News
- Space
Galactic smashup leaves dark matter debris
Find in ‘train wreck’ cluster forces astronomers to re-think theories about relationship between mysterious dark matter and galaxies.
- Health & Medicine
Excess salt may stiffen heart vessels
As sodium in diet increases, a coronary risk factor independent of blood pressure escalates, according to a study in middle-aged U.S. men.
- Life
Sawfish don’t saw
Spiked snouts whack prey to the bottom, helping the predator better get its mouth around dinner.
- Life
Fossil pushes back land-animal debut
Creatures first squished mud through their five toes millions of years earlier than previously believed.
- Physics
Plants’ reproductive weaponry unfurled
Botanical tricks include adhesion and bubbles to spread their spores into the environment.
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- Humans
Technique may reveal where it all began
A new strategy overcomes a distance quandary as it tracks the origins of widespread phenomena — from an E. coli outbreak to a fad.
- Humans
Modern era brings death to words
An analysis of books published over two centuries shows how words are born or succumb to shifting social and technological influences.
- Life
After a breakup, coral embryos live on as clones
Even modest waves can break apart embryonic corals, but the bits that survive can grow into separate clones.
- Psychology
Kids flex cultural muscles
Young children, but not chimps or monkeys, generate collective leaps of knowledge.
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- Earth
Fault’s twists may shake up earthquake forecasts
Deep angles along the southern San Andreas mean future temblors may be stronger than predicted.
