News
- Astronomy
Hubble views bar in galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
A drink a day might keep fuzzy thinking away
One alcoholic drink per day can stave off mental decline in elderly women.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
The Heights of School Science: Select student research rises to the top
Forty high school students have each earned a slot in the final round of the 2005 Intel Science Talent Search.
By Ben Harder - Chemistry
Hungry for Hydrogen: Microbes in hot springs feed on unlikely source
Microbes dwelling in Yellowstone National Park's hot springs draw their energy not from sulfur but from hydrogen.
- Plants
In a Snap: Leaf geometry drives Venus flytrap’s bite
Behind a Venus flytrap's rapid snap lies an extraordinary shape-changing mechanism.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Good Exposure: Contact with babies might lessen MS risk
People who grow up with younger siblings close to them in age are less likely to develop multiple sclerosis later in life than are people without such siblings.
By Nathan Seppa - Math
Sizing Up Complex Webs: Close or far, many networks look the same
Complex networks, including the World Wide Web, have a common architecture with snowflakes and trees.
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Lost Sight, Found Sound: Visual cortex sees way to acquiring new duties
Brain areas that are usually devoted solely to vision can take on new duties following severe or total sight loss.
By Bruce Bower -
Giardia Bares All: Parasite genes reveal long sexual history
Sexual reproduction started billions of years ago, as soon as life forms that have nuclei and organelles within their cells branched off from their structurally simpler ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Urine test signals pregnancy problem
A simple urine test can warn women that they have an increased risk of preeclampsia, a dangerous complication of pregnancy.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Congealing useful oddballs
A device for manipulating liquid droplets turns out to have the unexpected ability to fabricate tiny, solid balls with unusual, and potentially useful, patterned structures inside.
By Peter Weiss - Chemistry
Building artificial cells from scratch
Scientists have created artificial cells that can live and produce proteins as their natural counterparts do, but can't replicate.