News
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Science News at the 2012 AAAS meeting
A round-up of Science News coverage of the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held February 16–20, 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.
- Life
The bloom isn’t off this ancient plant
Using fruit found in Siberia’s permafrost, scientists grow oldest flowering specimen ever produced from preserved tissue.
- Climate
Carbon dioxide breaking down marine ecosystems
Scientists capitalize on 'natural’ experiment to chronicle how ecosystems will change as oceans continue to acidify.
- Humans
Scientists probe terrorist talk on ‘Dark Web’
Mathematical tools can pry secretive terrorist communications in hidden sector of the Internet.
- Humans
Oceans set stage for human evolution
Temperature changes off the coast dried out East Africa and allowed grasslands to spread starting around 2 million years ago.
- Humans
Harsh conditions in childhood have long-term effects
Kids from Romanian orphanage also had lower volumes of gray matter.
- Genetics
Crosses make lab mice even more useful
Scientists have bred new strains of lab animals with the goal of making it easier to tease out genetic components of complex diseases.
- Health & Medicine
Osteoporosis drugs delivered wirelessly
Implanted microchip that releases medications on command has been tested in people for the first time.
- Life
All genes aren’t indispensable
Even healthy people may have about 20 genes that are completely inactivated, a new study finds.
- Life
Seeing, feeling have something in common
A protein needed for eye development is also involved in detecting vibrations.
- Earth
Natural gas wells leakier than believed
Measurements at Colorado site show methane releases are twice as high as previously estimated.
- Physics
Crystals may be possible in time as well as space
A theory proposes that objects in their lowest energy state can loop through the fourth dimension forever, much as atoms arrange themselves periodically in matter.
