News
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Nicotine limits cold adaptation
A new study homes in on why smokers may have a harder time staying warm in frigid environments.
- Physics
After 40-year prep, gravity test soars
The Gravity Probe B satellite, which was built to test aspects of general relativity, finally hurtled into space.
- Astronomy
Closing In on a Monster: A black hole’s dusty environs show themselves
The first clear picture of the immediate surroundings of a supermassive black hole confirms that these gravitational monsters hide behind thick belts of dust.
- Health & Medicine
Cord Blood to the Rescue: Infusions help babies with Hurler’s syndrome
Umbilical cord blood transplants boost overall health and survival in patients with the rare hereditary condition called Hurler's syndrome.
- Materials Science
Next High-Tech Polishing Fluid: Tea—A new brew for the computer industry
A concoction based on green tea may speed up manufacturing of precision components for computer hard-disk drives while reducing toxic wastes.
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Waste Not: Proteins suggest ways to thwart muscle loss
Researchers have now revealed details of the biochemical signals that drive muscle atrophy.
- Paleontology
Ancient Buzzing: German site yields early hummingbird fossils
Excavations in Germany have yielded the only known fossils of hummingbirds from the Old World and by far the oldest such fossils unearthed anywhere.
- Animals
Toxin Takeout: Frogs borrow poison for skin from ants
Scientists have identified formicine ants as a food source from which poison frogs acquire their chemical weapons.
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Words in the Brain: Reading program spurs neural rewrite in kids
Children who are deficient readers show improvement in both reading skills and brain function when given intensive instruction in how written letters correspond to speech sounds, a brain-imaging study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Humidity may affect LASIK surgery
High humidity can boost the chances of needing follow-up surgery after LASIK surgery for nearsightedness.
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Brain roots of music depreciation
The brains of tone-deaf people may be unable to detect subtle shifts in pitch, which keeps them from learning the basic structure of musical passages.
- Earth
Tracks of dust devils spotted from space
Scientists scanning satellite images of the southern Sahara have detected trails left on the landscape by the whirlwinds commonly known as dust devils.
