The pick of the news in science

Tea? I’d murder a dinosaur  

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land-based carnivores to ever roam the Earth, but what did the fearsome dinos eat? A new study of museum specimens suggests they may have consumed each other.

Evidence from tooth marks found on T Rex specimens from museums in the US and Canada suggest they came from scavenging cannibalism rather than wounds inflicted during fighting, according to the authors of the study in PLoS One.

“It does seem improbable that Tyrannosaurus routinely hunted full-grown members of its own species; however, it is possible that intraspecific combat led to casualties, with the dead becoming a convenient source of food for the victors.”1

Science Week in White House

Barack Obama threw open the US presidential abode’s doors to young scientists this week with the first science fair at the White House, which presented projects including a model solar car and a soccer-playing robot.

“We welcome championship sports teams to the White House to celebrate their victories . . . I thought we ought to do the same thing for the winners of science fair and robotic contests and math competitions,” said President Obama. “Because often we don’t give these victories the attention that they deserve.”

Obama is also to appear in an upcoming edition of Discovery Channel's MythBusters, a TV show that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends.

We asked: What if we make the nose act like a retina?

-Harvard University scientist Venkatesh N Murthy, part of a team that incorporated light-sensitive proteins into the olfactory system of mice in order to help examine how the brain detects odours. Their findings were published online this week in Nature Neuroscience