News in Brief
- Physics
How a violin’s f-holes influence its sound
F-shaped holes move air faster, allowing classic violins to put out more powerful sounds at lower frequencies than their ancestors, a new study shows.
- Health & Medicine
Bouncing back from giving blood can take months
Taking iron supplements after donating blood can dramatically reduce the time it takes to recover iron levels in the blood, a study finds.
- Environment
Humans’ environmental rap sheet gets longer
Ice cores reveal human-caused air pollution 240 years before the Industrial Revolution.
- Health & Medicine
Signs of sleep debt found in the blood
When rats and people skimp on sleep, fats and acids involved in metabolism dwindle.
- Astronomy
First stars born later than thought
New results from the Planck mission indicate that the first stars began to shine 550 million years after the Big Bang.
- Environment
Funding canceled for clean coal plant
The Department of Energy has scrapped funding for FutureGen, a project to use new technology to sequester carbon dioxide emissions from a coal power plant.
- Animals
Rainforest frogs flourish with artificial homes
A rainforest frog population grew by about 50 percent when scientists built pools for tadpoles that mimic puddles made by other animals.
- Ecosystems
Termite mound paradises help buffer dry land against climate change
Landscapes dotted by Africa’s great termite mounds look on the verge of turning into desert but are, in fact, more resilient.
- Earth
Ice ages boost production of new ocean crust
When sea levels drop during ice ages, magma at mid-ocean ridges surges.
- Health & Medicine
E-cigarettes lower immunity to flu and other germs
Electronic cigarettes produce substantial amounts of lung inflammation, a new mouse study finds. They may also reduce the ability to fight off infections from strep and flu germs.
- Physics
When entering a black hole, fasten your seat belt
Rapidly spinning black holes can generate turbulence, a new analysis shows.
- Astronomy
Neptune-like worlds could become habitable
Mini-Neptunes can drift toward their stars and lose their atmospheres, leaving behind ice-rich rocky cores that can become watery worlds.
