News
- Chemistry
Unsung benefits of darker, tasty oils
Processing to erase the distinctive flavors and colors in cooking oils also removes or deactivates compounds that can defuse biologically damaging chemical reactions in the body.
- Chemistry
Nutty and fungi-ble taxol sources
The active ingredient in the anticancer drug taxol has turned up in hazelnuts and fungi.
- Chemistry
Coming up roses in scent research
Aroma chemists have discovered a carotenoid-processing enzyme that makes the chemicals that give rose oil its smell.
- Chemistry
Birth control for male cockroaches
Scientists have discovered a gene in German cockroaches that may lead to a new type of insect control—contraception for male cockroaches.
- Chemistry
Sweet tooth is in the genes
Taste researchers have narrowed the search for the sweet tooth gene, at least in mice, to a 100-gene region.
- Physics
Four ions mingle in quantum chorus
A new way to produce mysterious quantum correlations among particles ups the record to four particles linked, or entangled, and opens the door to correlating many more particles on cue, a prerequisite for making quantum computers.
- Physics
Prize honors physicist with conscience
Physicist-author Freeman J. Dyson received the Templeton prize for originality in advancing religious understanding.
- Planetary Science
A Comet’s Long Tail Tickles Ulysses
Stretching more than half a billion kilometers, the ion tail that Comet Hyakutake flaunted when it passed near the sun in 1996 is the longest ever recorded and suggests that otherwise invisible comets could be detected by searching for their tails.
- Health & Medicine
Tests may better detect prostate cancer
Two novel tests for prostate cancer may help physicians catch this disease earlier and with far fewer false alarms.
- Earth
Gasoline additive’s going, but far from gone
As the federal government proposes phasing out the gasoline additive MTBE, scientists explore ways to remove this potential carcinogen from drinking-water supplies that it has tainted throughout the nation.
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How whales, dolphins, seals dive so deep
The blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, Weddell seal, and elephant seal cut diving energy costs 10 to 50 percent by simply gliding downward.
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Cooperative strangers turn a mutual profit
In social exchanges, monkeys and people often appear to act according to the principle that "one good turn deserves another."
