Uncategorized
- Materials Science
Etched glass stops cracks in their tracks
Adding wavy lines to glass reduces the material’s notorious brittleness.
- Health & Medicine
Nanopackaging biodegrades after delivering cancer drug
DNA binding creates potentially nontoxic tumor-targeting structures.
- Neuroscience
Big science for lean times
The greatest promises of brain research — a cellular description of thought and behavior and, even more importantly, strategies to battle disorders of the brain — have yet to be fulfilled. Making good on those promises is the motivation behind the federal BRAIN Initiative.
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- Animals
Windows may kill up to 988 million birds a year in the United States
Single-family homes and low-rise buildings do much more damage than skyscrapers.
- Genetics
Stone Age Spaniard had blue eyes, dark skin
Genetics of 7,000-year-old skeleton suggests blond hair, pale skin came later.
- Materials Science
Nanotube whiskers could aid robot-human interaction
Tiny hairlike sensors made from nanomaterials are more sensitive than existing devices to detect tiny pressures.
- Climate
Grape expectations
Global warming has delivered long, warm growing seasons and blockbuster vintages to the world’s great wine regions. But by mid-century, excessive heat will push premium wine-making into new territory.
- Earth
Life’s early traces
Tiny tufts, rolls and crinkles in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that cellular life got a relatively quick start on Earth.
- Life
How to tell good gut microbes from bad
Researchers sort out influences of specific bacteria on body fat, the immune system.
- Humans
Small fetal size early on might carry risks later
A smaller size in first trimester of pregnancy has been linked to heart-health warning signs in childhood.
- Animals
Mantis shrimp’s bizarre visual system may save brainpower
The mantis shrimp sees each color separately with one of a dozen kinds of specialized cells, a system that may help the animal quickly see colors without a lot of brainpower.
