Are leaders born or made? Evolution may be throwing us a curve ball when it comes to picking them in the modern world, says bAnjana Ahuja/bimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d826417/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=The+natural+selection+of+leaderslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727761.400-the-natural-selection-of-leaders.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=The+natural+selection+of+leaderslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727761.400-the-natural-selection-of-leaders.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869808557/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226649111/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869808557/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226649111/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

Google's latest doodle is causing no end of head scratching on the web today. Is the company about to announce something special?img width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d81a72c/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=What%27s+Google%27s+mysterious+doodle%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fgoogles-mysterious-doodle.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=What%27s+Google%27s+mysterious+doodle%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fgoogles-mysterious-doodle.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869798922/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226600748/kg/27/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869798922/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226600748/kg/27/a2.img" border="0"//a

DNA fingerprint pioneer Alec Jeffreys has found a key gene behind human variation and evolutionimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d81a72d/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Master+gene-shuffler+makes+us+all+differentlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19411-master-geneshuffler-makes-us-all-different.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Master+gene-shuffler+makes+us+all+differentlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19411-master-geneshuffler-makes-us-all-different.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869798920/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226600749/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869798920/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226600749/a2.img" border="0"//a

A technique to revitalise optical signals so that they never die could provide a route to faster internet connectionsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d811859/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Immortal+signals+promise+perfect+web+videolink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19410-immortal-signals-promise-perfect-web-video.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Immortal+signals+promise+perfect+web+videolink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19410-immortal-signals-promise-perfect-web-video.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869880718/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226564185/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869880718/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226564185/a2.img" border="0"//a

Millions of tons of oil lost in sunken ships is threatening a new environmental disasterimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d80e018/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Why+wartime+wrecks+are+slicking+time+bombslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727761.600-why-wartime-wrecks-are-slicking-time-bombs.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Why+wartime+wrecks+are+slicking+time+bombslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727761.600-why-wartime-wrecks-are-slicking-time-bombs.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869789671/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226549784/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869789671/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226549784/a2.img" border="0"//a

The more money people earn the higher their overall life satisfaction, but your day-to-day emotional wellbeing improves only up to a $75,000 salaryimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d80be91/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Money+can+buy+you+happiness+%E2%80%93+up+to+a+pointlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727770.101-money-can-buy-you-happiness--up-to-a-point.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Money+can+buy+you+happiness+%E2%80%93+up+to+a+pointlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727770.101-money-can-buy-you-happiness--up-to-a-point.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869787750/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226541201/kg/43/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869787750/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226541201/kg/43/a2.img" border="0"//a

Weight loss releases chemical pollutants into the blood, which can stick around, increasing the risk of diabetes, cancer and dementiaimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d801a18/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Losing+weight+may+pollute+the+bloodlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19406-losing-weight-may-pollute-the-blood.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Losing+weight+may+pollute+the+bloodlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19406-losing-weight-may-pollute-the-blood.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868621526/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226499096/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868621526/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226499096/a2.img" border="0"//a

ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in children could be caused by a virus, scientists say.

Some of the UK's rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests.

A study suggests climate change is not responsible for civil wars in Africa, challenging widely held assumptions.

The active chemical in magic mushroom has been shown to lessen anxiety and improve mood in people with late-stage cancerimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7c81e9/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Magic+mushrooms+reduce+anxiety+over+cancerlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19405-magic-mushrooms-reduce-anxiety-over-cancer.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Magic+mushrooms+reduce+anxiety+over+cancerlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19405-magic-mushrooms-reduce-anxiety-over-cancer.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869744158/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226263529/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869744158/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226263529/a2.img" border="0"//a

The brains of humans, apes and monkeys are enormous compared with their bodies ndash; it seems these brainy animals have their mothers to thankimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7c58eb/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Thank+mothers+for+large+ape+brainslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19409-thank-mothers-for-large-ape-brains.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Thank+mothers+for+large+ape+brainslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19409-thank-mothers-for-large-ape-brains.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869741491/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226253035/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869741491/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226253035/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

We may have to dramatically revise our estimates of how much carbon rainforests contain – apparently similar forests hold vastly different amountsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7c58ea/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Forest+carbon+stores+may+be+massively+overestimatedlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19408-forest-carbon-stores-may-be-massively-overestimated.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Forest+carbon+stores+may+be+massively+overestimatedlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19408-forest-carbon-stores-may-be-massively-overestimated.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869741490/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226253034/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869741490/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226253034/a2.img" border="0"//a

The first rocket-launch attempted by the non-profit Copenhagen Suborbitals didn't leave the pad, but its inventors haven't given up yetimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7b94f3/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Did+hairdryer+stymie+launch+of+human+cannonball%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fhair-dryer-failure-in-rocket-l.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Did+hairdryer+stymie+launch+of+human+cannonball%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fhair-dryer-failure-in-rocket-l.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869734617/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226202867/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869734617/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226202867/a2.img" border="0"//a

CERN, the organisation that gave away the World Wide Web, is finally thinking about protecting its intellectual propertyimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7b64b6/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Innovation%3A+CERN+collides+with+a+patent+realitylink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19407-innovation-cern-collides-with-a-patent-reality.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Innovation%3A+CERN+collides+with+a+patent+realitylink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19407-innovation-cern-collides-with-a-patent-reality.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869733351/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226190518/kg/43/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869733351/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226190518/kg/43/a2.img" border="0"//a

Snakebites kill hundreds of thousands, so the scarcity of proper treatment is a global tragedy. Time to bring in the law, say bNick Brown/b and bDev Kevat/bimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7ada35/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=What+can+deliver+snakebite+medicine+where+it%27s+needed%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727760.100-what-can-deliver-snakebite-medicine-where-its-needed.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=What+can+deliver+snakebite+medicine+where+it%27s+needed%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727760.100-what-can-deliver-snakebite-medicine-where-its-needed.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869813297/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226155061/kg/20-63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869813297/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226155061/kg/20-63/a2.img" border="0"//a

Astronomers can now use laser beams to create "artificial stars" #8211; allowing them to calibrate the Very Large Telescope in the processimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d7a76f2/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Astronomers+are+putting+stars+in+their+skieslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fastronomers-are-putting-stars.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Astronomers+are+putting+stars+in+their+skieslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fastronomers-are-putting-stars.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868587601/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226129650/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868587601/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226129650/a2.img" border="0"//a

The New Zealand quake that struck over the weekend happened on a previously unknown fault, says Miriam Frankelimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d79e17a/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=New+Zealand+quake+was+%27known+unknown%27link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fnew-zealand-quake-was-known-un.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=New+Zealand+quake+was+%27known+unknown%27link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fnew-zealand-quake-was-known-un.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869715384/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226091386/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869715384/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226091386/a2.img" border="0"//a

Are differences between men and women hard-wired in the brain? Two new books argue that there's no solid scientific evidence for this popular notionimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d79d27f/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Fighting+back+against+neurosexismlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Ffighting-back-against-neurosexism.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Fighting+back+against+neurosexismlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Ffighting-back-against-neurosexism.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869713103/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226087551/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869713103/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/226087551/a2.img" border="0"//a

Carbon-rich organic molecules, which serve as the building blocks of life, may be present on Mars after all, say scientists.