News
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Health & Medicine
Skin bacteria different in diabetic mice
An excessive number and low diversity of skin bacteria could explain why wounds in diabetics are slow to heal
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Earth
World’s longest cave formation still growing
Minerals still accumulate in New Mexico’s Snowy River.
By Sid Perkins -
Humans
A gene critical for speech
Scientists argue a newly discovered stretch of DNA essential for larynx development may have allowed the evolution of language.
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Life
Humpback whale alters song if another one sings along
Acoustical study of male songs shows first evidence of the whales responding musically to each other.
By Susan Milius -
Planetary Science
Mercury, As Never Seen Before: MESSENGER visits innermost planet
The first spacecraft to visit Mercury in 33 years imaged 25 percent of the crater-pocked surface that had never before been seen close-up.
By Ron Cowen -
Space
Panel says planned NASA rocket won’t do the job
The Ares 1 set to replace the space shuttle is too expensive and won’t be ready soon enough, the Augustine Committee concludes.
By Ron Cowen -
Animals
Ancient giant beavers did not chow on trees
The now-extinct animals had a hippo-like diet
By Sid Perkins -
Chemistry
How leaves could monitor pollution
Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.
By Sid Perkins -
Life
Estrogen helps ward off belly fat
Hormone is one reason that men and women carry weight differently
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Life
Fossil find sparks debate on primate origins
A 37-million-year-old jaw suggests the famous fossil Darwinius does not, as had been suggested, fill a gap in human evolution.
By Bruce Bower -
Animals
Junk food turns rats into addicts
Bacon, cheesecake and Ho Hos elicit addictive behavior in rats similar to the behavior of rats addicted to heroin.
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Earth
Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River
A modern survey of terrain determines flow rate of the 1889 flood that was one of America's deadliest disasters.
By Sid Perkins