All Stories
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- Health & Medicine
Violent dreams may predict illness in advance
A sleep disorder can precede neurodegenerative disease by decades.
- Life
Bullied booby chicks end up OK
In a seabird nest, abuse by older siblings doesn’t hamper fitness.
- Chemistry
Receipts a large — and largely ignored — source of BPA
A host of small studies raises a big alarm about exposure to a hormone-mimicking chemical.
- Health & Medicine
Gut bacteria reflect dietary differences
A comparison of African and European children concludes that high-fiber, low-fat diets cultivate healthier intestinal microflora.
- Tech
Cashiers may face special risks from BPA
“People working at places that use thermal paper can have continual contact with bisphenol A. And if they knew, I think they would be horrified,” notes Koni Grob, an analytical chemist with an official government food laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland. He’s describing the thermal paper commonly used throughout Europe and North America to print store receipts.
- Life
Marine census still counting new life-forms
The Gulf of Mexico ranked among the top five marine regions for number of known species.
- Life
Disabling cellular assassin prevents cancer
A counterintuitive experiment may help explain why survivors are more vulnerable to other malignancies later in life.
- Life
For ducks, penis length depends on the other guys
Male genitals grow longer with more competition from other males.
- Space
Dark matter eldorado
Astronomers have discovered that a nearby galaxy has the highest density of dark matter of any galaxy known.
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Birth of the beat
Music’s roots may lie in melodic exchanges between mothers and babies.
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Seeking a definition
Pitch is determined by a sound’s frequency. Notes that sit in different positions on a musical scale, called tones, have different pitches. Modern Western music, for example, combines 12 tones, with the A at the middle of a piano keyboard having a frequency of 440 hertz. Other cultures work with fewer tones. The first few […]
