News
- Astronomy
A trio of new planets
With the discovery of three additional planets that lie outside the solar system, astronomers have now found evidence of more than 50 extrasolar planets.
- Chemistry
Cut-ups create soft spots for chemistry
Networks of fabricated, squishy vesicles as tiny as red blood cells and connected by thin tubules may one day serve as microscopic chemical laboratories, sensors, and even chemical computers.
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Film solves mystery of sleepwalking coral
For the first time, bewildered researchers realized that a bootlace-size eunicid worm can move chunks of coral around, perhaps explaining how some coral reefs get started.
- Earth
Scientists analyze volcanoes’ killing ways
Death patterns from more than 400 volcanic eruptions through history may reveal ways to reduce the number of fatalities from similar causes in the future.
- Anthropology
Gene, fossil data back diverse human roots
Ancient mitochondrial DNA extracted from Homo sapiens fossils and anatomical links among H. sapiens crania from different regions both support a theory of geographically diverse human origins.
- Health & Medicine
Protein pair induces nerve repair in mice
Mice genetically engineered to make two proteins normally active in early nerve development are able to regrow damaged nerve fibers somewhat in their central nervous systems.
- Materials Science
Soybeans could beef up plywood glues
Researchers have replaced animal protein with soybean protein in experimental plywood glue, potentially reducing cost and health worries.
- Astronomy
Astronomers find two planetary systems
Each of the newly discovered systems features a star roughly similar to the sun and a bizarre entourage of planets and possibly a failed star that may provide fresh insight into planet formation.
- Health & Medicine
Do Meat and Dairy Harm Aging Bones?
Two studies have contradictory findings about the impacts of animal protein on bones in elderly people.
- Earth
Lake sediment tells of Maya droughts
Sediment cores taken last year from the bottom of a lake on Mexico's Yucatán peninsula indicate that a series of extended droughts coincided with major cultural upheavals among the Mayan inhabitants of the area.
- Earth
Sediments show bipolar melting cycle
Both the North and South Poles have experienced regular and simultaneous periods of significant melting during the past 3 million years, according to sediments from the ocean floor at high latitudes.
- Earth
Snowpack chemistry can deplete ozone
Pollutants trapped in Arctic snow can be reactivated by sunlight when the sun returns to high latitudes in the spring, leading to ozone depletion in the snowpack and at low altitudes.
