News
- Earth
Saltier Water: Climate change can slow ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide gas
A decrease in precipitation over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii in recent years has left the ocean there saltier and has diminished its ability to soak up carbon dioxide.
- Health & Medicine
Brawny Brains: Creatine pills may aid memory and cognition
The popular muscle-building supplement creatine can boost performance on mental tests.
-
Probing Ocean Depths: Photosynthetic bacteria bare their DNA
Scientists have deciphered the DNA of two highly abundant, photosynthetic ocean bacteria.
- Health & Medicine
Switching Off Pain: Modeling relief on the action of marijuana
A new drug, tested in rats, blocks pain caused when the nervous system goes awry without producing unwanted side effects.
- Astronomy
Swallow Thy Neighbor: Strong evidence of galactic cannibalism
Astronomers have found a compelling case of a large galaxy caught in the act of eating a small fry.
- Plants
Next loosestrife is already loose
A Florida botanist warns against Nymphoides cristata and Rotala rotundifolia, very troublesome escapees from aquariums and water gardens.
- Plants
Misunderstood stripes confuse individuality
In the debate over how many fungi make up one lichen body, a researcher argues for two unrelated fungal species in the same lichen.
- Plants
Everglades plant is he, then she, then he
Sawgrass, the signature plant of the Everglades, switches genders twice during its week of blooming and thus reduces the chances of self- fertilization.
-
Near-death events take arresting turn
A survey of people treated for serious heart problems indicates that 1 in 10 of those who survived cardiac arrest had an accompanying near-death experience.
- Physics
Icy telescope spots hot neutrinos
The first sky map from an innovative neutrino telescope indicates that the instrument works properly and is poised to find never-before-seen signals from the universe's most violent events.
- Physics
Electric Foam: Scientists uncover basis of material oddball
Specially treated polypropylene foam can mimic the defining behavior and other desirable properties of ceramic piezoelectric materials, which generate electric signals when squeezed.
- Tech
Shining True: Marking original documents with a lick of gloss
Scientists have a new way of making forgery-proof documents by using laser color printers to embed hologramlike images in a document’s glossy surface.
