News
- Animals
Fishy Paternity Defense: Bluegill dads: Not mine? Why bother?
Bluegill sunfish have provided an unusually tidy test of the much-discussed prediction that animal dads' diligence in child care depends on how certain they are that the offspring really are their own.
- Health & Medicine
Protein Pump: Experimental therapy fights Parkinson’s
Bathing surviving dopamine-making neurons with a natural protein that induces nerve-fiber growth reverses some of the symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients.
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Moving On: Now the human genome is really done
An international consortium of scientists announced that the deciphering of the human genetic code is now truly complete.
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Radiation Marks Chromosomes: Plutonium leaves genetic fingerprint
By examining specific types of long-lasting genetic rearrangements in blood cells, researchers have found a way to measure a person's past exposures to plutonium radiation.
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Neural Recall: Brain area may support fact and event memory
A brain structure called the hippocampus may crucially influence memory for both factual information and personally experienced events.
- Paleontology
Fertile Ground: Snippets of DNA persist in soil for millennia
Minuscule samples of sediment from New Zealand and Siberia have yielded bits of DNA from dozens of animals and plants, including the oldest DNA sequences yet found that can be traced to a specific organism.
- Materials Science
Between the Sheets: In reactors and nanotubes, errant atoms get a grip
A new computer simulation predicts that neutron irradiation of graphite displaces atoms and bonds in unexpected ways.
- Materials Science
Invent by Number: Researchers predict, then produce superior titanium alloys
Researchers have developed a new method or making titanium-based alloys with many qualities far superior to those in any alloy previously known.
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Left brain hammers out tool use
Structures in the brain's left hemisphere coordinate the ability to use familiar tools such as hammers and saws.
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Gestures help words become memorable
Relevant hand gestures make a speaker's words more memorable to listeners, whereas inappropriate hand gestures undermine recall for what was previously said.
- Earth
Solving one mystery of polar wander
Long-term fluctuations in pressure at the ocean's bottom may be the driving force for the Chandler wobble, which causes the North Pole to wander about 20 feet every 14 months or so.
- Earth
Early web-footed bird made impression
Researchers have discovered the fossil tracks of an otherwise unknown bird in 110-million-year-old sediments, which pushes back evidence of web-footed birds by at least 25 million years.
