News
- Tech
Giving solar cells the rough treatment
A new solar cell design that traps photons in the crevices of a bumpy surface uses low-cost materials and may make these cells more commercially appealing.
- Earth
Antimosquito coils release toxic fumes
Researchers have measured several pollutants in smoke emitted from so-called mosquito coils, which people burn at night to fend off insects.
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Adults’ brains show temperamental side
Using brain-imaging techniques, psychologists have identified possible neural locations underlying shyness or gregariousness.
- Plants
Crop genes diffuse in seedy ways
A study of sugar beets in France suggests that genes may escape to wild relatives through seeds accidentally transported by humans rather than through drifting pollen.
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Let there be light
Ultraviolet light may have favored, not hindered, the creation of RNA on early Earth.
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U.S. survey probes depression care
More than half of all people with major depression now seek treatment for the disorder, but only 1 in 5 depressed people receives what psychiatrists consider to be adequate medication and psychotherapy.
- Animals
Flight burns less fuel than stopovers
The first measurements of energy use in migrating songbirds confirms that birds burn more energy during stopovers along the way than during their total flying time.
- Health & Medicine
Epilepsy drug eases diabetes woes
The epilepsy drug topiramate relieves pain, seems to initiate nerve repair, aids weight loss, and may have other benefits for persons with diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Strict regimen pays off years later
Diabetes patients who adhered to a strict program of blood sugar control over nearly 7 years starting in the 1980s are still showing heart benefits.
- Humans
Tobacco treaty penned
Just one day after the World Health Organization drafted a tobacco-control treaty, more than 28 nations signed on.
- Physics
Magnetic current flows solo
By exploiting quantum mechanical interactions, physicists have generated glows of the magnetic fields of electrons without corresponding flows of their electric charges.
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