News
- Animals
Pirates of the Amphibian: Males fertilize eggs of another guy’s gal
For the first time among amphibians, scientists have found frogs that sneak their sperm onto egg clutches left by another mating pair.
- Health & Medicine
Tapping an Unlikely Source: Scientists use mouth membrane to construct corneal-surface transplants
Using membranes taken from the inside of the mouth, researchers have fashioned transplants that act as replacement outer layers for corneas in people with damaged vision.
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Flies ‘R’ Us: Fruit fly cells mimic the mammalian pancreas
A new study suggests that the common fruit fly has cells that function much as those in the human pancreas do.
- Materials Science
Nanotech Goes to New Lengths: Scientists create ultralong carbon nanotubes
In an advance toward making superstrong fibers, chemists have synthesized a 4-centimeter-long carbon nanotube, the longest nanotube reported to date.
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Mothering Malnutrition: Moms’ depression weighs on infants in Pakistan
Maternal depression critically contributes to malnutrition-related health problems among infants in rural Pakistan.
- Astronomy
Sky Lights: Picture might show an extrasolar planet
A faint point of red light may be the first picture ever taken of a planet outside the solar system.
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Staph bacteria are choosy about their iron source
Staphylococcus bacteria prefer to get their iron from heme, the ring-shaped portion of oxygen-carrying proteins such as hemoglobin.
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Nature reduces kids’ signs of attention disorder
Spending leisure time amid greenery rather than in built-up environments appears to improve behavior in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Plants
A new, slimy method of self-pollination
When all else fails for pollination, a Chinese herb in the ginger family resorts to something botanists say they haven't seen before: a do-it-yourself oil slick.
- Astronomy
Crashing Genesis
Scientists are trying to salvage the fragile samples of the solar wind collected by the Genesis spacecraft, which crashed to Earth on Sept. 8 after its parachutes failed to open.
- Anthropology
Human ancestor gets leg up on walking
A new analysis of a 6-million-year-old leg fossil from a member of the human evolutionary family indicates that this individual walked upright with nearly the same deftness as people today do.
- Health & Medicine
Liver transplants succeed in many hepatitis C patients
People who receive liver transplants for hepatitis C infections fare about as well as people getting such transplants for other diseases.
