Archives
More Stories from the September 11, 2010 issue
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ChemistrySuperconductors go fractal
Oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a self-similar pattern to help conduct electricity without resistance.
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Archaeology
Lucy’s kind used stone tools to butcher animals
Animal bones found in East Africa show the oldest signs of stone-tool use and meat eating by hominids.
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Tech
The people’s pulsar
Thousands of volunteers help discover a neutron star by donating the processing power in their idle home computers.
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Space
Twinkle, twinkle, little dot
A faint object was once thought to be the first extrasolar planet to be photographed. Then it wasn’t. But now it may go down in the history books after all.
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Astronomy
Celestial wish list
A panel of astronomers ranks proposed astrophysics projects for the coming decade.
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Humans
Depressed teens not shunned
In high school, students with depression seek — rather than settle for — friends with similar moods.
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Humans
Retirement at 62 boosts well-being
People who retire on the early side tend to feel better physically and emotionally than those who quit working earlier or later.
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Life
Muscles remember past glory
Extra nuclei produced by training survive disuse, making it easier to rebuild lost strength.
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Humans
Most prisoners come from few neighborhoods
As overall crime rates declined in the United States, certain poor communities fueled a dramatic rise in incarceration rates.
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Earth
Perforated blobs may be early sponges
Odd shapes in Australian rocks could be the oldest fossil evidence of multicellular animals.
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Health & Medicine
Teen hearing loss rate worsens
The percentage of adolescents with some decline has increased since the 1990s, a study shows.
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Life
Gene profiles may predict TB prognosis
A molecular profile may help doctors predict who will get sick from TB infections.
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Plants
Chlorophyll gets an ‘f’
New variety of photosynthetic pigment is the first to be discovered in 60 years
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Space
Moon shrinks
New pictures expand evidence of the moon’s shrinkage over the past billion years.
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Life
‘Whispering’ gives bats the drop on prey
A stealth approach to echolocation appears to be adaptive for catching eared moths.
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Chemistry
Deep-sea oil plume goes missing
Controversy arises over whether bacteria have completely gobbled oil up.
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DNA on the move
The latest advances from the field of DNA nanotechnology include nanobot ‘spiders’ learning how to walk and even do some work.
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