All Stories
- Chemistry
Miracle fruit secret revealed
Bizarre berry works by sensitizing the tongue's sweet sensors to acidic flavors.
- Space
Atom & Cosmos
Alien extreme weather, nature vs. nurture in stars and more in this week’s news.
- Health & Medicine
B12 shortage linked to cognitive problems
Subtle B12 deficiency plagues a surprising share of the elderly and may harm the brain, studies suggest.
-
For what you want to know, Bayes offers superior stats
It turns out that the old adage about statistics and damned lies wasn’t a joke. Sticks and stones may be bonebreakers, and words inflict no (physical) pain, but numbers can kill. In 2004, for instance, a statistical analysis suggested that antidepressant drugs raised the risk of suicide in youngsters and adolescents, leading the U.S. Food […]
- Chemistry
Molecules/Matter & Energy
An atom steps in as a mirror, ladybug chemical weapons and more in this week's news.
- Health & Medicine
Nose divides sweet from foul
The way scent-detection machinery is laid out suggests that people are born with some innate olfactory preferences.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
Diamonds from the depths have shallow elements, New Zealand earthquake helped triggered its successor and more in this week’s news.
- Physics
Neutrinos seen to fly faster than light
Though few physicists expect it to withstand scrutiny, confirmation of the observation would shake physics to its core.
- Earth
Pole flips tied to plate tectonics
A lopsided arrangement of continents could lead to reversals in Earth's magnetic field.
-
Ancient Rome forbade downtown traffic in day
Roman road congestion is as enduring as the Eternal City.
-
Letters
Lowdown on Earth’s heat “Science Stats” (SN: 8/27/11, p. 4) understates the power Earth radiates into space and mistakenly suggests that Earth radiates more energy from internal sources than it receives from the sun. The total (44 trillion watts) shown in your diagram must represent only the minuscule percentage (about 0.02 percent) from internal energy […]
-
SN Online
ENVIRONMENT Plastics sloughed off clothing can pollute coastlines. See “Synthetic lint ends up in oceans.” G.D. Rak et al/PLoS Biology 2011 Arctic sea ice this year was near its smallest extent on record. Read “Summer Arctic melt among worst ever.” GENES & CELLS Natural killer cells are caught in the act of feeding poison pills […]
