News
- Ecosystems
New Farmers: Salt marsh snails plow leaves, fertilize fungus
A salt marsh snail works the leaves of a plant in what researchers say looks like a simple form of farming.
- Physics
Doppler Toppler: Experiment upends normal frequency shift
The expected drop in frequency of a signal from a receding source—the Doppler effect—becomes a frequency increase when a high-current electric pulse creates extraordinary electromagnetic conditions in a web of electrical components.
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Allies in Therapy: Depression fix feeds off patient-therapist bond
Psychotherapy's ability to quell symptoms of depression may depend more on the therapeutic alliance, a measure of the bond between patient and therapist, than on any specific techniques wielded by the therapist.
- Paleontology
Proud paleontologists proclaim: It’s a boy!
Marine sediments deposited about 425 million years ago have yielded what scientists contend is the world’s oldest undoubtedly male fossil.
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Seek and Destroy: Virus attacks cancer, spares normal cells
A virus carried by mosquitoes naturally homes in on cancer cells and destroys them.
- Earth
Cloud Chemistry: Atmospheric scientists dissect cirrus clouds
Cirrus cloud formation is influenced by the particles in the atmosphere, including pollutants.
- Astronomy
Solar Flip-Flops: Sun storms spawn magnetic reversal
Coronal mass ejections, billion-ton clouds of charged particles blasted from the sun, appear to play a key role in reversing the sun's magnetic poles every 11 years.
- Health & Medicine
No Scope: CT scan works as well as colonoscopy
A computed tomography scan of the large intestine works as well as colonoscopy in detecting signs of colon cancer.
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- Humans
Nanotech bill gives field a boost
Congress has approved a nanotechnology act that commits $3.7 billion in funding over 4 years and calls for research on the societal, environmental, and ethical implications of this rapidly growing field.
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Plants, bats magnify neurotoxin in Guam
Researchers have found that the natural neurotoxin BMAA gets magnified as it rises through a food chain on Guam, a finding that strengthens a recent hypothesis that attempts to explain a spike in neurological disease on that island.
- Planetary Science
Martian sand ripples are taller than Earth’s
New data gathered by a Mars-orbiting probe suggest that large ripples found in sandy areas of the Red Planet are more than twice as tall as their terrestrial counterparts.
