News
- Astronomy
Curiosity goes to the flow
Sent to Mars in search of water and other evidence of habitability, the rover appears to have landed in a dry streambed.
- Tech
Degradable devices vanish after use
Technique combines silicon, magnesium and silk for medical implants, transistors and digital cameras that can melt away.
- Astronomy
Team glimpses black hole’s secrets
In the distant galaxy M87, new observations about structure’s rotational speed and jets show the potential of a budding telescope network.
- Humans
In New Guinea, peace comes with a price
Conflict resolution in small-scale societies may have contributed to declines in state-sponsored violence.
- Earth
Intraplate quakes signal tectonic breakup
The unusual April temblors are the latest in a massive energy release that is cleaving the Indo-Australian crustal plate in two.
- Life
Vampire squid no Gordon Gekko
Recently equated with greedy financiers, Vampyroteuthis infernalis is not really all that rapacious.
- Life
Breast cancer gets genetic profile
Insights from new data may help improve treatment for some types of disease.
- Humans
Feather finds hint at Neandertal art
Plumage found at ancient sites may indicate capability for abstract thought among humans’ Stone Age cousins.
- Life
Birds catching malaria in Alaska
The mosquito-spread disease may be transmitted north of the Arctic Circle as climate shifts.
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2012 International Astronomical Union General Assembly
Science News’ coverage of the IAU meeting held August 20-21 in Beijing.
- Neuroscience
Nonstick trick in the brain
Getting drugs into the brain has proved to be a nanoscale puzzle: Anything bigger than 64 nanometers — about the size of a small virus — gets stuck in the space between brain cells once it gets through the blood-brain barrier. Justin Hanes of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues got around this rule by coating particles destined for brain cells in a dense layer of a polymer called polyethylene glycol.
- Humans
Africans’ genes mute on human birthplace
Latest DNA studies confirm previous research on the prehistory of African groups, but still can’t locate the root of the species.
