News
-
Death Waits for No One: Deferred demises take a couple of hits
Two new reports challenge the idea that elderly people suffering from serious physical illnesses can prolong their lives just long enough to experience a personally meaningful event.
- Tech
Tiny Tubes Brighten Bulbs: Nanotubes beat tungsten in lightbulb test—maybe
Experiments suggest that lightbulbs with filaments made from carbon nanotubes outshine conventional bulbs.
- Tech
Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins
Researchers have fabricated a solar cell that uses photosynthetic proteins to convert light into electricity.
- Astronomy
Young World: NASA telescope reveals clues to newborn planet
Astronomers have found signs of what may be the youngest planet known, plus the first signs ever of organic compounds in a region of dust that could evolve into a planet-forming region.
- Astronomy
Huge solar flares hit far-flung craft
Spacecraft throughout the solar system have detected material spewed into space by a group of huge solar flares late last year.
- Humans
Simple water filter can nail arsenic
Field tests suggest that people who live in areas with arsenic-tainted aquifers may be able to purify their drinking water by passing it through a low-tech, low-cost filter that includes a bed of iron nails.
- Earth
Killer weather on Mount Everest
An analysis of weather patterns around Mount Everest in May 1996, when eight climbers died, suggests that a sudden drop in barometric pressure may have played a significant role in the deaths.
- Health & Medicine
Breast milk may lower cholesterol
Feeding a newborn baby breast milk instead of formula during the first month of life improves the child's cholesterol readings later on.
- Astronomy
Oddball asteroid
Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that takes only 6 months to go around the sun.
- Chemistry
Chemical Knot: Scientists assemble legendary symbol by interlocking molecules
Chemists have constructed a molecular version of a Borromean knot.
- Paleontology
Crawling through Time: Fish bones reveal past climate change
The timing of ancient migrations of snakehead fish from the Indian subcontinent into Europe, Asia, and Africa tells scientists about temperature and humidity changes in those locations.
- Animals
Red Sweat: Hippo skin oozes antibiotic sunscreen
The hippo version of sweat, which is red-orange, contains pigments that can block microbial growth and some ultraviolet light.
