News
- Earth
EPA switchback on arsenic
On Oct. 31, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its March decision to rescind a proposed tougher limit on arsenic in drinking water and is now planning to implement the tougher limit of 10 parts per billion in 2006.
- Earth
Cancer risk linked to night shifts
Women who work the graveyard shift increase their chance of developing breast cancer, perhaps because of chronic suppression of melatonin.
- Chemistry
Foam gets its shot at anthrax
A recently developed chemical cocktail that kills anthrax spores and breaks down chemical warfare agents and anthrax has received its first real- world trials in anthrax cleanups.
- Chemistry
New sensor can ID dangerous bacteria
When newly created organic molecules, called TWTCPs, are attached to a porous silicon wafer and exposed to a certain class of bacterium, the wafer changes color.
- Health & Medicine
Reducing blood pressure in the lungs
A new drug seems to help reduce abnormally high blood pressure in the lungs, a condition that can trigger heart failure.
- Health & Medicine
Seizures and reproductive ills linked
Abnormal electrical signaling in the brains of women with epilepsy may alter sex hormone cycling and explain why epileptic women seem to have a higher rate of reproductive disorders than do other women.
-
When ground squirrels cry badger
Richardson's ground squirrels respond differently to alarm calls depending on whether the caller has a history of false alarms.
-
Desert beetle catches fog on its back
The bumpy back of a desert beetle has inspired a design for collecting water from fog.
- Astronomy
Extrasolar planets: More like home
A trove of newly discovered planets orbiting other stars suggests that the solar system may not be the oddball it had begun to seem.
- Animals
Finches figure out solo how to use tools
The woodpecker finches of the Galápagos, textbook examples of birds that use tools, pick up their considerable skills without copying each other.
- Earth
Farmers could help heal Gulf of Mexico
Farm-derived nutrients in the Mississippi River that create a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could probably be substantially reduced if farmers simply used a little less fertilizer.
- Health & Medicine
Brain may forge some memories in waves
The waxing and waning of synchronized electrical bursts by cells in two key brain areas may promote at least one type of memory formation.
