News
- Animals
Skin Chemistry: Poison frogs upgrade toxins from prey
For the first time, scientists have found a poisonous frog that takes up a toxin from its prey and then tweaks the chemical to make it a more deadly weapon.
- Astronomy
Hubble Highlights a Riddle: What’s the source of quick-return comets?
New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope demonstrate that scientists don't know where a major class of comets comes from.
- Planetary Science
Cozying up to Mars
The Hubble Space Telescope photographed Mars on Aug. 27 when the planet came closer to Earth than it had in nearly 60,000 years, enabling the telescope to take the sharpest global image of Mars ever taken from Earth's vicinity.
- Archaeology
Art on the Rocks: Dating ancient paintings in the caves of Borneo
By dating the mineral deposits on top of cave paintings in Borneo, archaeologists have pushed back the date of earliest human habitation on the island by at least 5,000 years.
- Health & Medicine
Double Shot: Anthrax vaccine gets makeover
An experimental anthrax vaccine appears to spur production of antibodies that stop the bacterium and disable the anthrax toxin at the same time.
- Astronomy
Stellar Tantrums: Tracking the flaring cycles of other stars
Astronomers are closely tracking the ebb and flow of magnetic activity and powerful flares on stars other than the sun.
- Health & Medicine
Better Bones: Women benefit from low dose of estrogen
Ultralow doses of estrogen and progesterone given to postmenopausal women boost bone density compared with placebos, without causing the adverse effects seen in some women who get larger doses of these hormones.
- Materials Science
Plastic Chips: New materials boost organic electronics
A new class of electrically conducting organic molecules provides researchers with improved materials with which to fabricate plastic electronic devices.
- Animals
To Bee He or She: Honeybees use novel sex-setting switch
After more than a decade of work, an international team has found the main gene that separates the girls from the boys among honeybees.
- Astronomy
Black Hole Life Preserver: Don’t get sucked in without one
By temporarily counteracting a black hole's tremendous tidal forces, a proposed black hole life preserver would slightly lengthen the life and shorten the agony of anyone exploring one of these gravitational beasts.
- Earth
Long Ride West: Many western sediments came from Appalachians
Much of the material in several thick layers of sandstone in the western United States originated in the Appalachians.
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Dyslexia’s DNA Clue: Gene takes stage in learning disorder
For the first time, scientists have identified a gene that appears to influence the development of at least some cases of dyslexia.
