News
- Earth
Sea Change: Ocean report urges new policies
To combat environmental degradation and encourage sustainable use of resources off the nation's shores, the U.S. government needs to double its investment in marine research, integrate management of coastal and inland ecosystems, restructure agencies that influence the oceans' health and productivity, and take other far-reaching steps, according to a commission created by Congress.
- Physics
Signs of new five-quark particle
Physicists at a German particle collider unveiled evidence of a new five-quark particle.
- Tech
Super-repellent surface switches on and off
Nanotechnologists have created a remarkably effective liquid-repelling surface that can also become, at the flick of a switch, liquid-attracting.
- Astronomy
A galaxy that goes the distance?
Aided by a cosmic magnifying glass, astronomers may have found the most distant galaxy known, a body that appears to reside 13.2 billion light-years from Earth.
- Health & Medicine
Gene ups oral-cancer risk for drinkers who smoke
People who have a particular variant of a single gene are at a disproportionate risk of oral cancer if they both smoke and drink.
- Physics
Particle breakdowns beat expectations
A fresh analysis of 2002 accelerator data finds a third instance of a type of breakdown of subatomic kaons that's not supposed to happen so often, suggesting that shadowy, hypothetical particles predicted by a theory called supersymmetry may be influencing kaon behavior.
- Planetary Science
Cassini spies storms on Saturn
Closing in on Saturn after a 7-year journey, the Cassini spacecraft has discovered two storms merging on the ringed planet, only the second times that scientists have observed such a phenomenon.
- Animals
Male spiders amputate organs, run faster
Tiny male spiders of a species common to the southeastern United States routinely remove one of their two oversize external sex organs, enabling them to run faster and longer.
- Chemistry
Materials Factory: RNA manufactures palladium particles
Chemists have evolved RNA fragments in the lab that spontaneously synthesize highly uniform, hexagonal-shaped nanoparticles of palladium.
- Health & Medicine
Categorizing Cancers: Gene activity predicts leukemia outcome
By dividing acute myeloid leukemia into subtypes on the basis of which genes are abnormally active in a given patient, doctors may be able to predict outcomes and make better treatment decisions.
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Fat Chance: Hormone boosts metabolic rate, induces weight loss in mice
Fat cells secrete a hormone that tells the brain to boost the body's metabolic rate.
- Health & Medicine
Slimmer Ticks, Less Disease: Tick-semen protein is potential vaccine
An antitick vaccine using a protein that causes female ticks to engorge on blood may control tick populations, a new study suggests.
