News
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Intimate violence gets female twist
An analysis of data on relationship violence in the general population finds that, excluding murder and sexual assaults, women prove slightly more likely than men to commit one or more aggressive acts against a partner—though men are more likely than women to inflict injuries that require medical help.
- Chemistry
Nobel prize recognizes future for plastics
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three researchers for the discovery and development of plastics that conduct electricity.
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Pioneers of brain-cell signaling earn Nobel
Three neuroscientists who delved into the ways brain cells receive and respond to signals from other cells won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- Physics
Solid-state insights yield physics Nobel
The 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists and inventors whose work laid the foundation of modern information technology, particularly through their invention of rapid transistors, laser diodes, and integrated circuits.
- Animals
Wasps drive frog eggs to (escape) hatch
A tree frog's eggs can match their response to the degree of danger: all-out mass action for snakes but less activity for one wasp.
- Astronomy
Cosmic afterglow steals the limelight
Thanks to a chance cosmic alignment, researchers appear to have resolved the detailed structure of the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst—even though the parent burst erupted halfway across the universe.
- Tech
Software enhances view of aircraft flaws
New software can run an ultrasonic machine that will map corrosion beneath the surface of an airplane more quickly, safely, and effectively than can existing devices.
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Some teens show signs of future depression
Certain characteristics typify teens who suffer recurrences of depression as young adults, raising researchers' hopes for devising improved depression treatments.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria Provide a Frontline Defense
Bacteria genetically engineered to secrete microbe-killing compounds can fight disease in mice and rats.
- Health & Medicine
Busy hospitals may not be best choice
A large number of heart surgeries done at a hospital doesn't always correlate with a low mortality rate from such operations at the facility.
- Earth
Ice-dammed lakes had cooling effect
New computer simulations suggest that massive lakes in northern Russia—formed when an ice sheet blocked the northward flow of rivers about 90,000 years ago—significantly cooled the region's climate in summer months.
- Humans
Better protection from mad cow disease
The Food and Drug Administration has announced several new measures to keep meat that's potentially infected with mad cow disease out of food supplies.
