News
- Health & Medicine
Chinese chimneys slash lung cancer risk
People in rural China who replace rudimentary domestic hearths with well-ventilated stoves enjoy both less-smoky homes and a dramatic reduction in their risk of developing lung cancer.
- Chemistry
A crystal takes on an unusual topology
A single crystal exhibits the unusual topology known as a Möbius strip.
- Health & Medicine
New clue stirs up lithium mystery
Lithium and two other mood-stabilizing drugs may all work by depleting nerve cells of a chemical that the cells use to signal each other.
- Tech
Tiny rockets may advance minisatellites
A new type of miniaturized rocket may bring microspacecraft one step closer to reality.
- Health & Medicine
Drug cuts risk of seizures in pregnancy
An inexpensive drug treatment lessens the risk of seizures that sometimes strike and even kill women during pregnancy or immediately after delivery.
- Math
Squares, primes, and proofs
Mathematicians have proved the so-called local Langlands correspondence, a broad generalization of a surprising connection between prime numbers and perfect squares.
- Math
Losing to win
Two games of chance, each guaranteed to give a player a predominance of losses in the long term, can add up to a winning outcome if the player alternates between the two games.
- Health & Medicine
USDA gives nod to irradiating meats
The federal government approved food irradiation, the only technology known to kill an especially lethal strain of bacteria, for use on raw meats.
- Health & Medicine
This roe’s got a fish-E surprise
Scientists discovered a potent, new form of vitamin E, an antioxidant, in fish adapted for life in cold water.
- Health & Medicine
The salmon that went moo
People allergic to milk products could face potentially life-threatening risks by eating casein-treated fish.
- Animals
Who’s on first with hummingbird bills
A survey of 166 hummingbird species links sex differences in bill length to sex differences in plumage and to breeding behavior.
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Handsome blue tit dads have more sons
A female blue tit with a particularly dashing mate is more likely to have sons than is a female matched with a ho-hum guy.
