News
- Animals
Ear for Killers: Seals discern foes’ from neighbor-whales’ calls
Harbor seals eavesdrop on killer whales and can tell the harmless neighborhood fish eaters from roving gangs with a taste for fresh seal.
By Susan Milius -
Thoughtful Lessons: Training may enhance intellect in elderly
The largest study of its kind finds that a brief training course in memory, reasoning, or visual concentration boosts performance on laboratory tests of these cognitive skills among physically healthy elderly people.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Shaked Alaska: A sleepy fault wakes and reveals new links
One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded on U.S. land shook south-central Alaska on Nov. 3, revealing activity along the Denali fault.
- Physics
Speedy impacts send microwave distress calls
Laboratory smash-ups mimicking those between fast-moving space debris and satellites appear to emit microwave bursts, suggesting that microwave detectors might someday prove useful for monitoring the health of spacecraft.
By Peter Weiss - Animals
Tadpoles kill by supersuction
A high-speed video shows tiny African tadpoles that catch their prey in a manner unlike that used by any other frog larvae: by shooting out a tubular mouth for superfast suction.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Immune protein may stall HIV
People who have HIV but don't progress to AIDS make extra perforin, a protein that helps kill infected cells.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
Europa’s freckles
Reddish spots and shallow pits that pepper the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may mark regions where warmer and less dense ice percolates to the surface.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Another moon for Uranus
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the 21st moon known to be orbiting Uranus.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Duct tape sticks it to warts
Treating a wart with a covering of duct tape seems to be more effective—and less painful—than removing the wart by freezing it with liquid nitrogen.
- Earth
Pesticides block male hormones
Some common pesticides can block the ability of androgens, male sex hormones, to trigger normal gene activities.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Weed killer feminizes fish
The weed killer atrazine can turn normally hermaphroditic fish into females, a new study shows.
By Janet Raloff -