News
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Health & MedicineBrain trauma
Cooling the body temperature of a child who has severe brain injury doesn’t seem to help recovery, but the jury is still out.
By Nathan Seppa -
SpacePotential future fireworks
Already bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, the star epsilon Aurigae may be trembling at the brink of a powerful outburst.
By Ron Cowen -
ChemistryLife before proteins
Spheres of fat suggest a way that life on Earth could have gotten started.
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EarthSlip, Slide, Shake
Analyses of GPS and seismic data about one of Antarctica’s largest and most dynamic glaciers provide new insights into the ice stream’s lurching march to the sea.
By Sid Perkins -
Planetary ScienceColliding moonlets
New photos of collisions in one of Saturn’s rings provide a local lab for understanding the interactions that might shape young solar system formation.
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Health & MedicineBad synergy
Hookworm and other parasite infections work in concert to heighten risk of anemia in children. The problem may be especially bad for school-aged children, whose learning ability is often compromised by anemia.
By Nathan Seppa -
LifeZombie babysitters
Wasp attack creates undead caterpillars that protect wasp young
By Susan Milius -
SpaceBetter view of the Milky Way
New studies revise the structure of the Milky Way, exchanging the old map of a four-armed spiral galaxy for a two-arm version. The makeover also includes the discovery of a smaller, short, gaseous arm that is a long-sought counterpart to a similar arm near the galaxy’s center.
By Ron Cowen -
Planetary ScienceSmall exoplanet discovered
Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet known that is beyond the solar system and orbits an ordinary parent body.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceMaking an impression
In its seventh day after successfully landing on the Red Planet, the Phoenix Lander digs its first trench and is ready to start its ice-hunting.
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Health & MedicineMicrobes clean up mercury
Researchers think a microbe could clean up mercury-laced Native American artifacts.