READY TO RUMBLE: A new video game, DC Smackdown, pits political candidates and pundits against each other, as in this battle between presidential primary candidates Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Ron Paul (Republican). "I thought [it] was a fun commentary on how politics and especially elections are viewed by the general public," says Dave Holbrook, the game's executive producer. "If a silly game that costs less than a happy meal gets a few people to register to vote … [then] everyone walks away happy."
Courtesy of DC Smackdown LLC

Why pregnant women don't tip over
There seems to be more keeping pregnant women upright than fear of toppling over and squishing their unborn child. Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Texas at Austin examined 19 pregnant women and discovered a number of reinforcements in their backs that men lack, including a lumbar (lower back) curve that spans three instead of two vertebrae and spinal joints that are 14 percent larger and positioned differently. These enhancements allow expectant mothers to lean back by as much as 28 degrees more than normal to offset the added heft of a baby bump—up to 30 pounds on average, or the weight of two bowling balls—without destroying their backs, the investigators report in Nature. They also present evidence for similar differences between the sexes in Australopithecines (early relatives of humans), suggesting that women long ago evolved such scaffolding to compensate for walking upright while supporting their swelling wombs. (Nature)

Wave good-bye, kids—Arctic ice might be gone in five years.
Report after report has confirmed that Arctic ice is swiftly sweating off the pounds on our warming globe, but the latest findings still gave glacier-watchers the chills. During a record melting jag this past summer, the Greenland ice sheet lost 552 billion tons (19 billion tons lower than the previous low), and the volume of sea ice fell to half the volume it had four years ago. The findings—presented this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union—prompted warnings from scientists that the Arctic Ocean might have hit a "tipping point" that could leave it clear blue by 2012, decades earlier than most had predicted. Researchers say the ice thinning may accelerate because as it melts, it reflects less sunlight, which heats the surrounding waters even more. One warm and fuzzy note: an Icelandic team uncovered a polar bear jawbone from the Arctic's Svalbard archipelago that dated to more than 100,000 years ago, suggesting that the animals are capable of weathering prolonged warm spells. (Associated Press; University of Washington; BBC)

U.K. physics on the chopping block
Physicists were stunned this week when the U.K.'s main research organization announced that it's pulling the plug on a number of key physics and astronomy projects to make up for an 80-million-pound ($160-million) budget shortfall. The Science and Technology Facilities Council, which sets research priorities and disburses government monies, said that cost overruns have forced it to withdraw support from experiments, including the International Linear Collider (a proposed follow-up to the Large Hadron Collider) and a number of ground-based telescopes, as well as trim its investments in planned space missions such as the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft (set to study the early universe). The cuts, it noted, would amount to a 25 percent reduction in grant money over the next few years, which news accounts said also threatened the jobs of hundreds of researchers. (STFC; BBC)

Italian docs strip for money
Maybe U.K. physicists should take a page (but not a fig leaf) from staffers at the Pascale Foundation, a cancer research institute in Naples, who shed their clothing for a new calendar designed to raise money for their research. A 2004 survey by the Italian National Research Council in Rome found that Italy ranked second to last of 22 countries in research funding and personnel. Hoping to stimulate donations, 20 researchers and medical staff—mostly middle-aged guys with beer bellies—appear shirtless or in boxers in their usual medical surroundings. The black-and-white calendar, on sale for 10 euros (about $14.50) in Italian bookstores and kiosks, carries the slogan, "Without you, research is bare." Pascale director Mario Luigi Santangelo told Spiegel Online that "it takes a little bit of irony and humor to reach the people." A furry Italian chest doesn't hurt, either. (Spiegel Online)