News
- Planetary Science
Cassini spies storms on Saturn
Closing in on Saturn after a 7-year journey, the Cassini spacecraft has discovered two storms merging on the ringed planet, only the second times that scientists have observed such a phenomenon.
- Animals
Male spiders amputate organs, run faster
Tiny male spiders of a species common to the southeastern United States routinely remove one of their two oversize external sex organs, enabling them to run faster and longer.
- Materials Science
High-temperature ceramics takes flight
A recent NASA flight test of ultrahigh-temperature ceramic materials might lead to a new aerospace design that would make the space shuttle look downright old-fashioned.
- Materials Science
Scientists tone down silicon rockers
Researchers have created pairs of silicon atoms that stay level instead of slowly rocking in place, permitting scientists to study silicon-surface reactions in unprecedented detail.
- Earth
A slump or a slide? Density decides
Using a full-scale simulator, researchers showed that just a small difference in soil density determines whether a landslide becomes a fast-moving killer or merely one that slowly slumps downhill.
- Paleontology
Listening to fish for extinction clues
Tiny fossils from fish that survived worldwide extinctions about 34 million years ago may reveal that cooler winters caused the die-off.
- Health & Medicine
Fetal cells pop up in mom’s thyroid
A woman's thyroid gland contains male cells, suggesting that cells from her son passed into her when he was a fetus.
- Health & Medicine
Gene helps alcohol help the heart
A genetic study indicates that moderate consumption of alcohol helps keep the heart healthy.
- Health & Medicine
Pill boosts cancer risk in some women
Women who took oral contraceptives before 1975, and whose mother or sister had breast cancer between 1944 and 1952, have triple the likelihood of getting breast cancer as compared with similar women who didn't take the pill.
- Health & Medicine
Interferon delays multiple sclerosis
In some people who show early-warning signs of multiple sclerosis, the drug interferon-beta-1a seems to delay or even prevent the disease from becoming full-blown.
- Archaeology
Agriculture’s roots go tropical
Tropical-forest dwellers in Central America may have cultivated manioc and other root crops as many as 7,000 years ago.
- Archaeology
Early farmers crop up in Jordan
An ancient site discovered in southern Jordan dating back more than 9,000 years may help to illuminate the origins of farming in the Middle East.
