News

  1. How butterflies can eat cyanide

    Some newly recognized chemical wizardry lets some Heliconius caterpillars thrive on leaves that defend themselves with cyanide.

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  2. Astronomy

    Astronomers get radio protection

    Astronomers studying the universe at millimeter-wave energies-the high-frequency portion of the radio spectrum-were given an official guarantee last month that commercial satellites and other communication devices won't interfere with the scientists' observations.

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  3. Astronomy

    The smashup that rejuvenates

    For some elderly stars, the fountain of youth may be only a collision away.

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  4. Tech

    Watching the Big Wheelers: In sea of cars, trucks reveal traffic flow

    A new way to sense traffic jams more quickly tracks the motion of trucks within the overall traffic flow.

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  5. Materials Science

    Making Polymers That Self-Destruct: Layers break apart in controlled way

    A new polymer film chews itself apart under certain conditions, making it a potential candidate for the controlled delivery of therapeutic drugs.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Blood sugar processing tied to brain problems

    Elderly people with slightly elevated blood sugar are more likely to have short-term memory problems than those with normal blood sugar.

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  7. Working Out: Welfare reform hasn’t changed kids so far

    A study conducted among low-income families in three states suggests that the emotional health and academic skills of preschoolers and young adolescents don't suffer when their mothers move off welfare and into the workforce.

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  8. Earth

    Slippin’ Slide: Glaciers surge after ice shelf collapses

    Five of the six large glaciers that once fed into Antarctica's Larsen A ice shelf have sped up significantly since that floating ice mass collapsed and drifted away in January 1995.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Ulcer Clue? Molecule could be key to stomach ailment

    A protein called Ptprz binds with a bacterial toxin to produce ulcers in mice, possibly revealing a mechanism for the disorder.

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  10. Astronomy

    Death of a pioneer

    Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to reach the fringes of the solar system, appears to have sent its last feeble signal to Earth on Jan. 22.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Light could be therapy against blindness

    Beaming red light at rats soon after they've drunk methanol partially protects their eyes against that chemical's blinding effects.

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  12. Astronomy

    Cosmic Doomsday Scenario: Phantom energy would trigger the Big Rip

    According to a new model, the universe may end with a Big Rip—every galaxy, star, planet, molecule, and atom torn asunder and the cosmos ceasing to exist some 21 billion years from now.

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