News

  1. Life

    DNA hints at polar bears’ Irish ancestry

    Mitochondrial genetic analysis suggests a bit o’ hybridizing long ago with brown bears on the Emerald Isle.

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  2. Earth

    Greenland’s ice sheets face new threat

    Subsurface ocean warming is likely to be dramatic in that region, a new study finds.

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  3. Earth

    Sulfur stalls surface temperature rise

    A new study shows how pollutants helped balance out the effects of greenhouse gases from 1998 to 2008.

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  4. Physics

    Rare earth elements plentiful in ocean sediments

    The economically vital metals could be mined from the deep sea, Japanese geologists propose.

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  5. Life

    Prion protein is not all bad

    The molecule’s real job may be to maintain myelin around nerves.

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  6. Life

    Weevils evolved nut-and-screw joint

    Insects invented hardware way back in dinosaur days.

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  7. Psychology

    Sleeping babies learn in an eyeblink

    To learn about spoken words and other sounds, 1-month-old babies sleep on it.

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  8. Physics

    You haven’t heard it all

    An experimental sound cloak can acoustically conceal objects.

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  9. Space

    Most distant quasar raises questions

    Superbright object appeared surprisingly soon after the Big Bang, challenging some theories about how black holes arose.

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  10. Life

    Alzheimer’s plaques due to purging flaw

    A gene controls the clearance of a protein that accumulates in the brains of people with the condition.

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  11. Earth

    BPA makes male mice less macho

    Studies show that exposures in the womb or during adolescence can erase masculine habits or reverse sexes' behavior.

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  12. Animals

    Lionfish no match for big groupers

    Despite its invasive success, the lionfish can't withstand grouper appetites.

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