Roberta Batorsky

Roberta Batorsky is a former cancer pharmacologist, teaches biology at Temple University in Philadelphia, US and is a freelance science journalist. She blogs at solipsistssoiree.

Role: Journalist, Science
Email: Please use the contact form to contact Roberta Batorsky.

Mystery solved: The origins of flying dinosaurs

Fossils of pterosaurs, the earliest reptiles to evolve powered flight, were unearthed in the 19th Century but their...

Scientists Explain Why Snails Have A Twisted Shell

Molecules called morphogens control the shapes of organisms. One morphogen, Dpp, makes most snail shells coil to the right...

A single gene for claustrophobia?

Do you panic when you are in a small space? Do you sweat, or shake; does your heart pound? A study in the March issue of...

Gut Bacteria: A 100 Trillion Guests?

New research shows that our body chooses which microorganism can live in our gut. The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract...

Munich researchers dig out some new dinosaur stories

To begin with, we have a new species of a feathered dinosaur unearthed from Painten, Bavaria. Previous fossils from...

How interfering with your vision can shatter your recall of the way things look

How do we recall our stored knowledge of the physical properties of objects? Do we "see" things all over again when asked...

The same hormone could be responsible for love and aggression

In our day-to-day lives we are called upon to make instantaneous "engage or avoid", snap judgments when encountering new...

Nuts and Guts For A Long And Healthy Live

Three recent studies look at gut microbiota, the Mediterranean diet and nuts and their effects on health and lifespan Put...

Secrets Of Celestial Relics Revealed

A 24-inch iron statue bearing a reverse swastika and dubbed "Iron Man" was discovered by Nazi archaeologists in Mongolia...

New genetic test predicts asthma risk

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that affects over four million people in Germany. During an asthma...

SNPing away at Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways that in its most severe form can result in the loss of lung function. In the...

Sweet memories

What do we have in common with the common fruit file? If you guessed dopamine reward neurons, you are correct! An...

Chicken research: A new deadly viral strain, and a new weapon against cancer.

Two recent articles on chickens report some amazing and unexpected results. First, in a study published online on July 10...

While you were sleeping

Improving your memory, learning that new tune you just heard or coming up with a new idea. These are just some of the...

Dino stories from LMU Munich, part II

Traditionally, conclusions about why dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period (65.5 million years ago)...