News
- Tech
Stepping Lightly: New view of how human gaits conserve energy
Using a simple mathematical model, scientists may have pinpointed the key aspects of human locomotion that make ordinary walking and running the most energy-efficient ways for people to get around on foot.
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Forever Young: Digging for the roots of stem cells
Three proteins have been shown to function as master regulators that shut off differentiation and enable stem cells to retain their capacity to develop into any type of cell.
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Noises On, Language Off: Speech impairment linked to unsound perception
A language disorder that affects a substantial number of elementary school children arises from a difficulty in picking out basic elements of speech, such as consonants, from streams of sound.
- Health & Medicine
Head-to-Head Comparison: Coils top clips in brain-aneurysm treatment
Tiny platinum coils inserted into a ruptured brain aneurysm to seal off the bleeding appear safer in the long run for some patients than traditional brain surgery does.
- Plants
Day-Glo Flowers: Some bright blooms naturally fluoresce
Some common flowers fluoresce but the glow most likely has little effect on pollinators.
- Chemistry
Greener Nylon: One-pot recipe could eliminate industrial leftovers
Researchers have devised a one-step process for making the primary ingredient of nylon.
- Astronomy
Farthest Bang: A burst that goes the distance
The most-distant gamma-ray burst ever found hails from 900 million years after the birth of the universe, around the time when stars and galaxies first flooded the universe with light.
- Chemistry
How hot was it?
Scientists have created heat-sensing polymers that indicate exposure to high temperatures by changing color under ultraviolet light.
- Chemistry
Novel reaction produces hydrogen
Chemists have found a new way to produce hydrogen using only water, an organic liquid, and a metal catalyst.
- Chemistry
Cactus goo purifies water
Scientists are working on an environmentally benign water-filtering process that uses the nopal cactus.
- Archaeology
French site sparks Neandertal debate
Radiocarbon analyses of material from a French cave indicate that Neandertal and modern human occupations of the site overlapped around 36,000 years ago, possibly explaining why Neandertals began to employ some new toolmaking techniques around that time.
- Health & Medicine
Lead in spice mixes caused poisonings
Contaminated spices, purchased from poorly regulated sources, can explain some cases of lead poisoning that involve several members of a family.
