Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Tuberculosis bacterium subverts basic cell functions
The tuberculosis microbe makes compounds that alter basic systems inside key immune cells, facilitating the bacterium’s survival in the body, new research shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
Solar system’s future could be bumpy
A new study assesses the chances that two planets will collide or a planet will plunge into the sun in the next 5 billion years.
By Sid Perkins - Astronomy
Pinning down a pulsar’s age
Reporting at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers suggest some of these swirling stellar remnants are older, younger by a factor of 10.
By Ron Cowen - Life
Hummingbird pulls Top Gun stunts
Male hummingbirds set record for extreme plunges out of the sky.
By Susan Milius - Space
Galactic black holes may be more massive than thought
The giant black holes at the cores of massive nearby galaxies may be two to four times heftier than estimated.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
When the Great Lakes were lower
New archaeological evidence shows signs of prehistoric hunting and other human activities on now-submerged portions of Lake Huron.
By Sid Perkins - Physics
Friction gives snakes a smooth slither
Combination of friction and push propels snakes forward on flat surfaces.
- Humans
Children get social with virtual peers
Life-size 3-D versions of children can draw kids with autism into social encounters and more news from the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society in Park City, Utah, June 4-6.
By Bruce Bower -
The iron record of Earth’s oxygen
Scientists are decoding the geological secrets of banded iron formations.
By Sid Perkins -
No brainer behavior
Messages, memory, maybe even intelligence — botanists wrangle over how far plants can go.
By Susan Milius -
Think like a scientist
A class of curious sixth-graders arguing over moist, mucky jars may represent the future of science education.
By Bruce Bower -
Professional Science Master’s is 21st century MBA
One hundred years ago (in 1908), a group of higher educators launched a new professional master’s degree called the MBA. Their aim: to meet the anticipated needs of 20th century business, which would be characterized, they thought, not by product specialty but by bigness. Today, MBA programs graduate about 90,000 students per year and are […]