News
- Planetary Science
Craft show
The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft recently imaged Mars Odyssey and Mars Express, marking the first time that a spacecraft orbiting a planet other than Earth has captured images of other craft circling the same planet.
- Tech
Fields of Beams: Carbon nanotubes crop up for big-screen TV
Carbon nanotubes serve as the electron emitters that light up the screen of a new experimental, high-definition television display.
- Health & Medicine
Positive Jolt: Electroshock therapy may have side benefit
People with depression have high concentrations of norepinephrine, a brain hormone, but electroshock treatment lowers these levels to the normal range.
- Materials Science
Tissue Tether: Improved conducting plastic could boost nerve-regeneration success
Biomedical engineers aim to repair damaged nerves with a chemically modified conducting polymer that stimulates the growth of nerve cells.
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Mapping Aroma: Smells light up distinct brain parts
The sense of smell may have its own brain atlas.
- Planetary Science
Roaming Giants: Did migrating planets shape the solar system?
New simulations suggest that the solar system's four biggest planets were once bunched together, setting up a planetary bowling game that rapidly and violently rearranged the structure of the outer solar system and tossed chunks of debris inward.
- Earth
Last Gasp: Toxic gas could explain great extinction
Sudden venting of hydrogen sulfide from the deep sea could have caused the largest extinction in Earth's history by poisoning land animals and destroying atmospheric ozone that protects Earth from ultraviolet light.
- Anthropology
Founding Families: New World was settled by small tribe
A new genetic analysis indicates that only about 200 to 300 people crossed the ice age land bridge from Asia to become the founding population of North America.
- Ecosystems
Pesticide makes bees bumble
The pesticide spinosad, previously thought safe for bees, may damage their ability to forage for nectar.
- Tech
Morphing wheels for beginner bikers
A new bike design for kids morphs from tricycle into bicycle as the rider gets moving, possibly easing the often-fearful starts at riding two-wheelers.
- Tech
Nuke batteries get more practical
Nuclear batteries that will last for decades may have moved closer to reality with the demonstration of a silicon chip riddled with radioactive, tritium-filled pits where radiation is efficiently converted to electricity.
- Health & Medicine
Shot in the gut
A mystifying case of lead poisoning, which may have lasted more than a decade, turned out to have been caused by a swallowed shotgun pellet.
