News
- Humans
Dangerous Wake: Wing vortices yield a deadly secret
A new mathematical analysis of an aeronautical hazard known as wake turbulence could someday lead to improved air safety and increase the number of flights at major airports.
- Health & Medicine
Let Them Eat Cake: Altered mice stay svelte on a high-fat diet
A protein that links gluttony and weight gain may be a novel target for antiobesity drugs.
- Health & Medicine
Chinese chimneys slash lung cancer risk
People in rural China who replace rudimentary domestic hearths with well-ventilated stoves enjoy both less-smoky homes and a dramatic reduction in their risk of developing lung cancer.
- Chemistry
A crystal takes on an unusual topology
A single crystal exhibits the unusual topology known as a Möbius strip.
- Health & Medicine
New clue stirs up lithium mystery
Lithium and two other mood-stabilizing drugs may all work by depleting nerve cells of a chemical that the cells use to signal each other.
- Tech
Tiny rockets may advance minisatellites
A new type of miniaturized rocket may bring microspacecraft one step closer to reality.
- Health & Medicine
Drug cuts risk of seizures in pregnancy
An inexpensive drug treatment lessens the risk of seizures that sometimes strike and even kill women during pregnancy or immediately after delivery.
- Animals
Marine Mules: Near-sterile hyrids boost coral diversity
Reef corals that spawn in great mixed-up soups of many species may be maintaining their diversity because their hybrids are sterile mules.
- Health & Medicine
Hemispheric Cross Talk: Brains show two sides of language function
Some people coordinate language use with both sides of their brains, allowing them to retain verbal skills after damage to one side or the other.
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Evolution’s Death Row: Groups surviving mass extinction still go bust
Groups of species may persist through major extinction events only to die off in the aftermath.
- Materials Science
Wiregate: Metallic picket fence flips magnetic bits
Rather than relegate magnetic fields to the usual backup role of data storage for computers, a new microcircuit exploits those fields for computation, possibly leading to cheaper, lower-power chips than traditional electronic ones.
- Plants
Mirror Image: Flowers with opposite styles have a fling
Scientists have discovered a gene that controls whether flowers lean to the left or the right.
