News
- Archaeology
Mexican murals store magnetic data
Tiny magnetic particles in the pigments of some Mexican murals recorded the direction of Earth's magnetic field when the paint dried.
- Health & Medicine
Protective enzyme has a downside: Asthma
The abnormal production of a parasite-fighting enzyme contributes to asthma.
-
Watching the biological clock
Biologists now have a way to predict when a woman will start menopause.
- Archaeology
Rat DNA points to Pacific migrations
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Pacific rats supports a theory that ancestors of today's Polynesians migrated from Southeast Asia to a string of South Pacific islands in at least two separate dispersals.
- Earth
Warmer climate, decreased rice yield
Agricultural data gathered over a dozen years at a Philippines rice paddy suggest that climate changes brought about by global warming could significantly diminish rice yields.
- Materials Science
DNA coordinates assembly of glassy nanoscale structures
Chemists use DNA as a scaffold to construct miniature rings and rods out of silica.
- Health & Medicine
Caloric threats from sugarfree drinks?
Regularly downing sweet drinks or sugar substitutes may foster overeating by reprogramming an individual's ability to judge a snack's caloric impact.
- Astronomy
Controlling the speed of solar eruptions
The billion-ton blobs of magnetized gas that the sun sporadically hurls into space can't reach Earth in less than half a day.
- Paleontology
Neck Bones on the Menu: Fossil vertebrae show species interaction
Three fossil neck bones from an ancient flying reptile—one of them with the broken tip of a tooth embedded in it—indicate that the winged creatures occasionally fell victim to meat eaters.
- Plants
Rewriting the Nitrogen Story: Plant cycles nutrient forward and backward
For the first time, a green plant has been found to break down nitrogen-containing compounds into the readily usable form of nitrates, a job usually done by microbes.
- Anthropology
Erectus Experiment: Fossil find expands Stone Age anatomy
A 930,000-year-old fossil cranium found in Africa widens the anatomical spectrum of Stone Age human ancestors and expands debate over how they evolved.
- Health & Medicine
Before the Booze: Cactus extract dulls hangovers
An inflammation-fighting plant extract, taken hours before consuming alcohol, appears to suppress some of the symptoms brought on by a bout of heavy drinking.
