials that pit each athlete against the clock, the individual efforts will be aided by specially designed bicycles with superlight carbon wheels shaped like wings turned on edge.