News
- Earth
Using seismometers to monitor glaciers
Seismic instruments could be used to estimate the amount of ice that shears away from glaciers as they flow into the sea, offering a way to better estimate sea level rise due to the breakup of those ice masses.
- Physics
Carbon’s mysterious magnetism
An X-ray experiment has yielded the most conclusive evidence to date that carbon can be magnetic.
- Planetary Science
Powering Enceladus’ plumes
The action of Saturn's gravity is responsible for plumes of water vapor shooting out from cracks on the moon Enceladus.
- Health & Medicine
Stem cells not required
Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas proliferate by cell division, unlike other body tissues, which regenerate from adult stem cells.
- Humans
Hot Competition: Students display winning projects
High school students from 51 countries gathered in Albuquerque last week to compete for scholarships and other prizes at the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
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Face Talk: Babies see their way to language insights
Babies 4 to 6 months old can distinguish between two languages solely by watching a speaker's face, without hearing sound.
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Dark Power: Pigment seems to put radiation to good use
The pigment melanin may enable certain fungi to convert dangerous radiation into usable energy.
- Earth
Fish Free Fall: Hormone leads to population decline
Trace amounts of the synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can cause a fish population to collapse.
- Health & Medicine
Circadian Fix: Viagra may lessen effects of jet lag
Sildenafil, the male-impotence drug marketed as Viagra, helps laboratory rodents recovery from circadian disruptions similar to jet lag.
- Animals
Virgin Birth: Shark has daughter without a dad
DNA testing of two sharks confirms an instance of reproduction without mating, adding a fifth major vertebrate lineage to those known for occasional virgin births.
- Planetary Science
Violent Past: Young sun withstood a supernova blast
A big bully pummeled the infant solar system, first by blasting it with a massive wind, then by exploding nearby, driving shock waves into the fledgling solar system and irrevocably altering its chemistry.
- Physics
The dance of the electron spins
Physicists have used a novel measuring technique to track the motions of electron spins in a tiny magnet as its polarity flips, with north and south poles changing places.
