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19127
It occurs to me that the techniques described in this article could have a wide variety of applications outside the biological sciences. For example, imprinted high-temperature ceramic materials could be used as less-expensive catalysts in automobiles and factory emission-controls systems. And filters made from such materials might be used to greatly reduce the quantity of […]
By Science News - Earth
Plants seen as unpredictable carbon sponge
Changing land-use practices—especially in forests, croplands, and fallow areas—appear to play a far bigger role than anticipated in determining how much carbon gets removed from the air by vegetation.
By Janet Raloff - Astronomy
Spacecraft sounds out the sun’s hidden half
By detecting sound waves that have traveled through the sun, two physicists have for the first time found a way to view disturbances on the sun's hidden half, providing a glimpse of stormy weather patterns a week to 10 days before they come into view.
By Ron Cowen -
Tree pollination needs male-only rot
A fungus that attacks only the male flowers on the chempedak fruit tree seems to be the edible reward for pollinators—the first fungus discovered to play such a role in pollination.
By Susan Milius - Physics
Soft crystal shows off its many new facets
Experiments with a liquid crystal may confirm the 50-year-old prediction that a nearly unlimited number of facets of different orientations can simultaneously decorate a crystal surface.
By Peter Weiss - Chemistry
Power cells find uses for fossil fuel
A new fuel cell that runs on hydrocarbons such as natural gas, butane, and diesel instead of hydrogen could be an efficient, practical way to generate power without pollution.
By Corinna Wu -
19126
Chocolate as heart medicine? Not for those hearts that chocolate’s caffeine sends bumping around in their ribcages, it isn’t. How about doing another article, this time on the deleterious effects of caffeine in various medical conditions (erratic hearts being just one)? Caroline VickreyBethlehem, Pa. To be told that research is putting chocolate with tea and […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Chocolate Hearts
Preliminary studies indicate that moderate consumption of chocolate products may offer cardiovascular benefits.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
Message in DNA tops Science Talent Search
A project on encrypting words within a strand of DNA won the top prize at the Intel Science Talent Search.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Olfactory cells aid spine healing in rats
Injections of olfactory ensheathing glial cells from the brain help severed spinal cords heal in rats.
By Nathan Seppa -
19125
It comes as no surprise to me that the findings of the study in this article may have implications for teaching kids to read better. Historic perspective suggests that rapidly presented acoustic and visual stimuli can benefit reading instruction, as Tallal asserts. We knew this process as “flash cards” when I was in school. Michele […]
By Science News -
Good Readers May Get Perceptual Lift
The ability to hear and see rapidly changing stimuli may underlie reading skills, raising the possibility of new approaches to reading instruction.
By Bruce Bower