News
- Earth
Fill ‘er up . . . with a few tons of wheat
A new analysis suggests that the amount of ancient plant matter that was needed to make just 1 gallon of gasoline is the same amount that can be grown each year in a 40-acre wheat field—roots, stalks, and all.
- Ecosystems
UK halts badger kill after study of TB
Partial results from a new study have pushed the United Kingdom to stop its controversial, decades-old policy of killing local badgers if cattle catch TB.
- Materials Science
No Assembly Required: DNA brings carbon nanotube circuits in line
Using DNA as a scaffold, researchers have devised a simple way of creating carbon nanotube transistors—a feat that paves the way for more complex circuits made from these nanomaterials.
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Whales of Distinction: Old specimens now declared a new species
Japanese researchers have named a new category of living baleen whales to explain puzzling specimens dating back to the 1970s.
- Planetary Science
Giant picture of a giant planet
The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft has taken the sharpest global portrait of Jupiter ever obtained, showing the planet's turbulent atmosphere in true color.
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Bias Bites Back: Racial prejudice may sap mental control
White people who hold biased attitudes toward blacks experience a decline in the ability to monitor and control information after brief interracial encounters, a new study suggests.
- Physics
Quantum Pileup: Ultracold molecules meld into oneness
Scientists have for the first time transformed molecules into an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.
- Earth
Pieces of a Pulverizer? Sediment fragments may be from killer space rock
Scientists sifting sediments laid down just after Earth's most devastating mass extinction 250 million years ago may have found minuscule fragments of the extraterrestrial object that caused the catastrophe.
- Health & Medicine
Rebuilding the Heart: Marrow cells boost cardiac recovery
Inserting a person's own bone marrow stem cells into an ailing heart via a catheter can improve heart and lung function in such patients.
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- Health & Medicine
Protein may predict heart problems
Low blood concentrations of a protein called adiponectin may signal risk of heart disease.
- Health & Medicine
Defibrillator access pays dividends
Ready access to a heart defibrillator can boost the survival chances of someone who suffers a cardiac arrest.
