News
- Physics
Surface reaction recorded in real time
Ultrafast laser pulses may have for the first time revealed the incredibly rapid, step-by-step progress of a complete chemical reaction on a surface, at the actual speed at which it took place.
- Physics
Cold sliver may sense electron quiver
By detecting vibrations of less than an atom's width of a tiny cantilever, physicists have made the most sensitive measurement of force ever by mechanical means.
- Earth
Oops! Tougher arsenic rule retracted
The new EPA administrator has delayed by 60 days the implementation of a final rule issued by the Clinton administration lowering the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water.
- Earth
How polluted we are
Most people carry traces of toxic pollutiants, including metals, pesticides, and phthalates.
- Health & Medicine
Gene linked to aggressive prostate cancer
A gene that is more active in prostate cancer tumors from African-American men than in tumors from white men may help explain why prostate cancer is both more common and more aggressive in African Americans.
- Health & Medicine
Synthetic enzyme wards off side effects
A synthetic enzyme that lowers blood pressure and causes blood vessels to constrict shows promise for treating skin and kidney cancers that have spread throughout the body.
- Health & Medicine
Gene variant linked to early puberty
A highly active version of a gene for faster testosterone metabolism is also associated with early breast development—by the age of 9.5 years—in girls.
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Touching legs turns shy locusts gregarious
Researchers have discovered that sensing repeated touch on the hind leg triggers a shy, green locust to flip into swarming mode.
- Physics
Moon may radio cosmic rays’ biggest hits
Efforts to use the moon to detect the highest-energy cosmic rays get a boost from an experiment showing that gamma rays zipping through a giant sandbox cause the kind of microwave bursts moon-watchers are hoping to see.
- Earth
Microbes put ancient carbon on the menu
Scientists have found microorganisms within Kentucky shale that are eating the ancient carbon locked within the rock, a previously unrecognized dietary habit that could have a prevalent role in the weathering and erosion of similar sedimentary rock at many other locations.
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Bacterial cells reveal skeletal structures
The finding of a cytoskeleton in Bacillus subtilis bacteria eliminates a fundamental difference between bacteria and higher (eukaryotic) cells.
- Earth
Ancient tree rings reveal past climate
Using tree-ring analysis, an international team of researchers has reconstructed the earliest record of annual climate variation.
