All Stories
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Human, Mouse, Rat . . . What’s Next?
Scientists lobby for a chimpanzee genome project.
By John Travis -
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, […]
By Science News -
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
Some psychoactive drugs ease harsh PMS
Drugs such as widely prescribed Prozac can relieve a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
By Nathan Seppa - 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.
By Sid Perkins -
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.
By John Travis - 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.
By Janet Raloff - 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.
By Susan Milius - 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.
By Laura Sivitz - 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.
By Ron Cowen - 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 […]