News
- Earth
Nearly Naked: Large swath of Pacific lacks seafloor sediment
Little or no sediment has accumulated on a broad patch of ocean bottom in the remote South Pacific, the result of a combination of factors that probably can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
- Animals
Courting Costs: Male prairie dogs seem too busy mating to dodge predators
Male prairie dogs get so distracted during mating season that predators find them easy pickings.
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Well Traveled: Gene split arose early in domesticated goats
Two separate goat lineages inhabited the same site in southwestern Europe about 7,000 years ago, indicating that the extensive transport and mixing of domesticated goats began shortly after the origins of farming in the Near East.
- Math
Messiness Rules: In high dimensions, disorder packs tightest
In high dimensions, disorderly arrangements of spheres pack together more densely than orderly arrangements do.
- Tech
Teasing Apart Nanotubes: Fast-spun carbon fibers may feed an industry
Researchers have devised a way to sort carbon nanotubes by size and electronic properties.
- Health & Medicine
Life Blood: Drug stops mothers’ bleeding after births
A drug sometimes used to induce abortions can stem bleeding after childbirth.
- Humans
Smoke Out: Bartenders’ lungs appreciate ban
Pub workers in Scotland breathed easier and showed better respiratory health shortly after a nationwide ban on smoking inside public spaces went into effect.
- Health & Medicine
Many infections tied to medical settings
More than one-fourth of skin or muscle infections that require hospitalization originate from microbes acquired in a clinic, hospital, or other medical-care setting.
- Health & Medicine
Statins defend against fungus-caused sepsis
Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might reduce the risk of dying from sepsis triggered by a fungal infection.
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Hotel-room surfaces can harbor viruses
Rhinovirus, which is responsible for roughly half of all common colds, survives on surfaces in hotel rooms for hours and can be transferred from there to people.
- Health & Medicine
Novel approach fights leprosy
An antibiotic typically used to fight sinus infections shows remarkable potency against leprosy.
- Materials Science
A nanotechnology report card
Research on how nanotechnology affects human health and the environment must be expanded, a National Research Council report concludes.
