News
- Chemistry
Moonlighting: Reflective protein causes squid to shimmer
Squid can manipulate light in amazing ways to camouflage themselves at night, and researchers have unveiled a bizarre set of reflective proteins in the animals' tissues that underlie this trait.
- Humans
Cow Madness: Disease’s U.S. emergence highlights role of feed ban
The threat of mad cow disease to both people and animals in the U.S. remains low, as long as government regulations designed to prevent the disease's spread are enforced, risk analysts say.
- Astronomy
Taste of a Comet: Spacecraft samples and views Wild 2
Pummeled by debris, a NASA spacecraft last week snatched up dust samples while taking the sharpest images ever of a comet's icy core.
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- Earth
When testosterone gets down and dirty
Testosterone excreted by livestock can pass through soils, which may explain new findings of fish-altering hormonal activity in water downstream of cattle feedlots.
- Astronomy
X-ray images highlight galaxy collisions
A new study provides graphic evidence that X-ray observations may be the best way to identify ancient collisions between galaxies.
- Health & Medicine
SARS vaccine triggers immunity in monkeys
An experimental vaccine against the SARS virus shows promise in a test on monkeys.
- Tech
Gene Screen: Ultrasensitive nanowires catch mutations
Researchers have devised a nanowire sensor that binds to DNA molecules and produces an electrical signal almost instantaneously.
- Health & Medicine
Pivotal Protein: Inhibiting immune compound slows sepsis
By restraining the action of an immune system protein that can run amok, scientists experimenting on mice have reversed the course of severe sepsis.
- Earth
Blasts from the Past: Orbiting radar spots old nuclear-test sites
A technique that analyzes satellite images to detect subtle ground motions often can perceive subsidence over underground nuclear-test sites, sometimes even if those tests occurred decades ago.
- Paleontology
Ancestral Handful: Tiny skull puts Asia at root of primate tree
Researchers have unearthed the partial skull of the oldest known primate, a tiny creature that lived in south-central China 55 million years ago.
- Earth
My Own Private Bad-Air Day: Outdoor data underrate pollutant exposure
Most people breathe in substantially more organic contaminants than airborne concentrations of such substances in their homes and communities would suggest.
