News
- Physics
Fusion Boost: Promising path to heavy nuclei
By using radioactive nuclei as projectiles in accelerator-based nuclear collisions, scientists may be able to produce more readily than expected many exotic heavy nuclei that are impossible to make today but are crucial for future advances in nuclear physics.
- Astronomy
A Low Note in Cosmos: Sounding out a new role for black holes
Astronomers have for the first time detected sound waves generated by a black hole.
- Health & Medicine
Control of animal epidemic slowed human illness
Control measures implemented in response to the devastating animal epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease can apparently help curtail the spread of the cryptosporidium parasite, which sickens people.
- Health & Medicine
Coronary calcium may predict death risk
The amount of calcium in the coronary arteries can serve as a risk marker for people who are otherwise without heart disease symptoms.
- Earth
New mantle model gets the water out
A novel notion of geophysical processes taking place deep within our planet may explain why the upper layer of Earth's mantle is relatively depleted of many trace elements.
- Astronomy
Solar system replica?
Carefully monitoring the motion of a star 90 light-years from Earth, astronomers have found what may be the closest analog known to our solar system.
- Health & Medicine
Grades slipping? Check for snoring
Children who snore frequently are more likely to struggle with their schoolwork than are children who rarely snore.
- Paleontology
Fossils’ ear design hints at aquatic lifestyle
New studies of distinctive skull structures in fossils of one of Earth's earliest-known four-limbed creatures suggest the animal could hear best when it was underwater.
- Chemistry
Secret of strong silk
By controlling the amount of water in their glands, spiders and silkworms prevent their silk proteins from crystallizing prematurely.
- Earth
Exposure to phthalate may shorten pregnancy
Babies exposed to a common phthalate plasticizer before birth spend a week less in the womb than do those without evidence of exposure.
- Chemistry
Catalyzing green chemistry
A recyclable catalyst promises to eliminate the waste generated during the manufacture of a wide range of chemicals, including drugs and ceramics.
- Earth
Indonesian reefs fell prey to fires
The fires that swept through Indonesian rain forests late in 1997 apparently laid waste to some marine ecosystems, as well.
