News
- Chemistry
Mollusks point way toward better drugs
Growing drug crystals on different polymer surfaces may lead to improved medicines.
- Materials Science
Charging cartilage
A hybrid material made of biodegradable polymers and carbon nanotubes yields an optimal scaffold for growing cartilage.
- Materials Science
Soft spheres yield photonic structures
A novel technique for patterning light-guiding channels through photonic crystals made of hydrogel nanoparticles may lead to faster, all-optical telecommunications technologies.
- Earth
Mapping carbon dioxide from space
An orbiting observatory in space will sense atmospheric carbon dioxide levels around the globe, creating a detailed map of the greenhouse gas' sources and sinks.
- Materials Science
Molecular Memory: Carbon-nanotube device stores data in molecules
Scientists have created a memory device in which data are encoded in switching molecules called catenanes that are attached to a carbon nanotube.
- Physics
One-Atom Laser: Trapped atom shoots steady light beam
A single, ultracold cesium atom sandwiched between two mirrors yields the most orderly beam of laser light ever.
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Unfair Trade: Monkeys demand equitable exchanges
Researchers say they have shown for the first time that a nonhuman species—the brown capuchin monkey—has a sense of what's fair and what's not.
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Estrogen Shock: Mollusk gene rewrites history of sex hormone
Estrogen and similar hormones evolved much earlier than thought.
- Tech
Dream Machines from Beans: Legume proteins provide motion
Plant proteins swell and shrink in response to calcium, sparking new ideas for micromachines.
- Health & Medicine
Early Warning? Spinal fluid may signal Alzheimer’s presence
Spinal-fluid concentrations of two compounds already linked to the disease may reveal whether a person has Alzheimer's disease.
- Paleontology
Ratzilla: Extinct rodent was big, really big
Scientists who've analyzed the fossilized remains of an extinct South American rodent say that the creatures grew to weigh a whopping 700 kilograms.
- Tech
Channeling light in the deep sea
Light-conducting fibers that naturally sprout from certain deep-sea sponges may hold lessons for makers of optical fibers for telecommunications.
