News
- 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.
- Animals
Acidification may halve coral class of 2050
Already shown to be a threat to established reefs, experiments show that changing ocean chemistry also threatens the establishment and survival of larvae.
- Earth
Mining the maritime past for clues to climate’s future
Researchers collect data through a mashup of 19th century ship records and 21st century crowdsourcing.
- Earth
Hurricane forecasts can be made years in advance
Climate modelers say they can push Atlantic predictions beyond a single season.
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