All Stories
- Chemistry
Better sleuthing through chemistry
New fingerprinting method can pinpoint where, when or how a chemical warfare agent came to be.
- Physics
You really can freeze hot water faster than cold*
Experiments suggest that impurities in the warmer water may explain the “Mpemba effect” in which warm water freezes faster than cold water.
- Health & Medicine
UV radiation, not vitamin D, might limit multiple sclerosis symptoms
The rarity of MS in the tropics may be due to higher ultraviolet light exposure, not necessarily increased vitamin production, new research suggests.
- Ecosystems
Athlete’s foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus
Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
- Life
Hawaiian caterpillars are first known amphibious insects
Developing underwater or above, it’s all good for moths that evolved new lifestyle in the islands
- Anthropology
Ancient footprints yield oldest signs of upright gait
Human ancestors may have been walking with an efficient, extended-leg technique by 3.6 million years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Ingredient of dark roasted coffees may make them easier on the tummy
A compound generated in the roasting process appears to reduce acid production in the stomach.
- Chemistry
Cool roof coating: Mechanism kept under wraps
The American Chemical Society held a news briefing March 21 to feature a new energy-saving technology. It’s an ostensibly “smart” coating for roofing materials that knows when to reflect heat, like in summer time, and when to instead let the sun’s rays help heat a structure.
- Space
Cosmic telephoto lens shows intense, early star formation
A recently discovered galaxy gives a detailed view of stellar birth in the young universe.
- Plants
Bees face ‘unprecedented’ pesticide exposures at home and afield
Honey bees are being hammered by some mysterious environmental plaque that has a name — colony collapse disorder – but no established cause. A two-year study now provides evidence indicting one likely group of suspects: pesticides. It found “unprecedented levels” of mite-killing chemicals and crop pesticides in hives across the United States and parts of Canada.
- Life
There are rules in fiddler crab fight club
Territorial crustaceans will defend their own rivals, but only to keep stronger ones out.
- Paleontology
Fossilized poop bears tooth marks
Shark-bitten fecal matter probably came from an assault on an ancient croc.
