All Stories
- Math
Largest known prime number found
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a cooperative computing project, helps find a prime that has nearly 13 million digits.
- Life
FDA releases guidelines for genetically modified animals
Draft rules lay out policies for approving altered animals, including those used for food.
- Physics
Apollo or Manhattan Project: Which Paradigm Fits Energy Better?
A new petition developed to lobby the presidential candidates argues that increased federal investments in basic energy research are essential.
- Chemistry
A better fate for plastic bottles
Using microbes to convert PET into a high-value plastic could encourage more recycling.
- Planetary Science
Racing against the Martian winter
With solid findings under its belt and the Martian summer waning, the Phoenix Mars lander perseveres in its study of the soil and sky of the planet’s arctic plain.
- Health & Medicine
The Candidates’ Shadow Health Advisers
Here are a few names from the teams of advisers counseling the presidential candidates.
- Physics
A ‘novel’ chemistry to make fuel from sugar
It’s not alchemy, but it might sound like it: a new way to transform sugars from plants into gasoline, diesel or even jet fuel by passing the sugars over exotic materials.
- Life
First lipid hormone discovered
An omega-7 fatty acid made by fat and liver cells acts as a hormone, even mimicking the health benefits of insulin.
- Climate
Energy: Apollo-like Program Needed
Big action and big bucks are needed to deal with the United States' energy problems, research leaders argued today.
- Humans
Pain relief to believe in
Religious believers shown pictures that evoke spiritual responses display brain activity that may contribute to feeling relief from physical pain, a new study finds.
- Climate
Heat waves stunt grassland growth
An abnormally hot year can significantly suppress growth in grasslands, a stifling effect that lingers well into the next year even if temperatures return to normal. It can also hinder how well the grasslands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Humans
The presidential candidates on science
The Science Debate 2008 team sent science and technology questions to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. Find out how they answered.
