Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Recipe for a Heavyweight: Making a massive star
New findings strongly support the notion that at least some massive stars form much as their lighter-weight siblings do, by packing on material from a surrounding disk of gas and dust.
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Olives Alive: Extra-virgin oil has anti-inflammatory properties
A molecule isolated from extra-virgin olive oil has anti-inflammatory properties similar to those of ibuprofen.
- Anthropology
Chimps to People: Apes show contrasts in genetic makeup
The first comparison of the chimpanzee genome to that of people has revealed new DNA disparities between ourselves and the primate species most closely related to us.
- Humans
Letters from the September 3, 2005, issue of Science News
Pick of the crop “Honey, We Shrank the Snow Lotus: Picking big plants reduces species’ height” (SN: 7/9/05, p. 20) suggests that the change is an evolutionary process. However, this and the other examples given are all more selective breeding than natural selection. In this case, organisms with undesirable characteristics (smaller size) are overrepresented during […]
- Humans
Movies put smoking in a bad light
Smokers in American films are more likely to be villains than heroes, a review of movies from the 1990s shows.
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Chimps ape others to learn tool use
Chimpanzees appear to develop traditions of tool use by copying one another's behavior and conforming to a successful approach.
- Earth
Can polluted air cause birth defects?
For the second time, scientists have found evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to air pollution may cause certain birth defects.
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People with malaria attract more mosquitoes
The protozoan causing malaria may facilitate its own spread by making people more alluring to mosquitoes.
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Placebo reins in pain in brain
Pain relief provided by inert medications may reflect increased transmission of a brain chemical involved in regulating stress and suppressing pain.
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The research into placebos’ pain relief in this article should probably be tied in with the recent work utilizing hypnotism for pain relief. It may well be that the two turn on the same centers of the brain. C. Norman WinningstadNewport, Ore.
- Astronomy
Hidden black holes
A new study has added to existing evidence that most of the monster black holes at the cores of galaxies are shrouded by dust.
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Rice, revealed
Researchers have finished a 6-year-long effort to sequence the genome of rice.
