Uncategorized
- Earth
Little Ice Age began with a bang
Frozen moss suggests climate cooling kicked off fast, possibly with help from volcanic eruptions.
By Devin Powell - Space
Super-Earth spotted in life-friendly zone
The latest exoplanet entry creeps closer to long-sought goal of finding habitable worlds elsewhere.
By Nadia Drake - Health & Medicine
Addicts and siblings share brain features
The finding suggests that diminished self-control and other behaviors may have a genetic component.
- Earth
Some corals like it hot
Western Australian reefs are faring better than their eastern counterparts, at least for now.
By Devin Powell - Life
Plants swap chloroplasts via grafts
The energy-converting cellular organs can pass through connections, carrying genetic material with them.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Muscle massage may speed healing
Rubbing sore, overworked areas trips anti-inflammatory switches in the tissue that might speed healing and ease pain.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
Big volcanoes wake up fast
Crystal chemistry suggests magma changes quickly before a huge eruption.
- Humans
Arsenic-based life finding fails follow-up
Tests see no evidence to confirm a bold 2010 claim that some microbes can incorporate the normally toxic element into their cellular machinery.
- Space
Spacecraft captures dust from interstellar wind
Measurements of the particles reveal clues about the composition of space beyond the solar system.
By Nadia Drake - Health & Medicine
Bird flu leaves tracks in brain
H5N1 infection might make survivors vulnerable to Parkinson’s or other neurological disorders, a study in mice indicates.
- Life
No sleep, no problem, but keep the grub coming
A naturally occurring strain of fruit fly can thrive without slumber, but succumbs more quickly to starvation.
- Humans
Predatory pythons shift Everglades ecology
As invasive snakes expand territory, some mammal populations drop by more than 90 percent within a decade.
By Janet Raloff