News
- Tech
Finding mass graves from on high
Aerial surveys that scan the ground at many wavelengths, some visible and some not, may offer a way to quickly and easily detect mass grave sites.
- Humans
Calling all clues …
Add flip-open cell phones to the list of crime-scene items that might harbor a suspect's DNA.
- Earth
Some corals buffered from warming
Corals in the western Pacific have escaped bleaching linked to rising ocean temperatures.
- Humans
Encyclopedia of Life starts online—at times
The project to create an online Encyclopedia of Life with a Web page for every species has taken its first, baby steps. The free-access, scientifically vetted encyclopedia, headquartered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., opened its first portal to preliminary Web pages (www.eol.org) Feb. 26. Some 11 million hits in the first few hours […]
- Health & Medicine
Raising doubts about Crohn’s treatment
The conventional drug regimen prescribed for people with Crohn’s disease might not be the best strategy, a new study shows. Crohn’s disease is marked by inflammation and ulcers in the intestines. It has no cure, but patients often get relief from corticosteroids, such as prednisone, the standard medication for flare-ups. If those don’t work, doctors […]
- Health & Medicine
Fungi aid immune system’s fight
Scientists have discovered that white button mushrooms, the plain Janes of edible fungi, are actually quite stimulating. Their powder seems to jump-start the immune response of cells taken from mice, a new study finds. MUSHROOM MIGHT. Adding white button–mushroom powder to incubating immune system cells from mice revved up the cells’ development and their response […]
- Earth
Manifest dirt
Nineteenth-century settlers left a dusty mark on the West. Rocky Mountain lake deposits reveal that America’s westward expansion kicked huge amounts of dirt into the air—probably from livestock grazing. A team led by Jason Neff, a biogeochemist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, examined soil cores from the beds of tiny mountain lakes in […]
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Eau de fruit fly
A single scent moves female fruit files to swoon and males to flee. The difference, new research shows, is in the brain’s wiring. Male flies on the prowl put out a pheromone called cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) that both sexes detect with scent-sensing cells on their antennae. To explain how cVA prompts such different reactions in […]
- Animals
Hidden Depths: Antarctic krill startle deep-ocean scientists
The first camera lowered 3,000 meters to the seabed off the coast of Antarctica videoed what biologists identify as the supposedly upper-ocean species of Antarctic krill.
- Anthropology
Digging that Maya blue
The unusual pigment Maya blue was probably made over an incense fire as part of a ceremony honoring the rain god Chaak, a new analysis of a pot reveals.
- Health & Medicine
Pinning down malaria’s global reach
A new survey and map of malarial areas worldwide show 2.4 billion people at risk.
- Earth
Greener Green Energy: Today’s solar cells give more than they take
With new production techniques, the total emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants from making and using solar panels are now only one-tenth as high as those of conventional power generation.
