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Health & Medicine

Perchlorate: A Saga Continues

Perchlorate is not yet a household word in many parts of the country. But it may becomes one if Sen. Barbara Boxer has her way. Perchlorate – an ingredient in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, flares and explosives – taints drinking-water supplies around the nation, not to mention plenty of foods. In animal tests, the pollutant […]

Health & Medicine

Glucose galore

Pregnant women with elevated blood sugar are more likely to have oversized babies, posing a risk to mother and newborn.

Math

Less is more

Researchers have shown that a grip that’s too tight can be counterproductive, especially on a microscopic object — but the findings could apply to fields ranging from ecology to sociology.

Space

Flooring the cosmic accelerator

If cosmologist Will Percival of the University of Portsmouth in England is right, the universe will end about 60 billion years from now, when every molecule and atom will be torn asunder by a mysterious entity that opposes gravity’s pull and turns it into a cosmic push.

Ecosystems

Bring in the replacements

Missing links in ecosystems disrupted by extinctions could be restored by introducing species that perform the same function, new field experiments suggest.

Health & Medicine

Leaving a mark

Child abuse may leave chemical marks on the brains of people who later kill themselves.

Life

Brittle arms lose muscle

In lab simulations of future ocean conditions, brittle stars grow extra-calcified but puny arms.

Agriculture

Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

With Uncle Sam pushing the production of ethanol for fuel, U.S. farmers are planting more corn than at any time since World War II, and garnering premium prices for each harvested bushel. But many livestock operations are getting hit with a double whammy: higher feeds costs and corn-derived feed that’s carrying triple the normal load of fungal poisons.

Health & Medicine

Stub it out

Quitting cigarettes shows health benefits even decades after the last puff.

Earth

Babbitt to Southern Louisiana: Look into Gondolas

“New Orleans, at the end of the century, will be an island” — literally, predicts Bruce Babbitt. Whether or not you believe his assessment, he makes a good case for considering the implications of climate change when planning federal projects.

Humans

Teeth chronicle infant diet

Chemical analyses of teeth, including fossilized ones, may provide clues that tell anthropologists the age at which a child was weaned.

Physics

Gödel, Escher, Chopin

Musical theorists see inuitive links between musical chords and geometries.