News
-
AgricultureSoy-protein quality versus quantity
New tests show that as the protein yields of soybeans rise, the growth-enhancing quality of that protein as a food or feed decreases.
By Janet Raloff -
AnthropologyPeople fired up Aussie extinctions
Early Australian settlers may have altered the continent's landscape around 50,000 years ago, leading to the extinction of many animal species.
By Bruce Bower -
AstronomyCore mystery
Despite new images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the brightest known supernova of the past 400 years remains a puzzle for astronomers.
By Ron Cowen -
AstronomyTriple Play: A planet with three suns
Three suns grace the skies above a newly found, Jupiterlike extrasolar planet, posing a puzzle for how massive planets form in a closely-knit, multiple-star system.
By Ron Cowen -
PhysicsRealistic Time Machine? New design could forgo exotic ingredient
A novel time machine concept may avoid a problem of earlier, less-practical proposals by requiring only normal matter and the vacuum known to exist in space.
By Peter Weiss -
EarthPollution Ups Blood Pressure: Inhaled particles linked to transient effect
In a laboratory setting, volunteers breathing pollutants generated by sources such as vehicle engines experience slight but steady increases in blood pressure.
By Ben Harder -
EarthArctic Foulers: Foraging seabirds carry contaminants home
When seabirds go out looking for food, they can bring home traces of pollutants that build up around their nesting colonies.
By Susan Milius -
EarthPower-laden winds sweep North America
There's more than enough wind power to satisfy the United States' energy requirements, a new analysis of weather data suggests.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & MedicineBrain Power: Stem cells put a check on nerve disorders
Adult neural stem cells protect the brain against repeated episodes of inflammation in disorders such as multiple sclerosis by killing inflammatory immune cells.
-
Health & MedicineCancer Switch: Good gene is shut off in various malignancies
A gene called Reprimo is shut down in several cancers but rarely in healthy cells.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & MedicineCodes for Killers: Knowledge of microbes could lead to cures
Scientists have deciphered the DNA of the parasites responsible for African sleeping sickness, Chagas' disease, and leishmaniasis.
-
TechWiring up molecules
Minuscule gaps of controlled sizes in gold microwires may serve as test sites for probing properties of specks of material as small as a single molecule and as a basis for novel sensors and circuit components.
By Peter Weiss