News
- Tech
Optics oddity challenges microchip makers
An obscure optical effect called instrinsic birefringence has suddenly appeared as a threat to technology for making denser, faster microchips.
- Earth
Atlantic coast may be in for a pounding
The above-average number and strength of hurricanes in the North Atlantic during the past 6 years may signal the beginning of a threatening weather trend for the United States, the Caribbean, and Central America.
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Obscure brain chemicals draw new attention
Long-dismissed brain chemicals called trace amines have receptors on human cells and may play a role in depression and schizophrenia.
- Materials Science
Environment’s stuck with nonstick coatings
Some nonstick coatings such as Teflon break down at high temperatures into undesirable compounds that persist in the environment.
- Health & Medicine
Ebola May Enter Cell via Folate Gate
A cell-surface molecule that normally binds to folate might be targeted by Ebola and Marburg viruses as their entry point to people's cells.
- Health & Medicine
Reptilian drug may help treat diabetes
The synthetic version of exendin-4, a compound in gila monster venom, helps insulin injections control blood sugar in people with type I, or juvenile-onset, diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Thinking blurs when blood sugar strays
Blood sugar concentrations that are too high or too low can impair thinking and, in the case of low blood sugar, driving ability.
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Shut up! A thunderstorm’s on the way
The narrow-leafed gentian, a mountain blossom, is the first flower shown to close when a thunderstorm apporaches.
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A bad month for condors
Two California condors in the wild—a hatching and a just-released juvenile—died the same week, as a third went missing.
- Astronomy
A comet continues to crumble
Ever since astronomers first spied a comet 6 months ago and officially dubbed it C/2001 A2, the icy body has been breaking apart.
- Astronomy
A new giant in the Kuiper belt
An icy body in the Kuiper belt, a reservoir of comets in the solar system beyond Neptune, is a record setter for the belt and bigger than Pluto's moon Charon.
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Tests hint bird tails are misunderstood
A test of starling's tails in a wind tunnel suggests that the standard practice of extrapolating bird tail aerodynamics from delta-wing aircraft may be a mistake.
