News
- Health & Medicine
Monthly cycle changes women’s brains
Activity in a brain region that regulates emotions fluctuates over the course of a woman's menstrual cycle.
- Planetary Science
Cassini snaps icy moon Dione
Saturn's small moon Dione has a heavily-cratered, fractured surface.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Protecting Earth: Gravitational tractor could lure asteroids off course
Relying solely on the tug of gravity, a proposed spacecraft could divert an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
By Ron Cowen - Physics
Ghostly Electrons: Particles flit through atom-thin islands
Electrical measurements of one-atom-thick slices of carbon reveal extraordinary electronic properties, including electrons that seem massless and move at blazing speeds.
By Peter Weiss - Archaeology
From prison yard to holy ground
Archaeological excavations at a prison near Megiddo, Israel, have unearthed the remains of what may be one of the region's oldest Christian churches.
By Sid Perkins - Animals
Yikes! The Moon! Bat lunar phobia may come from slim pickings
A study of creatures that fly around at night suggests that scarce food may account for why some bats avoid hunting under a full moon.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Whiff Weapon: Pheromone might control invasive sea lampreys
Researchers have characterized the primary components of the migratory pheromone that guides sea lampreys to suitable spawning areas.
- Health & Medicine
Statins for Algernon: Cholesterol-lowering drug fights learning disability
A study in mice suggests that a drug prescribed for high cholesterol may reverse learning deficits caused by a common genetic disease.
- Health & Medicine
Protective Progeny: Peptide treats and prevents breast cancer
A synthetic version of a protein present in a woman's body during pregnancy is as effective against breast cancer as the current drug tamoxifen is, according to a study in rodents.
By Katie Greene - Anthropology
Gone with the Flow: Ancient Andes canals irrigated farmland
Excavations in the Andes mountains have unearthed the earliest known irrigation canals in South America.
By Bruce Bower - Paleontology
Big bird terrorized South America
Researchers in Argentina have discovered fossils that may represent the heftiest flightless bird to ever have roamed the planet.
By Sid Perkins - Paleontology
Tusk analyses suggest weaning took years
Changes in the proportions of various chemical isotopes deposited in mammoth tusks as they grew have enabled scientists to estimate how long it took juvenile mammoths to become fully weaned.
By Sid Perkins