News
- Health & Medicine
Many people don’t see well
Vision screening of a broad sample of people in the United States ages 12 and older finds that 6.4 percent of them have substandard vision.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
The sands of Titan
Although the surface of Saturn's moon Titan is cold enough to freeze methane, it has sand dunes like those in the Arabian Desert, according to radar images taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
By Ron Cowen - Physics
A well-spun egg also jumps
Physicists have demonstrated that spinning a hard-boiled egg horizontally makes it jump into the air.
By Peter Weiss - Chemistry
Leaking lead
A disinfectant used by some U.S. water utilities dissolves lead in laboratory experiments.
- Tech
Directing tubular traffic
Researchers have shown that they can steer individual protein tubes along tiny channels of a glass chip.
- Humans
Indy’s Best: Young scientists cross the finish line
High school students from 47 countries gathered in Indianapolis last week to compete for scholarships and other prizes in the 2006 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
By Emily Sohn -
Eye for Growth: New protein prompts optic nerve regrowth
A protein recently isolated from white blood cells could offer a new way to repair nerve cells damaged by injury or disease.
- Animals
Jay Watch: Birds get sneakier when spies lurk
A scrub jay storing food takes note of any other jay that watches it and later defends the hoard accordingly.
By Susan Milius - Anthropology
Hybrid-Driven Evolution: Genomes show complexity of human-chimp split
A controversial new genetic comparison suggests that human and chimpanzee ancestors interbred for several million years before evolving into reproductively separate species no more than 6.3 million years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Materials Science
Feeling cagey
Researchers have discovered that gold can take the shape of nanoscale, hollow cages.
- Astronomy
Safe from a Heavenly Doom: Gamma-ray bursts not a threat to Earth
Gamma-ray bursts are likely to occur in the Milky Way.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Bug Zapper: Novel drug kills resistant bacteria
A newly recognized compound can wipe out some of the most troublesome antibiotic-resistant bacteria, lab tests show.
By Nathan Seppa