Uncategorized
- Tech
Speed Bump: Tip’s tricks sort DNA, write at nanoscale
An atomic-force microscope tip has been transformed into a microinstrument for sorting DNA and depositing nanostructures by means of cleverly applied voltages that propel molecules along the tip's surface.
- Humans
Legal Debate: Assumptions on medical malpractice called into question
The notion that many medical-practice lawsuits are frivolous and intended to generate undeserved riches for their plaintiffs and lawyers isn't borne out in a new study.
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19677
The study in this article fails to address the more disturbing issue: Most of the insurance money (apparently) goes to lawyers (both sides), and very little to those injured. Peter WilsonSimi Valley, Calif. The numbers in the story pose a question. First, one reads that “about 85 percent of [1,452] cases were settled out of […]
- Anthropology
Making sacrifices in Stone Age societies
A half-dozen burials at sites in Europe and western Asia dating to between 27,000 and 23,000 years ago provide clues to possible human sacrifices.
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19676
Unless Vincenzo Formicola can demonstrate a human-caused fatal injury to the youngsters buried at these grave sites, his suggestion of human sacrifice is just sensationalistic speculation. The likeliest reason for a group burial is death in an outbreak of disease. There are many modern instances, such as the era of the bubonic plague. The rich […]
- Anthropology
Digging up debate in a French cave
A scientific debate has broken out over whether a French cave excavated more than 50 years ago contains evidence of separate Stone Age occupations by Neandertals and modern humans.
- Anthropology
Neandertals take out their small blades
Excavations of Neandertal artifacts have yielded a trove of thin, double-edged stone blades that researchers usually regard as the work of Stone Age people who lived much later.
- Anthropology
Ancient islanders get a leg up
A new analysis of bones from a tiny evolutionary cousin of people found on a Pacific island indicates that these late Stone Age individuals carried a lot of weight on short frames and had extremely strong legs.
- Health & Medicine
An aging protein?
The defective protein that, when defective, causes a premature-aging disease may also play a role in normal aging.
- Astronomy
Crust on a star
By analyzing X rays generated by the rumblings of a neutron star 40,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers have estimated the thickness of the dense star's crust.
- Plants
Nectar: The First Soft Drink
Plants have long competed with one another to lure animals in for a sip of their sweet formulations.
- Health & Medicine
Predicting Parkinson’s
Scientists are searching for ways to detect the earliest signs in the brain of Parkinson's disease.
