News
- Paleontology
New fossil weighs in on primate origins
A 55-million-year-old primate skeleton found in Wyoming indicates that the common ancestor of modern monkeys, apes, and people was built primarily for hanging tightly onto tree branches.
- Physics
Light chips find a place to take root
The fabrication of an artificial, inside-out opal of silicon promises to make all-optical microchips possible
- Physics
Atom microchips get off the ground
Becoming smaller and more versatile, microchips using atoms instead of electrons promise both to improve atomic physics experiments and to pave the way for new technologies such as quantum computers.
- Math
Super Bowls and stock markets
The predictive power of the Super Bowl "theory," which involves an apparent correlation between stock market performance and the results of the National Football League championship game, has declined precipitously in recent years.
- Math
Pursuing punctured polyhedra
A mathematician has proved that it's possible to construct a mathematical shape made up of flat faces and straight edges in which every face has a "hole" where the vertex of one constituent polyhedron pokes into the face of another.
- Health & Medicine
New tests may catch bicyclers on dope
Two new tests, on blood and urine, detect the presence of synthetic erythropoietin, a drug that boosts red blood cell counts and enhances stamina.
- Health & Medicine
Did colonization spread ulcers?
A comparison of strains of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes ulcers, suggests that colonists brought it to the New World.
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Biodiversity may lessen Lyme disease
A survey of Lyme disease rates suggests that a greater diversity of small mammals and lizards may help keep the rates down.
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Old lemming puzzle gets new answer
A novel analysis suggests food supply variations as the answer to the decades-old puzzle of what makes lemming populations boom and bust.
- Physics
Stretched matter goes to unusual extremes
Researchers have discovered that several unusual forms of matter with extremely high or low densities can expand laterally in one direction and contract in another when extended.
- Animals
Single singing male toad seeks same
Male spadefoot toads of the Spea multiplicata species evaluate male competitors by the same criterion females use.
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Mice have a sharp nose for pheromones
Mice can detect pheromones with great sensitivity and in a way that's distinct from that of the main olfactory system.
