News
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Mood disorder cuts work performance
A national survey finds that people with bipolar disorder lose even more workdays each year as a result of their illness than do workers with major depression.
- Tech
Start your engines
Mechanical engineers have developed a system that greatly decreases the amount of toxic hydrocarbons a car releases.
- Planetary Science
SMART stop
The European Space Agency's first mission to the moon ended with a deliberate bang on Sept. 3.
- Health & Medicine
Shingles shot’s value is uncertain
The cost-effectiveness of a new vaccine against shingles remains uncertain, making it difficult to assess whether adults should routinely receive the shot.
- Planetary Science
Martian doings
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finished reshaping its orbit, while the venerable rover Opportunity is approaching the rim of the widest and deepest crater it has yet visited.
- Health & Medicine
Progestin linked to hearing loss in older women
Elderly women who received progestin as part of hormone replacement therapy have poorer hearing than do women who didn't get progestin.
- Anthropology
Neandertal debate goes south
A controversial report concludes that Neandertals lived on southwestern Europe's Iberian coast until 24,000 years ago, sharing the area for several thousand years with modern humans before dying out.
- Tech
A thin laser gets thinner
Researchers have created a microchip laser that fires an extraordinarily thin beam of high-intensity light.
- Physics
Solid Surprise: High-pressure oxygen takes unpredicted form
X-ray analysis of oxygen crystals under high pressure indicated that the substance's two-atom molecules aggregate into groups of four, a crystalline structure that has never been seen before and isn't predicted by current quantum theory.
- Animals
Sexually Deceptive Chemistry: Beetle larvae fake the scent of female bees
Trick chemistry lets a bunch of writhing caterpillars attract a male bee that they then use as a flying taxi on their way to find food.
- Planetary Science
Oversize Orb: Puffy planet poses puzzle
Astronomers have discovered what may be the largest planet ever found, an orb 36 percent wider than Jupiter that circles a nearby star.
- Humans
Grounded Epidemic: Reduced air travel after 9/11 slowed flu spread
The perennial winter-flu season developed more gradually than usual in the United States in the months after September 11, 2001, because of a reduction in air travel following that day's terrorist attacks.
