News
- Paleontology
Some trilobites grew their own eyeshades
The 380-million-year-old fossil of a trilobite strongly suggests that members of at least some trilobite species were active during the daytime, a lifestyle that scientists previously had only suspected.
- Plants
Bean plants punish microbial partners
In a novel test of how partnerships between species can last in nature, researchers have found that soybeans punish cheaters.
-
Breathless: Reef fish cope with low oxygen
A coral reef may look like a high-oxygen paradise, but the first respiration tests of fish there show an unexpected tolerance for low oxygen.
- Archaeology
Origins of Smelting: Lake yields core of pre-Inca silver making
Metal concentrations in soil extracted from a Bolivian lake indicate that silver production in the region began 1,000 years ago, 4 centuries before well-known silver-making efforts by the Incas.
- Materials Science
A Soft Touch: Imaging technique reveals hidden atoms
Researchers have devised a new imaging technique for visualizing every carbon atom in the basic unit of graphite.
-
Letting the Dog Genome Out: Poodle DNA compared with that of mice, people
Biologists have deciphered the DNA sequence of a poodle, an accomplishment that may help researchers study more than 300 human diseases that also affect dogs.
-
Faulty Memory: Long-term immunity isn’t always beneficial
Quickly losing immune-system defenses against some viruses may protect humans from far nastier bugs, a mathematical model suggests.
- Planetary Science
Galileo’s Demise: A planetary plunge, by Jove
Out of fuel and according to plan, the Galileo spacecraft ended an 8-year tour of Jupiter and its moons on Sept. 21, when it dove into the planet’s dense atmosphere.
- Ecosystems
Killer Consequences: Has whaling driven orcas to a diet of sea lions?
Killer whales may have been responsible for steep declines in seal, sea lion, and otter populations after whaling wiped out the great whales that killer whales had been eating.
- Tech
The Daily Flicks: Morphing ink may bring video to newspapers
New types of electronic-paper pixels may eventually make it possible to view full-color video clips in your morning newspaper.
- Chemistry
Mollusks point way toward better drugs
Growing drug crystals on different polymer surfaces may lead to improved medicines.
- Materials Science
Charging cartilage
A hybrid material made of biodegradable polymers and carbon nanotubes yields an optimal scaffold for growing cartilage.
