News
- Tech
Optical biopsy hunts would-be cancers
A new optical tool allows physicians to scout for precancerous tissue by analyzing the fluorescent responses of cells when light is shone on them.
- Astronomy
A comet’s odd orbit hints at hidden planet
Far beyond the solar system's nine known planets, a body as massive as Mars may once have been part of our planetary system, and it might still be there.
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Fungi slay insects and feed host plants
Researchers are discovering that some plants get their nutrients by robbing nitrogen from the flesh of soil-dwelling insects.
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RNA world gets support as prelife scenario
Scientists tinkering with a chemical now vital to life think they've recreated one of the central molecules that gave rise to the chemistry of life.
- Anthropology
Early Brazilians Unveil African Look
Prehistoric human skulls found in Brazil share some traits with modern Africans, leading a Brazilian scientist to theorize that Africans rather than Asians first arrived in the Americas sometime before 11,000 years ago.
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Do eggs go cuckoo under UV light?
People don't see ultraviolet light but birds do, so studies of egg mimickry may need to stop relying so much on human vision.
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Gender-bending flowers spice forests
In a newly discovered trick for avoiding self-pollination, ginger flowers take turns at gender roles, switching from female to male or vice versa in unison around lunchtime.
- Physics
Surface reaction recorded in real time
Ultrafast laser pulses may have for the first time revealed the incredibly rapid, step-by-step progress of a complete chemical reaction on a surface, at the actual speed at which it took place.
- Physics
Cold sliver may sense electron quiver
By detecting vibrations of less than an atom's width of a tiny cantilever, physicists have made the most sensitive measurement of force ever by mechanical means.
- Earth
Oops! Tougher arsenic rule retracted
The new EPA administrator has delayed by 60 days the implementation of a final rule issued by the Clinton administration lowering the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water.
- Earth
How polluted we are
Most people carry traces of toxic pollutiants, including metals, pesticides, and phthalates.
- Health & Medicine
Gene linked to aggressive prostate cancer
A gene that is more active in prostate cancer tumors from African-American men than in tumors from white men may help explain why prostate cancer is both more common and more aggressive in African Americans.
