News
- Materials Science
Titanium dioxide hogs the spotlight
Researchers have created new coatings that break down toxins and keep mirrors from fogging when the materials are exposed to visible light.
- Earth
New type of hydrothermal vent looms large
The discovery of a new type of hydrothermal vent system on an undersea mountain in the Atlantic Ocean suggests that submarine hydrothermal activity may be much more widespread than previously thought.
- Physics
Antimatter mystery transcends new data
The discovery of a disparity in decays of subatomic particles known as B mesons and anti-B mesons sheds light on how matter and antimatter differ but deepens the mystery of why matter predominates in the universe today.
- Anthropology
Earliest Ancestor Emerges in Africa
Scientists have found 5.2- to 5.8-million-year-old fossils in Ethiopia that represent the earliest known members of the human evolutionary family.
- Health & Medicine
Marijuana may boost heart attack risk
Marijuana seems to heighten the risk of heart attack in some people during the hour after which it is smoked.
- Health & Medicine
Arthritis drug succeeds vs. psoriasis
People with the skin disorder psoriasis respond well to infliximab, a drug normally given to arthritis patients.
- Health & Medicine
Insulin shots fail to prevent diabetes
Insulin injections failed to prevent type I, or juvenile-onset, diabetes from developing in children and young adults predisposed to the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Does lack of sleep lead to diabetes?
Lack of sleep makes healthy adults somewhat resistant to the effects of the hormone insulin, suggesting it could predispose people toward type II, or adult-onset, diabetes.
- Earth
Atlanta leaves big chemical footprint
A new analysis of water quality downstream of Atlanta shows that some pollutants from the city are still detectable in the river more than 500 kilometers away.
- Earth
Amazon forest could disappear, soon
A new model that includes a forest's effect on regional climate shows that the Amazon rainforest could disappear in the next three decades, much more rapidly than previously expected.
- Chemistry
Wee dots yield rainbow of molecule markers
Chemists report a scheme for creating a versatile color-based tagging system out of tiny atomic clusters, called quantum dots, that may enable scientists to track biomolecules with more finesse than ever.
- Archaeology
Stone Age folk in Asia adapted to extremes
Preliminary evidence indicates that people occupied the harsh, high-altitude environment of Asia's Tibetan Plateau in the late Stone Age, between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.
