News
- Earth
Ancient whalers altered arctic lakes
Analyses of sediment and water samples taken from an arctic lake indicate that an ancient whaling community left a mark on the lake’s ecosystem that persists today, even though the settlement was abandoned more than 400 years ago.
- Animals
How blind mole rats find their way home
The blind mole rat is the first animal discovered to navigate by combining dead reckoning with a magnetic compass.
- Health & Medicine
Virus might explain respiratory ailments
Human metapneumovirus, first isolated in 2001, is present in many respiratory infections that had previously gone unexplained.
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Monkeys heed neural calls of the wild
A part of the brain that's involved in sound processing shows pronounced activity when rhesus monkeys hear their comrades vocalizing but not when the same animals hear other sounds.
- Astronomy
Poof goes an atmosphere
Blasted by the heat and radiation from its parent star, a planet 150 light-years from Earth is literally blowing off its atmosphere.
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Bacteria do the twist
A newly identified bacterial protein generates the sinuous shapes of some bacteria.
- Science & Society
Money Crunch: Tight budget leaves scientists disappointed
In the federal budget for FY 2005, research and development funding for defense and homeland security gets a boost, but overall investment in science and technology is meager by comparison.
- Ecosystems
Mangrove Might: Nearby trees boost reef-fish numbers
Coastal mangroves give an unexpectedly important boost to reef fish.
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Gassing Up: Oxygen’s rise may have promoted complex life
The increasing amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere may have driven the emergence of complex life.
- Health & Medicine
Early Warning? Inflammatory protein is tied to colon cancer risk
C-reactive protein, an inflammatory protein linked to heart disease, might also signal susceptibility to colon cancer.
- Physics
Two New Elements Made: Atom smashups yield 113 and 115
Two new elements—115 and 113—have joined the periodic table.
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The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas
A strip of brain tissue that regulates most voluntary movements also respond vigorously as people do nothing more than silently read active verbs.
