News
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Women whiff men in sniff proficiency
Women of reproductive age exhibit a unique ability to learn to detect specific smells with great sensitivity, an aptitude that may reflect the activity of female hormones in the brain.
- Animals
Yellower blue tits make better dads
The yellow feathers on a male blue tit's breast could tell females that he'll be a good provider for the chicks.
- Plants
Tropical plants grow cool flowers
Tropical plants that position their flowers in the general direction of the sun are keeping the temperature comfortable for pollinators.
- Humans
Protection money: Budget favors defense and bioterror research
The budget proposal that President Bush forwarded to Congress includes the largest-ever increase for scientific research and development, with particularly generous provisions for defense and health research programs.
- Planetary Science
Extreme weather: Massive hurricanes meet on Jupiter
Both professional and amateur sky watchers are pointing their telescopes at Jupiter as two titanic storms in the giant planet's upper atmosphere meet each other.
- Health & Medicine
Slowing lupus: Stifled inflammation limits kidney damage
A new therapy for the autoimmune disease lupus works in mice by thwarting activation of immune-system proteins called complement.
- Health & Medicine
Taking a toll: Antiviral drugs activate immune system
Promising antiviral drugs activate a key immune-system protein.
- Earth
Hard rock jellies: Throng of rare fossils found in Midwest quarry
A Wisconsin sandstone quarry recently served up a rare scientific find nearly a half billion years in the making: fossils of an armada of jellyfish that stud the site’s stone slabs.
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Dose of caution: New antipsychotic meds produce muted benefits
A large clinical trial finds only a modest advantage for a new class of antipsychotic drugs over traditional medications in treating chronic schizophrenia.
- Tech
Circuitry in a nanowire: Novel growth method may transform chips
Made from alternating bands of different semiconductors, a new type of superthin wire incorporates working electronic and optical devices within the wire itself, raising the prospect of making extremely tiny and versatile circuits from the striped filaments.
- Physics
Light comes to halt again—in a solid
By stopping laser light pulses cold in a crystal, storing them, and then releasing them, physicists have achieved the same feat accomplished last year in gases, but this time in a more practical material.
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Unfertilized monkey eggs make stem cells
Scientists have for the first time obtained long-lived stem cells from monkey eggs stimulated to undergo parthenogenesis.
