News
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Ah, my pretty, you’re…#&! a beetle pile!
Hundreds of tiny, young blister beetles cluster into lumps resembling female bees and hitchhike on the male bees that they seduce.
- Tech
Civilians get better GPS
President Clinton directed the Defense Department to stop degrading signals from 24 Global Positioning System satellites, allowing civilians to receive the same location-pinpointing accuracy long available to the U.S. military.
- Plants
New gene-altering strategy tested on corn
Scientists have created herbicide-resistant corn with a new kind of genetic engineering that involves subtly altering one of the plant's own genes rather than adding a new gene.
- Astronomy
X-ray satellite goes the distance
Using the sharp X-ray eye of an orbiting observatory, astronomers have employed a novel method to measure distance within the Milky Way.
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Leggy beetles show how insects lost limbs
Inactivating two genes in red flour beetles causes grubs to grow lots of legs—and provides clues to the puzzle of the evolution of the six-legged body plan.
- Paleontology
Africa’s east coast netted ancient humans
Excavations of an exposed reef on Africa's Red Sea coast indicate that humans lived there 125,000 years ago, pushing back the date for the earliest seaside settlement by at least 10,000 years.
- Physics
Intergalactic magnetism runs deep and wide
Mounting evidence that magnetic fields of surprising strength permeate intergalactic space raises questions about how the fields form and what effects they have.
- Health & Medicine
Drug Eases Bone Cancer Pain in Mice
Pain caused by bone cancer in mice can be alleviated somewhat by osteoprotegerin, a drug being tested for osteoporosis, suggesting a possible new treatment for people with this cancer.
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Spying on Plant Defenses: Insects monitor toxin ramp-up
A common caterpillar can sense when a plant is gearing up to manufacture insecticidal toxins and respond by starting up its own detoxification system.
- Earth
Snowball Melting? Ancient formation shows glacier activity
An ancient, well-preserved glacial formation in Oman provided evidence that Earth experienced intermittent ice ages like those in Earth's more recent history.
- Humans
Nobel Chemistry: Laureates’ techniques enable researchers to probe large biomolecules
The 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the work of three scientists who created tools for analyzing proteins and other large biological molecules.
- Earth
Contraceptive-Patch Worry: Disposal concern focuses on wildlife
Some scientists now worry that discarded contraceptive patches may leak synthetic estrogen into the environment, potentially harming wildlife.
