News
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EarthMore Frog Trouble: Herbicides may emasculate wild males
New studies of male frogs in the wild link trace exposures to common weed killers with partial sex reversal.
By Janet Raloff -
AnimalsUpside Way Down: Video turns fish story on its head
The first video of whipnose anglerfish reveals them swimming upside down and trolling for prey on the 5,000-meter deep ocean floor.
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Health & MedicineBlood Booster: Growth signal shifts cord stem cells into high gear
A protein called Delta-1 stimulates stem cells in umbilical cord blood to proliferate in a lab dish, attach well to bone marrow when implanted into mice, and even proceed to the animal's thymus to become T cells.
By Nathan Seppa -
EarthAir-Pollution Pileup: Mediterranean endures emissions from afar
Although most Mediterranean countries aren't big polluters, the area is a crossroads for pollution-carrying air currents from Europe, Asia, and North America.
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Outmuscled: Muscles, not nerve cells, fail in old worms
In aging worms, the nervous system stays intact but muscles don't.
By John Travis -
AstronomyCloudy Findings: A new population shows up in the Milky Way
A radio telescope has detected a previously unknown population of hundreds of hydrogen clouds in the gaseous halo that surrounds the disk of our galaxy.
By Ron Cowen -
AnthropologyAncient Lure of the Lakes: Early Americans followed the water
Archaeological investigations in Chile indicate that beginning around 13,000 years ago, early American settlers lived at high altitudes during humid periods, when they could set up hunting camps on the shores of lakes.
By Bruce Bower -
PhysicsNeptunium Nukes? Little-studied metal goes critical
Researchers have measured with far greater accuracy than ever before how much neptunium it would take to make a bomb.
By Peter Weiss -
EcosystemsInsects, pollen, seeds travel wildlife corridors
Strips of habitat boost insect movement, plant pollination, and seed dispersal among patches of the same ecosystem.
By Susan Milius -
PaleontologyTrackway site shows dinosaur on the go
Scientists say that a sediment-filled, bathtub-shape depression found at one of North America's most significant dinosaur trackway sites is the first recognized evidence of urination in dinosaurs.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyCurved claws hint at pterosaur habits
A study of the claws of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs suggests that some of the creatures may have walked like present-day herons and used their wing fingers to hold prey.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyMosasaurs were born at sea, not in safe harbors
Newly discovered fossils of prehistoric aquatic reptiles known as mosasaurs suggest that the creatures gave birth in midocean rather than in near-shore sanctuaries as previously suspected.
By Sid Perkins