News
- Physics
Icicle waves go with the flow
A new model of icicle growth may explain the strange fact that ripples often found on those icy spikes typically sit about 1 centimeter apart, whether the icicles themselves are big or small.
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Viral enzyme tackles strep throat
An enzyme from viruses that chew up bacteria may be a new kind of antibiotic.
- Tech
Deadly Bubble Bath: Ultrasound fizz kills microbes under pressure
A modest pressure increase on a liquid agitated by ultrasound dramatically boosts the microbe-killing power of those high-frequency sound waves.
- Astronomy
Hubble Weighs In: Pinning down an extrasolar planet’s mass
Using a decades-old technique, astronomers have precisely measured the mass of a planet outside our solar system.
- Materials Science
Nanotube ID: New signatures aid nanotech progress
Researchers have developed a means for rapidly distinguishing among 33 semiconducting varieties of carbon nanotubes.
- Health & Medicine
Cluster Bombs: Metabolic syndrome tied to heart disease deaths
Men with a certain cluster of metabolic characteristics are about three times as likely to die of heart disease as men without the traits are.
- Animals
Frogs Play Tree: Male tunes his call to specific tree hole
Borneo's tree-hole frog may come as close to playing a musical instrument as any wild animal does. [With audio file.]
- Health & Medicine
Jarring Result: Extreme biking can hurt men’s fertility
Men who maintain grueling mountain-bicycling programs are apt to have lower sperm counts than nonbikers are.
- Anthropology
Script Delivery: New World writing takes disputed turn
Researchers announced, to considerable controversy, that inscriptions found on artifacts at an Olmec site in southeastern Mexico represented the earliest known writing system in the Americas.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping the beat
Muscle cells taken from embryonic rats and put into an adult rat's heart can transmit the electric signals that govern the heartbeat.
- Tech
Robotic heart surgery
By using robotic rather than conventional open-heart techniques, doctors can perform heart surgery with smaller incisions, giving patients less pain and speeding recovery.
- Health & Medicine
Cycling and surgery have similar effect
Among people with chest pain because of clogged heart arteries, regular exercise on a stationary bike reduced symptoms better than surgery did.
