News
- Materials Science
Branching Out: Semiconducting nanotrees could boost electronics
Forests of semiconducting nanotrees could form the basis of future solar cells, low-energy lighting, and other optical or microelectronic devices.
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Breeds Apart: Purebred dogs defined by DNA differences
The most thorough DNA analysis yet of purebred dogs suggests that canine breeds can also be discerned genetically with great accuracy.
- Plants
Wind Highways: Mosses, lichens travel along aerial paths
Invisible freeways of wind may account for the similarity of plant species on islands that lie thousands of kilometers apart.
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Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier
A research review challenges the assumption that scientists have demonstrated a causal link between teenage marijuana use and later psychological and behavioral problems.
- Astronomy
Old Stars Even Older: Determining a new age for the universe
Using particles accelerators to mimic the conditions inside stars, two independent research groups have found evidence that the most-ancient known stars are about a billion years older than astronomers had estimated.
- Paleontology
Rare English bits are oldest known charcoal
Analyses of small black chunks of material extracted from 420-million-year-old rocks found along the England-Wales border suggest that they're remnants of the earliest known wildfire.
- Archaeology
Guatemalan sites yield Maya insights
Excavations at three archaeological sites in Guatemala have provided new insights into both the early and late stages of ancient Maya civilization.
- Astronomy
Before the big one hits
The next time you hear about an asteroid or comet about to hit Earth, you can go to a new Internet site to find out where the collision will be and how much damage will occur.
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Neurons slow down for placebo effect
A placebo treatment temporarily quelled symptoms of Parkinson's disease in six people by decreasing the electrical activity of brain cells crucial to the condition.
- Health & Medicine
Herbal erection pills may be spiked
Some pills marketed as herbal remedies for erectile dysfunction contain drugs that should be available only by prescription.
- Earth
Filtered air cuts down mutations
Microscopic particles in the air may mutate the DNA of sperm.
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Two egg cells make fatherless mouse
By fusing two egg cells, researchers have created a mouse with no father.
