All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Sedentary Off-hours Link to Alzheimer’s
People who have Alzheimer's disease in old age were generally less active physically and intellectually between the ages of 20 and 60 than were people who don't have the disease.
By Nathan Seppa - Math
Mayan Mars
The curiously looping movements of the planets relative to the stars have presented all sorts of puzzles to keen, patient observers of the night sky. In 1601, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) undertook the challenge of deciphering the orbit of Mars and developing a mathematical theory of its motion to fit observations of the planet’s changing position […]
- Health & Medicine
Stress-prone? Altering the diet may help
Some people undertake seemingly impossible tasks without frustration, while others become anxious or depressed. A Dutch study now finds that the latter individuals might cope with pressure better if they tailored their diet to fuel the brain with more tryptophan. The brain uses this essential amino acid, a building block of many proteins, to fashion […]
By Janet Raloff - Physics
When warming up causes cooling down
Under the right circumstances, heating a tiny cluster of sodium atoms makes its temperature fall.
By Peter Weiss - Physics
Physicists get B in antimatter studies
New observations that subatomic particles called B mesons decay differently from their antimatter versions may help explain why the universe is made almost entirely of matter, not antimatter.
By Peter Weiss -
Quoll male die-off doesn’t fit pattern
Males of a ferretlike marsupial called a quoll die off after one mating season-unusual behavior that suggests the need for new theories of why such deaths occur after mating.
By Susan Milius -
Stick insects: Three females remain
An Australian expedition locates three females of a big, flightless stick insect species thought to have gone extinct.
By Susan Milius -
Why Fly into a Forest Fire?
Scientists puzzle over why some wasps and beetles race to forest fires.
By Susan Milius -
From the March 7, 1931, issue
CANYON DE CHELLY NOW NATIONAL MONUMENT A famous canyon of the West, with ancient Indian ruins under the shelter of its thousand-foot red walls, has been given the status of a National Monument, by an act of Congress recently signed by the President. This is the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, with its tributaries, Canyon […]
By Science News - Tech
Flying Leap
In the history of human flight, first came the daring tinkerers who gave wings to the pent-up human desire to soar. In the wake of their successes came a remarkable proliferation of flying machines, spacecraft, and colorful characters. At this Web site, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics celebrates these achievements with an annotated […]
By Science News - Astronomy
Magnetic flip heralds solar max
Scientists have found another indicator that the sun has reached the maximum of its current activity cycle: The polarity of its magnetic field has reversed.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
In moon race, Saturn is still champ
New discoveries have raised the retinue of Saturn's known moons to 30, making the ringed planet the solar system's champ.
By Ron Cowen