News
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How butterflies can eat cyanide
Some newly recognized chemical wizardry lets some Heliconius caterpillars thrive on leaves that defend themselves with cyanide.
- 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.
- Astronomy
The smashup that rejuvenates
For some elderly stars, the fountain of youth may be only a collision away.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
