News
- Health & Medicine
An Exploitable Mutation: Defect might make some lung cancers treatable
Nonsmokers who develop lung cancer are more likely than their smoking counterparts to have a mutation in the gene encoding epidermal growth factor receptor.
- Materials Science
Model Growth: Simulations expose branching nature of polymer crystals
Using computer models, scientists have uncovered previously unknown facets of the physics underlying polymer crystal growth.
- Earth
Cool Harvest: Frost on sea ice may boost atmosphere’s bromine
Frost flowers, the delicate crystals that sometimes grow atop fresh sea ice, can be a substantial source of ozone-destroying bromine in lower atmosphere near the poles.
- Earth
No Deep Breathing: Air pollution impedes lung development
Spending one's childhood in a community with polluted air stalls lung development roughly as much as does having a mother who smokes.
- Chemistry
Meteorites may have delivered phosphorus
Meteorites may have supplied enough phosphorus to prebiotic Earth to spawn the first signs of life.
- Physics
Gold quantum dots
Scientists have created a new type of quantum dot that could find applications in everything from biological imaging to computer displays.
- Chemistry
Molecular machines split water
Hydrogen derived from molecular machines that use solar energy to split water, rather than hydrogen from fossil fuels, could drive future fuel cell vehicles.
- Health & Medicine
Juice could ward off cancer in smokers
Drinking grapefruit juice every day could reduce the risk of developing cancer from smoking.
- Earth
Compost reduces landfill gas
Field tests suggest that covering solid waste with compost instead of conventional soil could reduce methane-gas emissions from landfills.
- Animals
Owls use tools: Dung is lure for beetles
Burrowing owls' habit of bringing mammal dung to their burrows attracts edible beetles and counts as form of tool use.
- Health & Medicine
Immune reaction to poison gas brings delayed effects
Researchers have a new understanding of why some survivors of carbon monoxide poisoning later develop concentration problems, personality changes, or sensory impairments.
- Tech
Tiny Timepiece: Atomic clock could fit almost anywhere
Physicists have shrunk the high-tech heart of an atomic clock to the size of a rice grain.
