News
- Earth
Dioxin-type carcinogens pose additive risks
Pollutants known as dioxins, furans, and certain chemically related polychlorinated biphenyls have additive cancer-causing effects when mixed together, as has been assumed in calculating the chemicals' health risks.
- Astronomy
Renegade stars in sun’s neighborhood
Some stars in the neighborhood of the sun may be renegades from the center of our galaxy.
- Health & Medicine
Childhood trauma raises risk of heart disease
A childhood filled with psychological or physical tribulations contributes to one's risk of developing heart disease as an adult.
- Astronomy
Messy Findings: Planets encounter a violent world
Some young planets continue to take a beating hundreds of millions of years after they've formed.
- Health & Medicine
A Problem of Adhesion: More evidence of sickle-cell stickiness
Interrupted blood flow in people with sickle-cell disease might arise from stickiness inherent in the unusual red blood cells these individuals have.
- Paleontology
Early Bird: Fossil features hint at go-get-’em hatchlings
A well-preserved, 121-million-year-old fossilized bird embryo has several features that suggest that the species' young could move about and feed themselves very soon after they hatched.
- Chemistry
Microbes Make the Switch: Tailored bacteria need caffeine product to survive
Bacteria that rely on a chemical derived from the breakdown of caffeine for their survival could help lead to the development of decaffeinated coffee plants.
- Plants
Green Red-Alert: Plant fights invaders with animal-like trick
Mustard plants' immune systems can react to traces of bacteria with a burst of nitric oxide, much as an animal's immune system does.
- Physics
Graphite in Flatland: Carbon sheets may rival nanotubes
Researchers have created freestanding carbon films as thin as one atom.
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Medical Decisions in Question: Mental incapacity missed by docs
A substantial minority of medical patients treated for acute conditions at a British hospital lacked the ability to make informed decisions about their care, although their physicians usually didn't recognize it.
- Physics
Dancing the heat away
By laser-zapping nanocapsules of water, scientists find that the specific molecular motions caused by the excitation, not just simple heat diffusion, determine how energy and heat flow through such minuscule structures.
- Physics
Tiny tubes tune in colors
At the right length and conductivity, ultrathin filaments of carbon known as carbon nanotubes can receive visible light waves in the same the way as larger antennas receive radio signals.
