'Superflares' Found to Erupt on Some Sun-Like Stars
By Maggie McKee of Nature magazineSome middle-aged stars burn and rave like newborns, producing flares thousands of times as energetic as those we see on the Sun, according to the first large survey of these events.Solar flares occur when magnetic-field loops threading through sunspots get twisted and break, releasing massive amounts of radiation and accelerating charged particles into space. [More] (Source: Scientific American - Official RSS Feed)

A crowning success for crayfish
Australian freshwater crayfish have a tooth enamel very similar to humans. Nature sometimes copies its own particularly successful developments. Scientists have now found that the teeth of the Australian freshwater crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus are covered with an enamel amazingly similar to that of vertebrates. Both materials consist of calcium phosphate and are also very alike in terms of their microstructure. This extremely hard substance has apparently developed in freshwater crayfish independently from vertebrates, as it makes the teeth particularly strong. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)