News
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Desert beetle catches fog on its back
The bumpy back of a desert beetle has inspired a design for collecting water from fog.
- Astronomy
Extrasolar planets: More like home
A trove of newly discovered planets orbiting other stars suggests that the solar system may not be the oddball it had begun to seem.
- Animals
Finches figure out solo how to use tools
The woodpecker finches of the Galápagos, textbook examples of birds that use tools, pick up their considerable skills without copying each other.
- Earth
Farmers could help heal Gulf of Mexico
Farm-derived nutrients in the Mississippi River that create a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could probably be substantially reduced if farmers simply used a little less fertilizer.
- Health & Medicine
Brain may forge some memories in waves
The waxing and waning of synchronized electrical bursts by cells in two key brain areas may promote at least one type of memory formation.
- Tech
Wiring teensy tubes, strands into circuits
Single-molecule transistors and other comparably small components are now at work in prototype circuits that may eventually lead to electronic devices crammed with up to 100,000 times more transistors per square centimeter than are on today's chips.
- Health & Medicine
Protein may key lupus’ attack on neurons
A protein on the surface of brain cells enables rogue antibodies to attach to and kill these neurons, suggesting an explanation for neurological problems found in some lupus patients.
- Astronomy
Meteor shower promises quite a show
In the early morning hours of Nov. 18, sky watchers in North America may be treated to one of the most spectacular displays of shooting stars they're likely to see for a generation, if not longer.
- Health & Medicine
Human sweat packs a germ-killing punch
Sweat glands secrete a microbe-killing protein.
- Chemistry
Chemists Try for Cleaner Papermaking
Chemists have developed a novel technology that could help clean up the papermaking process.
- Astronomy
After a martian dust storm
The largest dust storm seen on Mars in more than 2 decades is now beginning to wane.
- Astronomy
Tracking the path of a black hole
Astronomers have for the first time measured the motion of a small black hole and a companion star speeding through our galactic neighborhood.
