News
- Health & Medicine
A Toxic Side of Weight Loss: Pollutants may slow body’s metabolism
Weight loss releases toxic chemicals into the bloodstream, which may slow the body's metabolism.
- Earth
Sea Change: Carbon dioxide imperils marine ecosystems
Almost half the carbon dioxide produced by human activity in the past 2 centuries is now dissolved in the oceans, resulting in chemical changes that, if unchecked, could threaten some marine ecosystems.
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Female brains know how to fold ’em
Women compensate for the smaller overall volume of their brains by squeezing more folds into some of the space than men do.
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- Physics
Quantum snare entraps key fifth photon
By coaxing five quantum particles into a state of entanglement, physicists have taken an important step toward dependable quantum computers and more-versatile schemes for transferring quantum information.
- Earth
Bacteria found to release arsenic into groundwater
Arsenic gets into groundwater largely through the action of bacteria residing in aquifer sediments.
- Health & Medicine
Four die of rabies in transplanted tissues
Four people who received tissue transplanted from a man who had died from an undiagnosed rabies infection have since themselves died from the same incurable neurological disease.
- Humans
The high cost of staying current
Reading peer-reviewed journals remains a primary means by which researchers stay on top of developments in their fields, but the annual costs for these periodicals are steep.
- Tech
Nanorods go for the gold
Gold blobs grown onto the ends of tiny, rod-shaped crystals provide potential points for electric contact and chemical liaisons that could enable such semiconductor bits to self-organize into complex circuits or structures.
- Earth
Treaty enacted to preserve crop biodiversity
The United Nations enacted a new international treaty to halt the erosion of genetic diversity of crops.
- Planetary Science
Titanic Images, Groovy Shots: Cassini arrives at Saturn
After a 7-year, 3.5-billion-mile journey, the Cassini spacecraft last week slipped through a gap between two of the icy rings circling Saturn and became the first spacecraft to orbit the distant planet.
- Earth
City Heat: Urban areas’ warmth affects plant growth
Satellite observations of eastern North America show that plants in and around urban areas bud earlier in the spring and retain their foliage later in the fall than do plants in nearby rural settings.
