News
- Earth
Biotech-crop laws were big in 2001
Twenty-two state legislatures passed bills in 2001 addressing agricultural biotechnology, which concerns the development of genetically modified crops.
- Physics
Balloon bursts give clue to fast cracks
A casual observation about the edges of popped balloons may have led researchers to previously unknown features of the most common and least understood types of fractures.
- Astronomy
Seeing green: Color of the cosmos
We live in a pale-green universe, according to astronomers who analyzed the colors of some 200,000 galaxies as part of the largest galaxy survey completed to date.
- Astronomy
Are pictures of extrasolar planets in the offing?
The first image of a planet orbiting a star other than the sun may be only a year away.
- Materials Science
Metallic materials made to order
A new process for creating specifically patterned, three-dimensional microstructures could lead to new catalysts or optoelectronic devices.
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Nerve cells ring in the Winter Olympics
Scientists in Utah have sculpted living nerve cells into a microscopic version of the interlocking rings that symbolize the Olympic games.
- Health & Medicine
A new way to lower cholesterol
New agents lower cholesterol in a slightly different way than do statins, the most widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs.
- Earth
Algae do battle with bioweaponry
Beneath the frozen surface of Sweden's lakes, algae wage wars over nutrients, and one combatant apparently prevails by releasing chemicals toxic to its adversaries.
- Plants
Shower power: Raindrops shoot seeds out with a splat
In a seed-dispersal mechanism scientists have never seen before in flowering plants, rain plops into a capsule and makes seeds shoot out the corners.
- Humans
Smallpox redux: World body suggests keeping the virus
Fear of bioterrorism has led the World Health Organization to postpone its 2002 deadline for destruction of smallpox virus stocks so that scientists can refine current vaccines and improve defenses against the disease.
- Health & Medicine
The right fats: Omega-3 fatty acids soothe inflamed colons
A diet containing fish oil, which is rich in healthful omega-3 fatty acids, reduces symptoms of a colitis-like condition in rats.
- Health & Medicine
Anthrax-toxin component deciphered
Scientists have figured out the molecular structure of edema factor, a component of the anthrax toxin.
