News
- Physics
Built for Speed: Novel transistor design spurns limits
The novel design of what's now the world's fastest transistor opens the possibility of even speedier devices that could operate as fast as a trillion cycles per second.
By Peter Weiss - Astronomy
Cosmic Primitive: Old star sheds light on early stellar formation
Astronomers have found one of the most chemically primitive stars known, dating to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
By Ron Cowen - Anthropology
Stone Age Cutups: Deathly rituals emerge at Neandertal site
A new analysis of 130,000-year-old fossils found in a Croatian cave a century ago suggests that Neandertals ritually cut up corpses of their comrades and perhaps engaged in cannibalism.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Messy Mix? Combined vaccine yields fewer antibodies
Some common childhood vaccines don't seem to work as well when administered with, or at the same time as, other vaccines.
By Nathan Seppa - Paleontology
Egg-Citing Discovery: Dinosaur fossil includes eggshells
The first-ever find of shelled eggs inside a dinosaur fossil bolsters ideas about the reptiles' reproductive physiology.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Smelly garlic: A lung tonic?
Fresh garlic or its powdered equivalent might prevent a potentially lethal condition in which pulmonary blood pressure is selectively elevated.
By Janet Raloff -
Breath training aids sprint power
Breath training may help athletes who perform short, high-intensity activities such as sprinting.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Blood hints at autism’s source
A new biochemical profile in blood may lead to earlier diagnosis of autism and a better understanding of its genetic causes.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Viagra might rescue risky pregnancies
Viagra shows promise for limiting threats of fetal loss from preeclampsia, a type of high blood pressure that frequently occurs during pregnancy.
By Janet Raloff -
Blue light keeps night owls going
A study of nine young men suggests that blue light is more effective than yellow at beating back sleepiness and muting key physiological changes that normally occur in late evening.
By Ben Harder - Planetary Science
A moon with atmosphere
Magnetic measurements by the Cassini spacecraft have revealed that Saturn's moon Enceladus has a tenuous atmosphere containing water vapor.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
Blowflies shed mercury at maturity
Blowflies that absorb mercury from fish carcasses they feed on as larvae rid themselves of much of that toxic metal when they become adults.
By Ben Harder