So how was it able to find enough food to get so big so fast?Peter Mackovicky of the Field Museum also took part in the study. Hesays T. rex at fourteen might have started to hunt slower but biggeranimals. Or, he says, the dinosaurs might have traveled in groups inwhich the younger, faster T. rexes were the hunters.

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Greg Erickson and his team also made another discovery: T. rexesapparently lived only about thirty years. In fact, they say Sue wasjust twenty-eight. They say her bones were in bad condition when shedied, which was why scientists had thought she was close to onehundred.

Professor Erickson says the news about Tyrannosaurus rex is thatit "lived fast and died young."

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VOICE TWO:

You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

Several years ago, a study cameout about a small dinosaur called Archaeopteryx (ar-kee-OP-tur-ix).Archaeopteryx lived in Europe almost one hundred fifty million yearsago, during the Jurassic period. It had feathers and was about thesize of a crow, making it the oldest bird ever found. The study saidbones from the animal proved that it could fly.

Since that report, however, experts have continued to debate theflight issue. Did Archaeopteryx really fly? Now, paleontologists atthe Natural History Museum in London have reported new findings inNature magazine.

They took X-ray pictures of the structure that held the brain inthe small creature. They used C.T., or computed tomography, imaging.With about one thousand images of the braincase, they were able tobuild their own copy of the brain.

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The researchers say their model shows the Archaeopteryx brain wasbuilt like that of modern birds. It had similarly developed areasthat controlled sight and movement. Also, the part of the ear thatcontrolled balance was structured like that of birds today.

There were dinosaurs that flew before Archaeopteryx appeared.However, the only ones found did not have feathers; they were flyingreptiles. Archaeopteryx has been widely seen as a link betweenreptiles and birds. But the new study suggests that it was more likea bird than scientists have thought.

Angela Milner led the study. She says it shows that the flightability of Archaeopteryx was more developed than scientists havebelieved. She says this could mean that feathered dinosaurs flewmillions of years earlier than is now thought. The only knownfossils of Archaeopteryx came from a find in Germany in eighteensixty-one.

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VOICE TWO:

Monkeys work hard when they know they will get something good inreturn. Now scientists have discovered a way to make monkeys -- andpossibly humans -- into even harder workers. They temporarilysuppressed a gene linked to what is known as reward learning. Withthe gene blocked, the monkeys lost their ability to expect a reward.

The scientists work at the National Institute of Mental Health,in the United States. Their findings appeared last week in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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First, a team of scientists taught laboratory monkeys a computergame. This game rewarded the animals with sweet liquid. Then, thescientists injected a chemical into the brains of the monkeys. Thissubstance temporarily blocked the gene known as D-two. That genenormally produces receiver cells for the brain chemical dopamine.Dopamine helps animals and humans experience pleasure and happiness.

Doctor Barry Richmond led the study. He says monkeys, likehumans, will delay work when they know they will not get a reward.Doctor Richmond says the monkeys in the study were more or lesstricked into working harder for a few months. He says they became"workaholics."

They could no longer judge how many times they had to play thecomputer game before they got a reward. As a result, the monkeysworked faster and made fewer mistakes.

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Doctor Richmond says this study could lead to importantdiscoveries for public health. He says the findings may be ofinterest in the study of mental disorders. For example, he says"people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work." Butpeople with obsessive-compulsive disorder work continually. Theyrepeat activities again and again even after they get rewarded.

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VOICE ONE

Finally, an experiment at Duke University in Durham, NorthCarolina, might get students to work harder. Or at least morecreatively. Each of the one thousand six hundred first-year studentsis getting an Apple iPod. An iPod is a small digital player that canhold thousands of songs. But it can also record other material,including written information.

Duke officials hope the half-million-dollar experiment willincrease the creative uses of technology in education. The iPodswill come with information about the school. Students will alsodownload materials from their professors through a Web site.

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VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach andCaty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Doug Johnson. To send us a question or comment bye-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOASpecial English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.Join us again next week for more news about science, in SpecialEnglish, on the Voice of America.