News
- Earth
Wrong Number: Plastic ingredient spurs chromosomal defects
The primary chemical in some plastics causes female mice to produce eggs with abnormal numbers of chromosomes.
- Materials Science
A New Cool: Prototype chills fast and electrifies, too
Researchers have incorporated an efficient thermoelectric material into a prototype device that can cool or produce electricity.
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Autism Advance: Mutated genes disrupt nerve cell proteins
Two gene mutations that cause autism suggest that nerve cell connections called synapses are key to the disorder.
- Animals
Careful Coots: Do birds count their eggs before they hatch?
A coot may tally the eggs in her nest, a rare example of an animal counting in the wild, suggests a new study.
- Health & Medicine
Progress Against Dementia: Drug slows Alzheimer’s in severely ill patients
The drug memantine slows the progression of late-stage Alzheimer's disease in patients previously considered untreatable.
- Paleontology
Family Meal: Cannibal dinosaur known by its bones
Analyses of the gnaw marks on bones of Majungatholus atopus, a carnivorous dinosaur from Madagascar, indicate that the creatures routinely fed on members of their own species.
- Paleontology
Fossils of early salamanders found
A recent discovery of fossilized salamanders pushes back a milestone in amphibian evolution by more than 100 million years.
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Sperm show age
The quality of a man's sperm declines as he gets older.
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Sleep debt exacts deceptive cost
Moderate but sustained sleep deficits undermine alertness and other mental faculties to a potentially dangerous extent, although people who experience this level of sleep loss usually don't feel particularly drowsy.
- Health & Medicine
Passive smoking may foster kids’ cavities
Young children exposed to tobacco smoke face a greatly elevated risk of developing cavities in their baby teeth.
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Human RNA genes counted up
People possess about 250 genes that encode short RNA strands rather than DNA.
- Planetary Science
Spacecraft reveal Mars’ molten heart
Tracking the precise motion of a spacecraft orbiting Mars, planetary scientists have deduced that the core of the Red Planet is at least partially liquid.
