News
- Health & Medicine
Neandertals, gut microbes and mail-order ancestry tests
Geneticists weigh in during the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.
- Space
Misplaced muons either mundane or monumental
During an experiment in Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator, a group of elementary particles called muons showed up in a strange place. Physicists are considering the likely implications.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Diversity of human skin bacteria revealed
First large-scale inventory of microbes charts types, locales of bacteria.
- Life
Supreme Court lifts restriction on Navy sonar testing
Justices overturn restrictions that require Navy to stop using sonar when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards of vessels.
- Life
Stone Age gal gets hip
Researchers have found an approximately 1-million-year-old fossil pelvis that, in their view, indicates that Homo erectus females gave birth to surprisingly big-brained babies.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Minerals evolved along with life
Turns out, the variety and number of minerals in the solar system and on Earth have increased through time, and some minerals exist because Earth has life.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Telomere enzyme a likely key to longevity
Study with the telomerase enzyme gives mice a longevity boost without high cancer risk.
- Space
Extrasolar planetary system makes pictorial debut
The first images of a planetary system beyond the solar system are released, while the Hubble Space Telescope snaps a shot of likely planet orbiting a nearby star.
By Ron Cowen - Life
Schools make fish smarter
A study of consensus decision making shows that sticklebacks make wider choices in groups of three or more.
- Humans
Women’s chromosome division different from men’s
Using fluorescent markers, scientists are discovering that men and women divide chromosomes differently. The research may help explain Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders.
- Physics
Take the time to break quantum encryption
A time-travel scenario permitted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity offers a bit of possibility for breaking quantum encryption.
- Health & Medicine
Gender matters in heart transplants
Heart transplant recipients who get a gender-matched organ fare better than those receiving mismatched organs.
By Nathan Seppa