News
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol heart benefits show up even after bypass surgery
Having two to three drinks a day was associated with decreased heart problems in men during the three years after the operation, researchers from Italy report.
- Health & Medicine
Mom’s past drug abuse may alter brain chemistry of offspring
A new study in rats suggests that the lingering effects of adolescent opiate use may be passed on for two generations, even if the female is drug-free when she gets pregnant.
- Life
Rare mutations key to brain disorders
Many cases of mental retardation can be explained by genetic variants that arise in affected individuals.
- Health & Medicine
A new way for blind mice to see
A new type of prosthetic eye can analyze patterns of cell activity to reproduce images similar to those produced in normal vision.
- Humans
Online comments maybe not total waste of time
Conversations on news sites reveal patterns in how information and ideas spread.
- Space
Cost overruns and delays add up to $6.5 billion for NASA’s next-gen space telescope
A new report finds that the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will cost NASA at least $1.5 billion more than the $5 billion the agency estimated in 2008 and, to meet its scheduled 2015 launch date, will need $400 million of that additional money over the next two years.
- Earth
Warm spell spurred tropical biodiversity
The number of plant species exploded in South America as atmospheric carbon dioxide, and temperatures, rose abruptly about 56 million years ago.
- Animals
Cats drink using lap-and-gulp trick
Felines imbibe by pulling up a column of fluid and then snatching a bit of it before it splashes back down.
- Psychology
Many unhappy returns for wandering minds
A cell phone–based survey finds that people frequently feel worse when their minds wander than when they focus on the moment.
- Health & Medicine
Fructose poses gout risks even in women
Soft drinks are an even more potent source of the fat-generating sugar than had been thought, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Laptops and infertility: It matters how you sit
Men who keep their legs together while using the computers generate more sperm-endangering scrotal heat than those who splay them, a study finds.
- Space
Milky Way’s black hole may blow bubbles
Astronomers have discovered two giant blobs of gamma ray–emitting gas above and below the galaxy’s center.
