News

  1. Tech

    Retro RAM

    A prototype memory chip stores data bits using carbon nanotubes as mechanical switches.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Night lights may foster cancer

    Regularly working through the night appears to come at a steep cost—a heightened risk of cancer.

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  3. Humans

    Transport emissions sizable, and rising

    Almost one-sixth of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution resulted from the transport of goods and people—an emissions fraction that's increasing by the year.

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  4. Physics

    Bathtub Optics: Bending light also shifts it sideways

    When light bends at an interface, it also shifts depending on its polarization. With animation.

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  5. Positive Signal: Lone protons carry messages between cells

    In roundworms, protons carry signals from cells in the intestine to muscle cells, raising the possibility that protons might act as neurotransmitters in mammal brains.

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  6. Seeing Again: Blind fish parents have fry that see

    Cross two strains of blind cavefish that have lived in the dark for a million years, and some of their offspring will be able to see.

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  7. Astronomy

    Heavy Find: Weighty neutron stars may rule out exotic core

    Neutron stars may be the weirdest stars in the universe, but they don't seem to be very strange, a weighty new report finds.

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  8. Mind Control: Hypnosis offers amnesia clues

    Results of a new study using hypnosis may shed light on the process of memory retrieval and the potential for one part of the brain to block it.

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  9. Earth

    Hued Afterglow: Fingerprinting diamonds via phosphorescence

    The eerie phosphorescence displayed by a rare form of blue diamond can be used as an easy, cheap, and nondestructive way to identify individual gemstones and to distinguish natural blue diamonds from synthetic ones.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Risky DNA: Autism studies yield fresh genetic leads

    Two new studies point to the diverse genetic roots of autism and related developmental disorders, while other evidence questions the claim that mercury-based childhood vaccines have contributed to rising autism rates.

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  11. Tech

    Energy forest

    Silicon nanowires can at least double the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Down syndrome’s anti-tumor effect

    The chromosomal abnormality that causes Down syndrome might protect against some solid tumors.

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