News
- Astronomy
Old stars shed light on young Milky Way
Analyzing the composition of 70 of the oldest stars in the galaxy—the largest such sample so far—scientists have found new evidence that a generation of short-lived stars that died explosively must have preceded this elderly population and that the oldest part of the Milky Way originated not as a single component, but as bits and pieces that may have taken several hundred million years to form and coalesce.
- Tech
Novel sensing system catches the dud spud
A new device can detect a single potato that's infected with bacterial soft rot while buried deep in a storage crate with hundreds of healthy tubers.
- Animals
Really big guys restrain youth violence
Importing six full-grown bull elephants into a park of youngsters stopped killing sprees by young males.
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Low-cal diet may reduce cancer in monkeys
Researchers monitoring monkeys have seen signs that slashing normal calorie consumption can benefit long-lived primates by extending natural life spans and reducing the odds of suffering diseases such as cancer.
- Materials Science
To make bronze, tin flakes do a wild dance
Upsetting some prevailing ideas about how alloys form, rafts of tin atoms jitterbug madly around on a pure copper surface and leave spots of bronze in their wakes.
- Health & Medicine
Sputum Test May Predict Lung Cancer
By zeroing in on aberrations in two cancer-fighting genes, researchers have found a marker for cancer risk that could help doctors screen people for signs of lung cancer early enough for treatment to be effective.
- Health & Medicine
Old-fashioned circumcision can spread herpes
Boys whose ritual circumcisions involve an ancient, and now rare, practice may acquire herpes during the operation.
- Health & Medicine
Severe sweating treated with Botox
A new treatment has been approved for excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, which is surprisingly common.
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Mechanism suggested for Guam illness
A research team has invoked protein chemistry to propose a solution to a long-standing neuroscience mystery in Guam.
- Planetary Science
The sound of rings
When Cassini reached Saturn on June 30, it twice dashed through a gap in the planet's rings, and onboard science instruments recorded a flurry of ring dust harmlessly striking the spacecraft.
- Health & Medicine
HIV drugs may stop cervical disease
A drug combination given to people with HIV, the AIDS virus, helps knock out precancerous cervical lesions in some women.
- Planetary Science
Meteorites quickly reach Earth
Fragments from collisions between large bodies in the asteroid belt can reach Earth in as little as 100,000 years.
