News
- Archaeology
Ancient city grew from outside in
A 6,000-year-old city in what's now northeastern Syria developed when initially independent settlements expanded and merged, unlike other nearby cities that grew from a core outward.
- Anthropology
Advantage: Starch
An enhanced ability to digest starch may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over their ape relatives.
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Perfect pitch isn’t so perfect in many
Among people with perfect pitch, the most common error seems to be misidentifying G flat as A, the note on which orchestras traditionally tune.
- Astronomy
Major merger
Four galaxies are ramming into each other in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever recorded.
- Health & Medicine
How platelets help cancer spread
A tumor cell protein influences blood platelets in a way that helps a cancer spread through the body.
- Earth
Laser printers can dirty the air
Some laser printers emit substantial amounts of potentially hazardous nanoscale particles.
- Health & Medicine
Aura origins show the way in epilepsy surgery
Epilepsy patients who experience multiple auras before a seizure, usually considered poor candidates for corrective brain surgery, might benefit from by a new brain scan procedure.
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Orangutans hand it to researchers
Orangutans try to communicate by gesturing when they think they're being misunderstood, much as people do when playing charades.
- Earth
Lack of oxygen stunts fish reproduction
Seasonal oxygen shortages in coastal waters, increasing in severity because of pollution, may impair fish reproduction.
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Virus thrives by hiding
Some viruses create cocoonlike refuges in the cells they invade, shielding them from the cell's defense mechanisms.
- Anthropology
Men’s fertile role in evolving long lives
The ability of men 55 and older to father children may have had evolutionary effects that caused both sexes to develop longer lifespans.
- Health & Medicine
HIV is double trouble for brain
The virus that causes AIDS can also cause dementia, by both killing mature brain cells and blocking the creation of new ones.
