News
- Materials Science
High-temperature ceramics takes flight
A recent NASA flight test of ultrahigh-temperature ceramic materials might lead to a new aerospace design that would make the space shuttle look downright old-fashioned.
- Health & Medicine
AIDS Vaccine Tests Well in Monkeys
An experimental AIDS vaccine bolstered with two immune proteins protects rhesus monkeys from the disease even when they are exposed to a combination of simian and human immunodeficiency virus.
- Earth
Flaws make it a geologist’s best friend
By analyzing some of a diamond's trapped impurities, researchers were able to measure remnants of the gargantuan pressure that produced the gem.
- Archaeology
Stone Age statuettes don disputed apparel
A report describing woven caps, skirts, belts, and other apparel on Venus figurines from the Stone Age draws some critical responses.
- Physics
Protons may waltz off nuclear dance floor
Detection of proton pairs simultaneously emitted from neon nuclei raises the possibility that a new and long-sought window into the nucleus has been found and unlocked.
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Model explains bubonic plague’s persistence
A computer model of bubonic plague suggests rats can harbor the disease for years before a human epidemic breaks out.
- Planetary Science
Radio link may hamper a Titan probe
A recently discovered communications problem could prevent the Huygens probe from relaying all of its precious data when it parachutes through the cloud-bedecked atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 2004.
- Animals
Second bird genus shares dart-frog toxins
Researchers have found a second bird genus, also in New Guinea, that carries the same toxins as poison-dart frogs in Central and South America.
- Materials Science
New work improves stainless steel surface
A novel electrochemical method improves the surface of stainless steel without making the metal brittle or prone to corrosion.
- Astronomy
Nudging asteroid fragments toward Earth
New computer simulations detail how fragments of asteroids travel to Earth and rain down as meteorites.
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Squirrels save for the family’s future
Some female red squirrels hoard extra food for youngsters that haven't yet been conceived.
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Bean weevils get a kick out of mates
Breeding in stored grain throughout the tropics, bean weevils represent an unusually clear example of the evolutionary male-female arms race.
