News
- Earth
Shortcut math predicts tsunami height quickly
The September 16 earthquake that rattled Chile proved an unexpected test for new numerical calculations that could provide quicker forecasts of incoming tsunamis.
- Physics
Raw chicken, ingenuity make a time-reversal mirror
A new phase-conjugation mirror sends light waves back where they came from, allowing physicists to reconstruct images even if the original light was severely scrambled.
- Health & Medicine
Study finds benefits from lowering blood pressure, but questions remain
Preliminary results from NIH clinical trial suggest that lower blood pressure is better, but scientists have not yet published the data and open questions remain.
- Life
Old stem cell barriers fade away
Barrier that keeps aging factors out of stem cells breaks down with age.
- Science & Society
Rocky families, not same-sex parents, blamed for kids’ troubles in adulthood
Range of adult problems linked to childhood family changes, not gay parents.
- Planetary Science
Enceladus’ ocean goes global
A subsurface liquid water ocean envelops Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
- Planetary Science
Mars’ ionosphere mystery explained
A decades-old disagreement between the Viking landers and spacecraft buzzing around Mars might come down to what time of day each was investigating the Red Planet’s ionosphere.
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- Environment
Home fires, farm fumes are leading causes of air-pollution deaths
Deadly air pollution comes from surprising sources, but toxicity of different types is still up in the air.
- Animals
Dogs flub problem-solving test
Confronting a tough task, dogs are more likely than wolves to give up and gaze at a human
- Science & Society
Short memory can be good strategy
Game theory reveals that there’s a limit to the effectiveness of relying on prior results to predict competitors’ behavior.
- Materials Science
Electron waves refract negatively
Waves of electrons have been bent backward in a sheet of graphene, allowing physicists to focus electrons the way a lens focuses light.
