News
- Math
Reassessing an ancient artifact
The famous Mesopotamian clay tablet known as Plimpton 322 represents an ordered list of worked examples that a teacher would use to prepare a sequence of closely related questions about squares and reciprocals for student exercises.
- Health & Medicine
Dietary stress may compromise bones
Internal conflict about what and how much to eat not only induces production of a stress hormone but also may eventually weaken bones.
- Health & Medicine
Raloxifene doesn’t hike breast density
Estrogen-replacement therapy that includes estrogen increases breast-tissue density among postmenopausal women, but the estrogen-replacement drug raloxifene doesn’t.
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Flood’s rising? Quick, start peeing!
Malaysian ants that nest in giant bamboo fight floods by sipping from water rising inside and then dashing outdoors to pee.
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Warblers make species in a ring
Genetic and song analyses of the greenish warblers in forests around the Tibetan Plateau suggest the birds represent a long-sought evolutionary quirk called a ring species.
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Brain takes emotional sides for sexes
Men's and women's brains may adopt different approaches to fostering memories of emotional experiences.
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When diabetics dismiss their treatment
Diabetics who retreat from close relationships in favor of self-reliance may have particular difficulty adhering to diabetes treatments if their physician communicates poorly with them.
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Diesel gases masculinize fetal rodents
In rats, exposure to diesel exhaust perturbs pregnant moms’ sex-hormone production and makes her pups more masculine in certain ways.
- Tech
Simple system may curb auto emissions
Researchers have developed a four-component system that acts like an on-vehicle oil refinery and may help significantly reduce the hydrocarbon emissions from internal combustion engines.
- Astronomy
Peering at black holes: An eventful look
Two new studies provide supporting evidence for event horizons, the one-way membranes that surround black holes.
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First gene-altered primate beats the odds
Oregon researchers have slipped a jellyfish gene into a rhesus monkey to create the first genetically modified primate.
- Anthropology
Human ancestors had taste for termites
Incisions on ancient bone implements found in South Africa indicate that human ancestors gathered termites, a protein-rich food source, more than 1 million years ago.
