News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Paleontology

Remains may be an evolutionary relic

Fossils recently found in southwestern China may be of a lineage that originated long before the Cambrian explosion of biodiversity, when most major groups of animals first appeared in the fossil record.

Earth

Three Gorges Dam is affecting ocean life

Oceanographic surveys suggest that China's Three Gorges Dam is already influencing biological productivity in the East China Sea, even though the structure is still under construction.