The predator and prey scenario has always been a natural recurring thing in nature. Scientists from the University of Bristol conducted a study which looked into the prey instincts of European starlings and how they respond to stimulus from predators. Find out more about this in our full article after the jump.

Two researchers threw in their two-cents in the continuing debate over the Flores hobbits discovered back in 2004. Comparing it to modern bones, what they found suggested that the small stature of these beings were the result of a defective condition. Find out more in the full article.

One of the most well-known global extinctions, made famous by numerous sci-fi novels and movies, would probably be the dying out of the dinosaurs more or less 65 million years ago.

Today, evidence suggests that the trend of another impending mass extinction is slowly becoming a reality. This is based from the fossil records examined by the universities of York and Leeds.

The matching data sets of marine and terrestrial against climate temperature suggests that global biodiversity is relatively low during warm "greenhouse" phases and more extinctions occur during those periods, while the reverse is true in cooler "ice house" phases.

The research was published by University of York student Gareth Jenkins and University of Leeds Professor Tim Benton in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Both researchers are noted population ecologists in their field. Dr. Mayhew had this to say about the results of their research:

Our results provide the first clear evidence that global climate may explain substantial variation in the fossil record in a simple and consistent manner. If our results hold for current warming - the magnitude of which is comparable with the long-term fluctuations in Earth climate - they suggest that extinctions will increase.

The current trend of global temperatures in the coming centuries suggest that such a possibility isn't as off as it seems.

In a recent study conducted by a University of Montreal professor, it was concluded that aggressive behavior in children nowadays is genetic rather than a by-product of violent media as previously assumed with the many issues popping up about violence-related cases due to video games.

Richard Tremblay, a professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology, explains that modern media is still relevant to their development and subsequent behavior; however, there were many recorded incidents of violent youths even before the television appeared.

Tremblay has been tracking over 35,000 Canadian children over the past 20 years and presented his findings earlier this week in London at a meeting of The Royal Society, the UK's academy of science. He sums up his study by saying:

We’re looking at to what extent the chronically aggressive individuals show differences in terms of gene expressions compared to those on the normal trajectory. The individuals that are chronically aggressive have… more genes that are not expressed. [This] is an indication that the problem is at a very basic level.

Maternal factors were also seen as potential reasons for violent behavior in children. Smoking, drinking, poor nutrition, and excessive stress can all affect the neurobiological development of the fetus. This may lead to kids with impaired communication or social interaction skills and who are prone to violent and aggressive behavior.

Forget Star Wars Clone Wars, cloned livestock looks to be the current trend most developed countries, like the U.S., are heading. Food and Drug Administration issued a draft ruling last year stating that meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for human consumption.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also taken an interest in this and is also carrying out its own investigation into the safety of cloned food and the impact on animal welfare, biodiversity, and the environment .

The director of Genesis Faraday (a scientific partnership based in Edinburgh) Chris Warkup, has given a few thoughts on this, its implementation, and the current status of prime meat in the industry.

If the FDA say what they seem minded to say, you might expect meat and milk from the progeny of clones - not clones themselves - to be on the U.S. market in the not-too-distant future. There is a pyramid structure in animal breeding. All the breed improvement occurs to a few elite animals at the top of the pyramid.

The big advantage of the Dolly technology (somatic cell nuclear transfer) is that you know what the animal's potential is, because you are taking the DNA from an adult. You could even take cells from a beef carcass on the slaughter line and recreate the animal that produced that very impressive carcass.

If you'd care to recall, Dolly was the first animal ever cloned. This was soon followed by the cloning of various animals such as goats, dogs, cats, horses, mice, rats, but more importantly cattle and pigs. Now while the application of this cloning technology might seem like a very good thing for the meat industry, not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

The senior science officer at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Nikki Osborne, spoke on behalf of his organization.

We are totally opposed to the cloning of animals for food production purposes. The process is inefficient, and has a huge potential to cause the animals involved unnecessary pain, suffering and distress - for absolutely no valid reason.

So there you have it, cloned meat might be hitting our grills pretty soon. Will it be long 'til we start referring to the quality of meat and dairy products as we do wine? Imagine walking into the grocery to find vintage labels on your milk, butter, and steaks. Mmmm, steaks.

If fruits can turn into fuel, why can't peanut butter be turned into diamonds? Well, the idea kinda sounds ridiculous, but scientists have done it. Edinburgh University experts were able to do such feat by squeezing the paste between the tips of two diamonds creating a "stiletto heel effect," reports BBC News.

Malcolm McMahon, professor at the university, was quoted saying "pressure can cause extraordinary changes in all kinds of materials and can create completely novel materials." Using such pressure, they were able to create diamonds from peanut butter sandwiched between, well, diamonds.

If you're hoping that you won't have to spend thousands of bucks to woo your lover, then feel right at home. Taken from McMahon: "Obviously large gem-quality diamonds would be extremely expensive, so we are looking at ways to make them artificially. Many carbon containing materials can be converted into diamond including peanut butter."

To achieve that, research is being spent into "developing techniques that will create pressures of up to five million atmospheres" to find the metallic phase of hydrogen. This could only mean bigger and better diamonds from your favorite spread.

Demonstrations will run on July 2 to 5 to showcase the process at the Royal Society exhibition. We're hoping to make diamonds out of excess pencil lead, so may they succeed.

What is the "Matrix question"? Imagine a world that isn't really a world, where you think and feel and perceive everything is real, but in fact is only a construct. The question is, "What if that was our world? What if life is a dream?"

It's a question posed by philosophers everywhere, and now that same question will be asked by one of the world's top scientists. Professor Sir Martin Rees, Royal Society professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, mentions that computers complex enough to build an entire virtual universe are possible, with the "people" in it living real, "virtual" lives.

Now, some of us might think of MMOs and say, "STFU noob. We do that with MMOs," but the idea he is referring to is on an entirely different scale.

The professor will be part of a British TV documentary called "What We Don't Know" next month, and according to a report by The Times, he could very well say the exact same words they've listed on their article:

Over a few decades, computers have evolved from being able to simulate only very simple patterns to being able to create virtual worlds with a lot of detail. If that trend were to continue, then we can imagine computers which will be able to simulate worlds perhaps even as complicated as the one we think we’re living in. This raises the philosophical question: could we ourselves be in such a simulation and could what we think is the universe be some sort of vault of heaven rather than the real thing. In a sense we could be ourselves the creations within this simulation.

See, it's the Matrix question being asked by scientists. Imagine if your avatar in WoW ran off one day and asked another wandering soul, "Do you ever feel like life is some sort of silly game? It's like I can't control my life anymore." Needless to say, if you ever find yourself asking a question like that, you might just hate it if the programmer of our virtual world decided to reply.

US oil giant ExxonMobil is deliberately undermining scientific consensus on global warming by funding organisations that mislead the public. This according to the Royal Society, the prestigious club of extraordinary men and women of science in Britain.

The Royal Society said about 39 organisations received money totalling US$  2.9 million from ExxonMobil in 2005 to misrepresent scientific knowledge about climate change by exaggerating uncertainties or issuing "outright denial."

The Society named the International Policy Network (IPN) as one of those organisations that received
$130,000 from ExxonMobil in 2005. IPN called the global call to limit greenhouse gas emissions as unnecessary and would only halt development.

ExxonMobil countered by saying the Royal Society has "inaccurately and unfairly described our company". The company claims it funds organisations that "research significant policy issues and promote informed discussion on issues of direct relevance to the company."

Unlike British Petroleum and Shell, ExxonMobil refused to invest in alternative energy. The company reported record-high profits of more than US $10 billion in Summer 2006 - or US$ 1,318 per second during their second quarter alone. ExxonMobil is also noted for the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Its ship Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound in Alaska.