News
- Humans
Top of the Top 40: Search tool for a cancer cure places first in national science competition
Herbert Mason Hedberg, the 2004 winner of the Intel Science Talent Search, and 39 other students have received recognition and scholarships for their innovations in science, mathematics, and engineering.
- Tech
Iron Power: Eking more juice from batteries
By creating an extremely thin layer of an unusually electron-hungry form of iron, chemists have made a prototype rechargeable battery electrode that may lead to improved metal hydride batteries.
- Anthropology
Prehistoric Family Split: DNA puts Neandertals on edge of human ancestry
The largest sample of ancient mitochondrial DNA extracted from Stone Age fossils to date indicates that Neandertals made, at most, a small genetic contribution to our direct prehistoric ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Gap in the Defense: Brain cancer patients short on valuable protein
Brain tumor cells have a dearth of an obscure protein called ING4, whose sister compounds have shown anticancer effects.
- Chemistry
Mini Motor: Synthetic molecule yields nanoscale rotor
Scientists have built a tiny rotor out of a synthesized molecule that rotates in the presence of an electric field.
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Brain Gain: Odd RNA converts stem cells into neurons
An unusual strand of RNA guides stem cells to transform into neurons.
- Astronomy
Planetoid on the Fringe: Solar system record breaker
Lurking more than 13 billion kilometers from Earth in the coldest, remotest part of the solar system, a newly discovered body is the most distant object ever found to orbit the sun and the largest denizen of the solar system discovered since Pluto.
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Movie sparks group brain responses
People exhibit a surprising amount of brain activity in common while viewing a dramatic movie, a brain-imaging study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Ear piercings cause illness, disfigurement
Piercing the upper-ear cartilage under nonsterile conditions can leave a person vulnerable to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, as happened in Oregon in 2000.
- Animals
Road rage keeps ants moving smoothly
Streams of ants manage to avoid traffic gridlock by a bit of strategic pushing and shoving.
- Health & Medicine
Heart patients gain from steep cholesterol drop
Heart patients can lessen their risk of a heart attack and increase their odds of survival by aggressively reducing harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in their blood.
- Physics
Complexity by way of simplicity
Researchers have demonstrated a new way to simplify some intricate patterns whose extreme complexity has convinced theoretical physicist Stephen Wolfram that traditional science can't explain many important natural phenomena.
