Uncategorized
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We, robot: What real-life machines can and can’t do
As director of the Maryland Robotics Center, Satyandra Gupta oversees 25 faculty members working on all things robotic: snake-inspired robots, robotic swarms, minirobots for medicine and robots for exploring extreme environments on land, under the sea and in outer space. In September the Center hosted its first Robotics Day; afterward, Gupta talked robots with Science […]
- Space
Glowing auroras ring Saturn
A new movie documents changes in Saturn’s lights over nearly two days on the planet.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Particles in cahoots
Physicists have discovered curious connections in subatomic debris produced by the world’s largest particle collider.
By Ron Cowen - Life
Lone Star cats rescue cousins in Sunshine State
Florida panther numbers have tripled since the introduction of females from Texas injected vital genetic diversity, a new report says.
By Susan Milius - Tech
Everything really is relative
Two tabletop experiments demonstrate the time-warping principle at the human scale.
- Earth
Gulf spill may have been somewhat bigger than feds, BP estimated
Researchers estimate the oil output using a new technique developed for measuring the output of marine hydrothermal vents.
By Janet Raloff - Life
X-rays in 3-D show nanosized details
A new X-ray microscope technique peers inside materials to reveal their inner nature.
- Humans
Clues to child sacrifices found in Inca building
Children killed in elaborate rituals were drawn from all over the South American empire, new research suggests.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Main malaria parasite came to humans from gorillas, not chimps
Using DNA from fecal samples, researchers show that the infection was not passed to Homo sapiens by its closest primate relative.
- Health & Medicine
Vital flaw
Liver cells that inherit the wrong number of chromosomes often do just fine, and may even have some advantages.
- Life
Flies off-kilter
In a newly described species, some males have one limb bigger than the other.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Enzyme might underlie some stroke damage
Inhibiting NOX4 in mice limits brain injury, tests show.
By Nathan Seppa