News
- Anthropology
Stone Age Code Red: Scarlet symbols emerge in Israeli cave
Lumps of red ocher excavated near human graves in an Israeli cave indicate that symbolic thinking occurred at least 90,000 years ago, much earlier than archaeologists have traditionally assumed.
- Astronomy
Out of Hiding: Lost asteroid reappears, bringing surprises
A long-lost asteroid that came close to Earth in 1937 has been spotted again, and its projected path steers clear of Earth.
- Animals
First Impressions: Early view biases spider’s mate choice
In a new wrinkle on how females develop their tastes in males, a test has found that young female wolf spiders that see a male's courtship display grow up with a preference for that look in mates.
- Health & Medicine
Antiviral Advance: Drug disables enzyme from hepatitis C virus
A new drug prevents the replication of the hepatitis C virus.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Survey: Galaxy map reveals dark business as usual
The most precise map of how galaxies cluster, pulled together by the tug of gravity, has confirmed that most of the cosmos is in the dark, consisting of 5 percent ordinary matter, 25 percent dark matter, and 70 percent dark energy.
- Earth
Flaming Out? Days may be numbered for two fire retardants
The maker of two controversial flame-retardant chemicals has voluntarily initiated negotiations with the federal government to end their production.
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- Earth
California acts on plastic additive
Korean engineers have developed a replacement for a plasticizer used in polyvinyl chloride that California has just ruled is a known reproductive toxicant.
- Physics
New type of material that heat can’t bloat
A newfound material exhibits the desirable property of not expanding when heated over a wide temperature range, but from an apparent cause never seen before—electrons changing positions inside the new compound's crystal structure.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer drug might fight Alzheimer’s
Tests in animals show that the cancer drug imatinib mesylate, also called Gleevec, slows formation of the kinds of plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
- Chemistry
Clays catalyze life?
Clay minerals at the bottom of the ocean may have played a crucial role in assembling the very first cells on Earth billions of years ago.
- Paleontology
Ancient atmosphere was productive
New laboratory experiments suggest that extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the era just before the dinosaurs went extinct may have boosted plant productivity to at least three times that found in today’s ecosystems.
