News
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Smoking’s Reward: Nicotine triggers opiate-pleasure response
A study of mouse brains suggests that nicotine works via the same pathways that give morphine and other opiates their addictively rewarding qualities.
- Archaeology
Ancient Glassmakers: Egyptians crafted ingots for Mediterranean trade
New archaeological finds indicate that by about 3,250 years ago, Egypt had become a major glass producer and exporter.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Preventing PMS: Vitamin and mineral let women avoid syndrome
Ample calcium and vitamin D in the diet prevent premenstrual syndrome in some women.
By Ben Harder - Planetary Science
Planet Hunt Strikes Rock: Hot kin of Earth orbits nearby star
Astronomers have found the closest known cousin to Earth, a solid world just 15 light-years beyond the solar system.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Making waves
Locked in a deadly embrace, two white dwarf stars may be the strongest source of gravitational waves now flooding our galaxy.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
The supernova that wasn’t
A brilliant stellar outburst once thought to be a supernova explosion actually left the star intact.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Andromeda gets bigger
A new study reveals that the diameter of the Andromeda galaxy's disk spans some 220,000 light-years, three times as big as had been estimated.
By Ron Cowen - Paleontology
Newfound dinosaur wasn’t sticking its neck out
Fossils of a new, 10-meter-long sauropod species excavated in South America suggest that, unlike most of its massive kin, the creature had a relatively short neck.
By Sid Perkins -
- Tech
Slick trick snags catalyst
A costly type of catalyst sticks to Teflon, suggesting a new way to recover these chemicals from solutions.
By Peter Weiss - Anthropology
Climate shift shaped Aussie extinctions
Stone Age people lived virtually side-by-side with now-extinct animals in western Australia for 6,000 years.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Farmers without Fungus: How to store peanuts to reduce toxins
African peanut farmers can more than halve their exposure to a class of harmful fungal toxins called aflatoxins by adopting several simple measures after harvest.
By Ben Harder