News in Brief
- Space
Smallest planet found orbiting distant star
NASA’s Kepler space telescope snags an exoplanet tinier than Mercury.
- Health & Medicine
Smoking damages mouse brains
Signs of Alzheimer’s disease appear after the rodents breathe cigarette smoke.
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2013 AAAS meeting
Highlights from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, February 14-18, 2013.
- Space
Supernovas are cosmic ray factories
Supernova remnants provide evidence that these intense stellar explosions send cosmic rays hurtling through the galaxy.
- Life
Melting Arctic may make algae flourish
More sunlight penetrates thinning Arctic sea ice, enabling algal growth.
- Health & Medicine
Smoking ban cuts preterm births
Belgium sees drop in preterm births after initiating no-smoking policies.
- Life
Diversity breeds disease resistance in frogs
Species-rich amphibian communities prove better at fending off limb-deforming parasitic infections.
- Chemistry
Bitter and sour taste detectors also say, ‘too salty’
Mice that can’t sense the two tastes find high sodium attractive.
- Health & Medicine
TV watching linked to low sperm counts
Couch potatoes’ reproductive health may suffer.
- Earth
Indonesian mud eruption will soon die out, scientists predict
Spewing muck since 2006, volcano will calm to a sputter by 2017.
- Life
Nerve stem cells treat gut disorder in mice
Nerve stem cell therapy treats gut disorder by connecting to nervous system.
- Life
As fish watch prey, researchers watch fish’s brains
Genetically engineered neurons allow researchers to watch fish brains as they track prey.
