News
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Paleontology
Mmmm, that’s crunchy
Isotopic analyses of the teeth of otters and mongooses from Africa have led one paleontologist to suggest that some of humanity's ancient kin shared those modern animals' preference for shelled prey such as freshwater crabs and snails.
- Physics
Revisiting Einstein’s incomplete theory
New, ultraprecise measurements of single-particle trajectories confirm that there's something missing from Einstein's mathematical model for Brownian motion.
- Health & Medicine
A toast to thin blood
Moderate consumption of alcohol may make a person's blood less likely to clot.
- Earth
Volcanic Suppression: Major eruptions can reduce sea level
Although scientists have known for years that major volcanic eruptions can temporarily cool Earth's climate, a team now suggests that such outbursts can temporarily cause sea level to drop for a while as well.
- Materials Science
Up to Snuff: Nanotube network fights flames
Researchers have found that infusing plastics with a network of carbon nanotubes reduces their flammability.
