News
- Animals
What’s the Mane Point? Foes and females both have role
The condition of a lion's mane apparently advertises high-quality mates to picky females and wards off male adversaries.
- Materials Science
A Cut above the Ordinary: Low-tech machining yields coveted nanostructure
A new finding that machining of metals imparts a hard, fine-grained structure to turnings and other scraps may lead to less costly but more durable parts for cars and other applications.
- Physics
Peer Pressure in Numbers: Physicists model the power of social sway
A mathematical model of peer-influenced behavior may help explain some unexpected patterns that have been observed in financial data and bird populations.
- Planetary Science
Lost in Space: Comet mission appears to have broken apart
A spacecraft that had just begun its journey to two comets has fallen silent and may have broken apart.
- Earth
Global Impact: Space object may have spread debris worldwide
Sediments laid down about 3.47 billion years ago in what are now western Australia and eastern South Africa contain remnants of what may have been an extraterrestrial-object impact large enough to disperse debris over the entire planet.
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Anthrax Stopper: Viral enzyme detects, kills bacterium
A virus that preys upon the anthrax bacterium produces an enzyme that can be exploited to detect and kill the biowarfare agent.
- Math
Math Prizes: Honors for connecting number theory, geometry, and algebra
Fields Medals were awarded to two mathematicians, Laurent Lafforgue and Vladimir Voevodsky, who forged new links between different branches of mathematics.
- Ecosystems
Plants hitch rides with box turtles
In the pine rocklands of southern Florida, at least nine plant species find new homes by traveling through a turtle's gut.
- Plants
Sunflower genes don’t fit pattern
Comparison between crop and wild sunflower genes suggests that the plant followed an easy route to domestication.
- Health & Medicine
Tracking signs of memory loss
A new imaging agent may allow researchers to detect the plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease before symptoms are present, when therapies may be most effective.
- Physics
Violent chemistry saps sonobubble energy
In liquids agitated by sound waves, imploding gas bubbles get cooled when atoms recombine, making the bubbles unlikely nuclear reactors.
- Earth
2002’s tornado tally well below average
As of August 1, barely half the usual number of tornadoes had struck the lower 48 states of the United States.
