News
- Planetary Science
Meteoric wallop may have diversified life
A new study suggests that the evolutionary burst on Earth some 540 million years ago occurred around the time that cosmic debris began pummeling our planet at an increasing rate.
- Materials Science
Rice hulls could nourish Silicon Valley
Scientists are developing ways to extract and purify the silicon that occurs naturally in rice hulls.
- Earth
Pollution Keeps Rain up in the Air
New satellite data indicate that aerosol pollution can break up water droplets in clouds and stop rain.
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Corn Defenses: Bitten plants deploy gut-rotting enzyme
Some corn varieties that arose on the Caribbean island of Antigua defend themselves with chemical attacks that leave insect gut linings in tatters.
- Health & Medicine
Smoking Gun? Mouse tests link nicotine to crib death
Nicotine may impair a molecule that's necessary for arousing people and other animals from sleep, an effect that could account for the heightened risk of sudden infant death syndrome in babies born to women who smoked during pregnancy.
- Materials Science
Better-Built Diamonds: Fast growth, purity may multiply uses
A research group has fabricated the purest diamonds ever made or found, and another has devised a way to grow high-quality diamonds up to 100 times faster than typical growth rates.
- Humans
Small Steps: World Summit delegates wrangle over eco-friendly future
Twenty thousand delegates from around the world met in Johannesburg last week for a contentious World Summit on Sustainable Development.
- Astronomy
Birth of a Tiny Galaxy: In the universe, dwarfs may pop up last
Using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe a tiny galaxy still in the process of being born, astronomers are getting a rare glimpse of how larger galaxies formed early in the history of the universe.
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Distressing Dispatches: Some journalists feel stress wounds of war
A substantial and largely unnoticed minority of war reporters and photographers develops symptoms of a severe stress reaction as a result of the job.
- Chemistry
Money Allergies: Two-toned euro coins shed metallic allergen
The two-alloy composition of some euro coins makes them release large amounts of nickel, a common skin allergen.
- Astronomy
Super fireworks
A blast wave from supernova 1987A, the brightest stellar explosion witnessed from Earth since 1604, has begun lighting up a ring of gas surrounding the explosion.
- Astronomy
No signal from Mars Polar Lander
A radio signal that NASA hoped came from the vanished Mars Polar Lander has a terrestrial origin, scientists from the space agency and Stanford University have concluded.
