News
- Paleontology
Flying Deaf? Earliest bats probably didn’t echolocate
Fossils of a cardinal-sized creature recently unearthed in western Wyoming suggest that primitive bats developed the ability to fly before they could track their prey with biological sonar.
- Health & Medicine
Caffeine intake tied to miscarriage
Intake of caffeine equal to two cups of coffee per day seems to double a woman's risk of miscarriage.
- Humans
Heed your elders, survive a tsunami
An oral tradition passed down among islanders in the South Pacific saved many lives during a tsunami last year and illustrates the benefits that community-based education and awareness programs can provide.
- Tech
Nanocrystal
Researchers have used DNA as Velcro to create the first materials that spontaneously assemble into regular 3-D patterns.
- Animals
Bird fads weaken sexual selection
There's a new look for a hot male among lark buntings every year.
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More evidence that flies sleep like people
A brain chemical puts fruit flies to sleep.
- Humans
Wish List: FY ’09 budget proposal ups physical sciences
President Bush's proposed 2009 federal budget would boost R&D in the physical sciences while reining in biomedical research.
- Health & Medicine
Pot Downer: Marijuana users risk gum disease
Regular marijuana smoking is linked to gum disease in young adults.
- Ecosystems
Spread of nonnative fish mirrors human commerce
Invasions of foreign freshwater fish are more common in areas with relatively high economic activity, suggesting that humans are a part of the problem.
- Animals
Whales Drink Sounds: Hearing may use an ancient path
Sounds can travel to a whale's ears through its throat, an acoustic pathway that might be ancient in the whale lineage.
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Tots Who Tote: Babies show neural signs of budding number sense
By three months of age, infants already display separate brain networks for detecting changes in either the number or the types of objects that they see.
- Earth
Finding Fault: Trace of old subduction zone found in Italy
A thick layer of rocks now lying high in the mountains of Italy is the remains of a quake-generating subduction zone active under the sea millions of years ago, a discovery that provides clues about ancient seismic activity along this interface between tectonic plates and insights into what may be happening along many such subduction zones today.
