News
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Way to Glow: Butterfly-wing structure matches high-tech lights’ design
The blue-green wings of the swallowtail butterfly harbor an intricate optical system with a design reminiscent of the latest in light-emitting diode technology.
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Mental Meeting of the Sexes: Boys’ spatial advantage fades in poor families
The frequently observed superiority of boys to girls on tests of spatial skill disappears in children of poor families, indicating that this mental ability responds more sensitively to environmental influences than has been assumed.
- Paleontology
Ancient Grazers: Find adds grass to dinosaur menu
Analyses of fossilized dinosaur feces in India reveal the remains of at least five types of grasses, a surprising finding that's the first evidence of grass-eating dinosaurs and an indication that grasses diversified much earlier than previously recognized.
- Health & Medicine
Our big fat cancer statistics
A new analysis of data from a 2002 report shows that obesity is the second-largest cause of cancer in the United States.
- Health & Medicine
Wearing your food
A broccoli extract, applied to the skin, has been found to reduce the incidence of skin tumors in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Dairy fats cut colon cancer risk
High-fat dairy foods appear to confer protection against colon cancer.
- Earth
Sex and the sewage
Chemicals in sewage sludge appear to have stunted the testes and fostered other reproductive-system changes in fetal lambs.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
