Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Brain areas that typically play a key role in vision instead contribute to language skills among blind people, a new study finds. This observation underscores the brain's ability to adapt to individual circumstances, say Leonardo G. Cohen of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., and his colleagues.

The scientists administered a verbal task to nine adults with normal sight and nine adults who had lost their sight by age 4.

A massive, earthquake-induced gash that cuts through eastern Africa contains evidence of three rainy phases during the Stone Age. They might have spurred the evolution of modern humanity's direct ancestors as well as of many other mammal species, scientists suggest.

Extended intervals of heavy rains created deep lakes in several parts of eastern Africa at times critical in human evolution, according to a team led by geologist Martin H. Trauth of Potsdam (Germany) University. Ancient lakes

Louis J Sheehan.  State laws that send some individuals under age 18 to trial and prison as adults have achieved the opposite of what the policy's proponents intended, a new research review concludes. Transferring young people into adult systems yields substantially higher rates of later serious crimes compared with youths handled by juvenile-justice systems.

Moreover, there's no evidence that shifting some young offenders to the adult-justice system prevents or reduces violence in