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  1. Human, Mouse, Rat . . . What’s Next?

    Scientists lobby for a chimpanzee genome project.

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  2. 19371

    One of your sources in this article claims, “After all, even the sacred first law’s conservation of energy breaks down in the quantum realm, albeit in a limited way, he notes. That’s because Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle allows energy momentarily to appear from nothing, although it must be quickly paid back.” This claim is heard occasionally, […]

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  3. Physics

    Breaking the Law

    Can quantum mechanics + thermodynamics = perpetual motion?

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  4. Math

    Global contest nets encryption standard

    A data-scrambling scheme called Rijndael was selected to become the federal government's new formula for protecting sensitive, unclassified information.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Some psychoactive drugs ease harsh PMS

    Drugs such as widely prescribed Prozac can relieve a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.

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  6. Earth

    Two microbes team up to munch methane

    Aggregates of two different microorganisms in methane-bearing ocean sediments collected off the Oregon coast appear to collaborate to consume methane despite a lack of oxygen.

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  7. Teams implicate new gene in prostate cancer

    A newly discovered gene may, in rare cases, cause prostate cancer or, more commonly, raise a man's risk of developing the disease.

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  8. Earth

    Even Nunavut gets plenty of dioxin

    Within a few weeks, some of the dioxin generated by industrial activities in the United States and Mexico falls out in the high Arctic.

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  9. Animals

    Beetle fights bass in mouthwash duel

    A whirligig beetle duels with a hungry fish by dribbling out a repulsive chemical while the fish tries to rinse it off.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Drug spares eggs from early death

    A newly discovered drug that prevents radiation from hastening egg cell death in mice might also prevent some human cancer patients from suffering sterility and premature menopause.

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  11. Astronomy

    New Images: They Might Be Planets

    Astronomers have for the first time obtained images of as many as 18 objects beyond our solar system that, based on their mass alone, could qualify as planets.

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  12. Math

    Extreme Tides

    If Earth had been somewhat larger, it’s possible that it would not have survived tides induced by its moon or even by an encounter with a passing asteroid. That’s one scenario suggested by a recent investigation of a venerable equation that serves as a model for planetary tidal effects. Tidal effects are caused by the […]

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