News
- Health & Medicine
Prenatal marijuana exposure may pose health risks
Rats that were exposed to a marijuana-related chemical while in the womb show more memory lapses and hyperactivity than unexposed rats do.
- Earth
Ssshhh! South Pole has a new seismic station
Seismometers recently installed near the South Pole reveal that the area is the quietest spot on the planet for eavesdropping on earthquakes.
- Health & Medicine
Morbid Mystery Tour: Epidemic from China is encircling globe
An outbreak of deadly pneumonia that apparently began in southern China spread in March to at least two other continents, including North America.
- Paleontology
Fine Toothcomb: New fossils add to primate-origins debate
The discovery of 40-million-year-old teeth and jaw fragments belonging to ancient forms of lorises and bushbabies doubles the age of the fossil record for a major primate group.
- Materials Science
A Hard Little Lesson: Squeezed nanospheres grow superstrong
A substance not known for its hardness—silicon—becomes one of the hardest of materials when formed into ultrasmall spheres.
- Earth
Dioxin Dumps: Burning exposed trash pollutes soil
The practice of burning refuse in the open in many underdeveloped countries creates prodigious quantities of harmful polychlorinated compounds.
- Earth
Clean Casualties: Everyday chemicals may shift ecosystems
Trace amounts of the chemical concoctions used to battle bacteria in kitchens and bathrooms may kill off algae, an effect that researchers say may have far-reaching consequences.
- Animals
Secret Signal: Fish allurement that predators don’t see
In a rare demonstration of secret messaging in animals, a swordtail fish uses ultraviolet courtship signals that are invisible to a predator.
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By a Nose? Human sperm may sniff out the path to an egg
A man's sperm appear to possess a primitive kind of nose that enables them to navigate to a woman's egg by scent.
- Animals
At last, a bird that nails killer chicks
For the first time, researchers have found a bird species—Australia's superb fairy-wren—that reacts when all its own chicks disappear and a giant imposter takes their place.
- Earth
Dust up north
Strong northeasterly winds blowing across coastal regions of southern Alaska recently exposed by melting snow launched massive clouds of dust over the Gulf of Alaska.
- Astronomy
By the light of a starry eruption
Astronomers calculating the brightness of a supernova explosion witnessed in the 11th century estimate that it was likely the most brilliant stellar event in recorded history.
