News
- Materials Science
Physicists untangle the geometry of rope
Equations explain why winding fibers together does the job, no matter what they’re made of.
- Space
Backward planets may have flipped into place
Reversed orbits among ‘hot Jupiters’ decreases chance of Earthlike neighbors.
- Life
Mutation effects often depend on genetic milieu
Genetic background is at least as important as environment, fruit fly research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Intentional weight loss in old age not detrimental, study finds
Among obese group, those who shed pounds as part of diet study were less likely to die during follow-up years.
By Nathan Seppa - Math
Hiding patients in plain sight
A new technique could help make medical records available to researchers without compromising privacy.
- Health & Medicine
Mapping the fruit fly brain
A new digital atlas could reveal how 100,000 neurons work together.
- Physics
Colliding dust grains charge each other up
Physicists propose a way that cloud particles can electrify themselves.
- Life
Briny deep basin may be home to animals thriving without oxygen
Creatures living deep in the Mediterranean without oxygen would be a remarkable first, biologists say.
By Susan Milius - Space
Newfound neighbor to solar system is a cool slacker
Researchers have found the closest brown dwarf to Earth and the coolest yet seen, raising the possibility that the nearest starlike body to the solar system may be a brown dwarf rather than a star.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Walnuts may slow prostate cancer
More news from the American Chemical Society meeting.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Fruit flies turn on autopilot
High-speed video reveals the aerodynamics behind the insects’ maneuverability.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine works against type 1 diabetes in mouse experiments
Researchers uncover a self-regulating feature of the immune system.