News
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Infection divides two wasp species
Two tiny wasp species provide the best evidence yet that infection by Wolbachia bacteria can play a role in forming species.
- Astronomy
Old stars reveal universe’s minimum age
Using a technique more precise than ever before, an international team of researchers has estimated the age of the universe to be at least 12.5 billion years old.
- Anthropology
Neandertals and humans each get a grip
A fossil analysis indicates that, by about 100,000 years ago, modern humans in the Middle East had hands suited to holding stone tools by attached handles, whereas Neandertals did not.
- Health & Medicine
One-Two Drug Punch Trips Up Leukemia
A leukemia cell seals its own fate when researchers trap cancer-causing proteins in its nucleus.
- Plants
The bladderwort: No ruthless microbe killer
A carnivorous plant called a bladderwort may not be a fierce predator at all but a misunderstood mutualist.
- Earth
Antarctic glacier thins and speeds up
One of the largest glaciers in Antarctica is growing thinner and retreating inland, spurring concerns that changes occurring along the coastline may be causing the ice stream to drain more material from the interior of the continent and send it out to sea, thus aggravating rising sea levels.
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Life’s Housing May Come from Space
The cell-like envelopes in which life on Earth arose and evolved may literally have dropped from the sky.
- Earth
Seismic shivers tell of tornado touchdown
Researchers say they can now use earthquake-detecting seismometers to detect and possibly track all but the weakest tornadoes.
- Earth
Electricity-leaking office equipment
Nearly 2 percent of U.S. electricity each year goes to power office equipment that had ostensibly been turned off.
- Earth
Contaminants still lace some meats
Tainted ingredients of livestock feed can contribute to worrisome residues of organochlorines, such as PCBs, ending up in meat.
- Earth
Plastic debris picks up ocean toxics
Some plastics can accumulate toxic pollutants from water, increasing the risk that they might poison wildlife mistaking these plastics for food.
- Earth
Resuscitating the Gulf’s dead zone
State, federal, and Indian agencies have joined forces to develop policies aimed at stemming a huge, seasonal zone in the Gulf of Mexico where oxygen levels are too low to sustain most aquatic life.
