Uncategorized
- Life
Brain cell insulators are short-timers
Limited myelin production time may make it harder to repair nerve casings damaged by multiple sclerosis.
- Earth
Cleaner air may have brought more storms
Pollution during the 20th century appears to have suppressed North Atlantic hurricanes.
- Math
A field where breakthroughs are hard to come by produces two big advances on a single day
Problems in number theory often have a certain exasperating charm: They are extraordinarily simple to state, but so difficult to prove that centuries of effort haven’t sufficed to crack them. So it’s pretty remarkable that on one day this May, mathematicians announced results on two of these mathematical conundrums. Both proofs address one of the […]
- Particle Physics
First four-quark particle may have been spotted
If confirmed, the tetraquark could shed light on how atomic nuclei are held together.
By Andrew Grant - Earth
Satellite captures Earth’s greenery
Orbiting camera detects reflected light to determine the extent of the planet's vegetation.
- Health & Medicine
Some infertile men have heightened cancer risk
Those who don’t make sperm are more likely than fertile men to develop a malignancy.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Human brain mapped in 3-D with high resolution
“BigBrain” model, the most detailed atlas yet, could improve brain scanning tools and neurosurgeons’ navigation.
By Meghan Rosen - Life
Cabbage circadian clocks tick even after picking
Daily cycles in vegetables help ward off hungry caterpillars.
- Humans
Aerial radar sizes up ancient urban sprawl
Angkor, the capital of Cambodia's Khmer empire, included carefully planned suburbs that spread across the landscape.
By Bruce Bower - Life
On the trail of a new virus
Map of MERS infection finds microbe spread through hospital dialysis units.
- Anthropology
Snails trace Stone Age trek from Iberia to Ireland
A genetic quirk linking snails in two distant areas suggests people brought escargot on their migration to the Emerald Isle.
- Health & Medicine
Ebola thwarted in mice by drugs for infertility, cancer
Extensive search of existing medicines turns up two that seem to fend off deadly virus.
By Nathan Seppa