Uncategorized
- Math
Spirals inspire walking aids for people with disabilities
Long admired for their beauty, spirals have inspired a shoe that may help disabled people walk. The shapes make for a better crutch and an entertaining skateboard as well.
- Paleontology
Some trilobites sported dual digestive tracts
CT scans reveal trilobites with two-lane digestive tracts.
- Life
Close look at new fungus reveals origins, spread of salamander killer
A second chytrid fungus described last year targets salamanders and may be spreading in the animal export trade.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Early animals couldn’t catch a breath
Low levels of oxygen may have hindered evolution of animal life hundreds of millions of years ago.
- Tech
Sheath helps ‘aqua-hamster’ survive underwater
Scientists hoped a membrane invented in 1964 would let submarines pull air from seawater.
- Animals
New frog species discovered in New York City
A new frog species lives up and down the East Coast. It was discovered when ecologists realized its ‘ribbit’ was distinct from the calls of a lookalike species.
- Health & Medicine
Mini stomachs grown in lab
Clumps of human gastric cells could help researchers study stomach diseases.
By Meghan Rosen - Science & Society
Sewing study stitches up Broadcom prize
Holly Jackson of San Jose, Calif., zigzagged her way through three days of science, engineering and math challenges to win the top prize at the Broadcom MASTERS middle school science competition.
By Sid Perkins - Neuroscience
Brain difference found in people with chronic fatigue
Abnormality found in the brains of a small number of people with chronic fatigue syndrome is intriguing, but needs to be confirmed with more patients.
- Health & Medicine
Heavy milk drinking may double women’s mortality rates
In a study of 60,000 Swedes, drinking three or more classes of milk a day was associated with higher chances of death, cancer and hip fractures.
By Nathan Seppa - Environment
Oil from BP spill may be sitting on seafloor
More than four years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists find that oil is still lingering over a large area on the seafloor.
By Beth Mole - Paleontology
Ancient jellyfish suffered strange, sandy death
A fossil hints at the unusual series of events that led to an ancient jellyfish’s preservation and may offer clues to understanding odd sand deposits found elsewhere.