Uncategorized
- Earth
Contraceptive ring could pose risks after its disposal
Discarded vaginal contraceptive rings could interfere with fishes' reproduction by releasing estrogen into streams.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Snow alga may be sizable carbon sink
A common microorganism that adds a reddish tinge to some patches of snow may be a significant consumer of planet-warming carbon dioxide.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Do liver stem cells come from bone marrow?
Tests of liver tissue from people who've received liver or blood-marrow transplants show that stem cells in bone marrow can populate the liver as liver cells.
By Nathan Seppa - Materials Science
Conch yields clues for future materials
A conch's tough, calcium carbonate shell resists fractures because a protein surrounds the mineral crystals throughout the shell.
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Prenatal problems linked to schizophrenia
Three large, long-term studies found that periods of oxygen deprivation in the fetus, along with obesity and second-trimester respiratory infections in the mother, are associated with adult schizophrenia.
By Bruce Bower -
19160
I found the “stats” about blood donors and patients in this article misleading, with the implication that 8 million volunteer donors are more than enough for 4.5 million patients. A comparison of how many people donate blood during their lives and how many people need blood donations during theirs might have been more informative. We […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Getting the Bugs Out of Blood
Researchers are developing methods for inactivating all sorts of pathogens that could be found in blood, including West Nile virus, an emerging infection recently brought to the United States from Africa.
- Humans
From the January 21, 1933, issue
SEVEN SLEEPERS CATACOMBS EXPLORED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS One of the most venerable of Christian legends, running back through the middle ages into late antiquity, is that of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus: seven youths who hid themselves from the persecution of a pagan Roman emperor and awoke 200 years later to find the empire Christian. Then, […]
By Science News - Earth
Earth Art
Brilliant, colorful patches of Earth, as seen in photographs snapped by the Landsat-7 satellite, can look like the work of abstract artists. A number of these beautiful, high-resolution images have now been assembled into an online gallery depicting “Our Earth as Art.” Go to: http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart/
By Science News - Astronomy
Planet Formation on the Fast Track
New computer simulations suggest that planets as massive as Jupiter may have formed in only a few hundred years rather than several million years, as the leading theory of planet formation requires.
By Ron Cowen -
19207
The negotiators of the global persistent organic pollutants (POPs) treaty will include country-specific exemptions for continued use of DDT for malaria control in the approximately two dozen countries still using it. Nevertheless, your article also notes that DDT may soon be unavailable in many malaria-stricken regions. To address this concern, countries should consider some form […]
By Science News - Earth
The Case for DDT
What do you do when a dreaded environmental pollutant saves lives?
By Janet Raloff