News
- Space
Chemical fingerprint found for planet hunting
The amount of lithium in the atmosphere of sunlike stars is a powerful indicator of whether such stars have planets, a new study reveals.
- Paleontology
Small ancestor of giant sauropods unearthed
Fossils suggest that the bipedal dinosaur occasionally walked on all fours and could open its mouth wide to gather foliage.
- Health & Medicine
The childhood nerve cancer neuroblastoma shows weakness
A compound that unshackles a tumor-suppressing protein called p53 can slow the growth of the malignancy in mice, a new study finds.
- Space
The Milky Way, aglow with activity
Combining infrared and X-ray images from three orbiting observatories, NASA has unveiled a never-before-seen composite portrait of the Milky Way’s bustling center.
- Earth
Asteroid impact could have stirred the ocean
Model offers one explanation for sudden change in deep-ocean chemistry almost 2 billion years ago.
- Anthropology
Macaws bred far from tropics during pre-Columbian times
Colorful birds possibly raised for ceremonial and trade purposes long before Spanish arrival
- Life
Hormones give lantern sharks the glow
In a first, a study shows that bioluminescence can be controlled by slow-acting hormones, not rapid-fire nerve cells.
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Parents’ obesity may affect children’s brains; beetle with bifocals
More news from the Society for Neuroscience meeting.
- Space
Signature of antimatter detected in lightning
The signature of positrons has been found for the first time in gamma rays associated with storms on Earth.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria flourish in favorite ecosystems on the human body
Study offers most comprehensive inventory yet of the human microbiome and a basis for understanding how those microbes affect health.
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Horse genome added to growing list of barnyard genetics projects
Equines join cucumbers and pigs as the most recent additions to the roster of organisms to have their complete DNA code spelled out. The new work on horses also helps answer a key question about chromosome structures called centromeres.
- Paleontology
Pollination in the pre-flower-power era
Scorpionflies with long-reaching mouthparts may have helped plants procreate long before blossoms evolved.
