News
- Earth
Toxic metals taint ancient dust
A new study of dust lofted to Antarctica suggests that excess amounts of trace metals coated dust grains long before human industrial activity began loading the atmosphere with pollutants.
- Earth
Turbulence leads to early rain of ash
A new aerodynamic analysis suggests that chaotic turbulence in a high-altitude cloud of volcanic ash can cause small particles of the ash to clump together and fall to the ground much closer to the volcano than expected.
- Health & Medicine
Garlic interferes with HIV drug
Garlic supplements interact negatively with a protease inhibitor medication taken by people infected with HIV.
- Health & Medicine
A glass of red may keep arteries loose
A newly uncovered effect of a compound abundant in red wines may provide the mechanism needed to explain how reds could outperform whites and rosés in reducing heart disease.
- Health & Medicine
Prenatal folate averts child leukemia
Even a little supplementary folate during pregnancy now appears to reduce the risk that the child will develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
- Astronomy
Sampling the sun
A spacecraft has begun a 30-month mission in which it will collect samples of the solar wind and bring them back to Earth.
- Astronomy
Watching a dying star transform
Astronomers have for the first time caught a dying star at the very beginning of a brief, shining period, when it's known as a planetary nebula.
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For some heart patients, days are numbered
Cardiac deaths among Chinese and Japanese residents of the United States peak on the fourth day of each month, possibly due to psychological stress from their widespread belief that the number 4 is linked to death.
- Ecosystems
Mistletoe, of all things, helps juniper trees
A mistletoe that grows on junipers may do the trees a favor by attracting birds that spread the junipers' seeds.
- Earth
It’s bottoms up for iron at sea’s surface
Sediments drilled from the seafloor off Antarctica suggest that the dissolved iron in surface waters that fuels much of the region's biological productivity comes from upwelling deep water currents, not from dust blowing off the continents.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine prevents urinary-tract infections
An experimental vaccine designed to repel 10 common bacteria that cause bladder infections has cleared a key hurdle by proving safe and effective in a group of women.
- Astronomy
Galaxy survey sheds light on dark matter
Astronomers are examining some of the brightest objects in the universe to learn about the darkest stuff.
