Uncategorized
- Ecosystems
Fish as Farmers: Reef residents tend an algal crop
A damselfish cultivates underwater gardens of an algal species that researchers haven't found growing on its own.
- Health & Medicine
Total Recall: Drug shows long-lasting boosts of memory in rats
Research in rats shows that an experimental drug completely regenerates parts of the brain crucial to forming memories.
- Health & Medicine
Need for Speed: Faster-acting tuberculosis drugs now in testing would limit deaths
Drugs that take only 2 months to cure tuberculosis instead of the usual 6 months could prevent millions of TB infections and deaths.
- Astronomy
Solar System Small Fry: Stellar blinks reveal tiny bodies near Pluto
By measuring tiny dips in the intensity of X rays from a distant star, astronomers say they have detected more than 50 of the tiniest chunks of ice ever found in the outer solar system.
- Paleontology
New View: Method looks inside embryo fossils
Using an X-ray–scanning technique, scientists have taken a high-resolution peek inside fossilized embryos of some early multicellular organisms.
- Earth
Macho Moms: Perchlorate pollutant masculinizes fish
Perchlorate, a compound best known as a component of rocket fuel, can disrupt sexual development in fish.
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To argue that the concentrations reported in this study are environmentally relevant is misleading. Those concentrations are usually in groundwater, not surface waters. I’ve been involved in the environmental field for almost 20 years and have yet to hear of any fish being caught in groundwater. John HarrisSacramento, Calif. Study coauthor Frank von Hippel notes […]
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Bad Vibrations? Ultrasound disturbs mouse brains
Prolonged and frequent use of fetal ultrasound might lead to abnormal fetal brain development, a study in mice suggests.
- Tech
Glare gives silicon goose bumps
New experiments show that fluorescent lights cause undesirable bumpiness on the surface of silicon, identifying what may be a previously unrecognized cause of flaws in microchips that could become increasingly important.
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Did the researchers take into account that most arrow points and spearheads would have been in contact with the inside of game, a considerably warmer and more humid environment than the ground where the points were found? Daniel WoitulewiczDetroit, Mich. The material would be inside game—and at a higher temperature than the environment—for only a […]
- Earth
Obsidian artifacts can record ancient climate
The layer of hydrated material that forms on the surface of ancient obsidian artifacts as they age can be used to estimate the temperatures that the artifacts have experienced.
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Blood clot protein is stretchiest natural fiber ever found
The protein that forms the backbone of blood clots can stretch to several times its own length and then snap back to its original size.
