News
- Health & Medicine
Cigarettes and lead linked to attention disorder
Nearly half a million cases of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder among U.S. children are related to exposures to lead or their mothers' smoking while pregnant.
By Ben Harder - Astronomy
Oversize supernova
Researchers have found a supernova so luminous that it must have been produced by a much heavier star than the standard theory allows.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Bad Alzheimer’s proteins sow disorder in the brain
Alzheimer's disease may start with a single abnormal protein that spoils other proteins nearby.
- Earth
Reading the tale of an ancient river
Ocean-floor sediment near England holds material deposited during the last ice age by what was then Europe's largest river system.
By Sid Perkins - Planetary Science
A discordant name for a dwarf planet
The largest known object at the fringes of the solar system, the icy body whose discovery heated up the debate about the nature of planethood, has an apt new name.
By Ron Cowen - Animals
Scent Stalking: Parasitic vine grows toward tomato odor
A wiry orange vine finds plants to raid for nutrients by growing toward their smell. With video.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Mixed Bag: Islet-cell transplants offer good and bad news
Most people who've received transplanted islet cells for type 1 diabetes still need daily insulin shots, but the transplanted cells curb blood sugar crashes.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
Gassy Bugs: Microbes may produce propane under the sea
Microbes deep under the ocean's floor could be the source of some ethane and propane found in sediments.
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Montessori Learning Aid: Alternative school shows impact on poor children
An alternative teaching program known as the Montessori method gave an academic and social boost to Milwaukee youngsters that did not occur in their peers attending other schools.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate
Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients
The 1918 Spanish flu virus may have launched an intense immune attack that devastated patients' lungs.
- Physics
Hot Stuff: A usually ultracold, odd state forms when warm
An exotic quantum state that had previously appeared only under conditions of astonishing cold has made its room-temperature debut.
By Peter Weiss