News
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Nerve connections come ready to assemble
Nerve cells seem to package key components of synapses—the specialized complexes than connect the nerve cells—and collectively ship the material to points where these complexes take shape.
- Animals
The truth is, frogs bluff and crabs cheat
Two research teams say they've caught wild animals bluffing, only the second and third examples (outside of primate antics) ever recorded.
- Astronomy
Milky Way feasts on its neighbors
Three new studies reveal that Earth's home galaxy indulged in cannibalism to assemble its visible halo, the diffuse distribution of stars that surrounds the dense core and disk of the Milky Way.
- Health & Medicine
Into the Tank: Pressurized oxygen is best at countering carbon monoxide exposure
Oxygen treatment for serious carbon monoxide poisoning prevents long-term brain damage best if delivered as pressurized gas.
- Humans
Flame Out: Fishy findings sustain, then snuff, stellar career
Investigators have concluded that a young, up-and-coming physicist repeatedly faked data and committed other types of scientific misconduct.
- Health & Medicine
Boning up on calcium shouldn’t be sporadic
The gains in bone health can quickly disappear when people stop taking extra calcium.
- Paleontology
Telltale Dino Heart Hints at Warm Blood
A recently discovered fossil dinosaur heart is more like the heart of birds and mammals than that of crocodiles, providing further evidence that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded.
- Chemistry
Hot Spuds: Golden path to acrylamide in food
The browning reaction that imparts flavor to french fries and breads also creates acrylamide, an animal carcinogen.
- Materials Science
Molecular Separations: New artificial sieve traps molecules
Researchers have created a metal-laced organic solid that acts as a sieve with nanosize pores for capturing molecules.
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Making Mice Mellow: Rodents yield clues to improved anxiety drugs
Mice bred to lack a gene for a certain enzyme exhibit reduced anxiety and greater curiosity in stressful laboratory tasks, suggesting a possible new avenue of research into anti-anxiety medications.
- Tech
Solar Surgery: Sunlight acts like laser
By channeling sunlight down a fiber optic cable, scientists have produced laserlike beams that can burn tumors off major organs.
- Physics
Prize honors physicist with conscience
Physicist-author Freeman J. Dyson received the Templeton prize for originality in advancing religious understanding.
