Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Organic ring around nearby star
Researchers have found the first evidence that a dust ring around another star, the likely vestige of recent planet formation, contains complex organic molecules that could be the building blocks of life.
By Ron Cowen - Paleontology
From China, the tiniest pterodactyl
Researchers excavating the fossil-rich rocks of northeastern China have discovered yet another paleontological marvel: a flying reptile the size of a sparrow.
By Sid Perkins -
It takes a village of proteins
Scientists learn how nerve cells sprout new connections by looking at thousands of distinct proteins simultaneously.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer drug limits MS relapses
The anticancer drug retuximab inhibits nerve damage and relapses in multiple sclerosis patients.
By Nathan Seppa -
19928
There is a detail not explicit in this article that fits the computer network analogy. By its flight path, each bird adds its personal input and helps guide the course of the flock. Don BurnapRapid City, S.D. Andrea Cavagna, a physicist at Italy’s National Research Council, says that those studying how flocks of starlings coordinate […]
By Science News - Physics
Birds network too
Starlings in a flock adjust their trajectories to those of their closest neighbors, which helps the flock stay together when under attack.
- Chemistry
Energy in Motion
The molecular machines of living cells harvest energy out of randomness, and scientists are learning how to do the same with artificial molecules.
- Earth
Find My Valentine—or Other Places
The federal Geographic Names Information System lists 14 sites around the nation named Valentine—Including Alta Mills, Kan., and Bedison, Mo., for which Valentine is an alternate moniker. You can search for locations that may share your name, a name associated with some holiday (like Santa Claus, Ind.), or the name of an object of your […]
By Science News - Humans
From the February 12, 1938, issue
Radio tower reaches for the sky, making a canyon the hard way, and forecasting the next big drought.
By Science News -
New World Stopover: People may have entered the Americas in stages
People first reached the edge of the Americas about 40,000 years ago but had to stay put for at least 20,000 years before melting ice sheets allowed them to move south and settle the rest of the continent.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Don’t like it hot
King penguins don't live on continental Antarctica but even they are vulnerable to warming water.
By Susan Milius -
19927
This article offers a mechanism to explain the hygiene hypothesis featured prominently in past issues of Science News. If exposure to microbes has a beneficial effect on the immune response of mice, it may also help humans as well. The relatively antiseptic environments that many Western children experience today as compared to the past may […]
By Science News