News
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Physics
Turning magnetic resonance inside out
A new method of manipulating magnetic signals makes it possible to gather useful information about a chemical sample—or perhaps one day a person—without often-claustrophobic confinement inside a magnetic coil.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Quantum queerness gets quick, compact
New ways to trap and cool atoms may hasten practical uses of strange ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates.
By Peter Weiss -
Animals
Don’t look now, but is that dog laughing?
Researchers have identified a particular exhalation that dogs make while playing as a possible counterpart to a human laugh.
By Susan Milius -
Paleontology
For past climate clues, ask a stalag-mite
Mites fossilized in cave formations in the American Southwest show that at times during the past 3,200 years the climate there was much wetter and cooler.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Climate accord reached
Negotiators, without U.S. representatives' input, resolved controversies in Bonn that were blocking an international treaty to limit greenhouse gases.
By Janet Raloff -
Deaf kids establish own sign language
Deaf children in Nicaragua display evidence of having created a fully grammatical sign language on their own in under 2 decades.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Synthetic protein may yield malaria vaccine
A molecule patterned after part of the parasite that causes most severe malaria induces a strong immune response in people.
By Nathan Seppa -
Bacteria live inside bacteria in mealybug
In a new twist on how life forms can exploit each other and with implications for how complex cells originated, scientists have discovered one bacterium living inside another.
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Planetary Science
Craft tracks giant dust storm on Mars
The largest dust storm observed on Mars in 25 years is now engulfing the Red Planet.
By Ron Cowen -
Tech
Setting electronics in artificial stone
Electronics components made of Portland cement may one day be part of buildngs and roadways that double as gargantuan sensors or other current-carrying devices.
By Peter Weiss -
New Antibiotics Take Poke at Bacteria
Small rings of amino acids can self-assemble into tubes that punch holes in bacteria.
By John Travis -
Tech
Having gathered moss, water drops roll
A coating of water-repellent powder transforms water droplets into remarkably mobile and resiliant balls, hoops, or peanut-shaped blobs.
By Peter Weiss