News
- Space
Sharpshooting Enceladus
Swooping within 49 kilometers of Saturn’s tiny, geologically active moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed the locations of the icy geysers that erupt from the southern hemisphere of this wrinkled moon’s surface.
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- Archaeology
Saharan surprise
A chance discovery in the Sahara leads to the excavation of a Stone Age cemetery containing remains from two lakeside cultures.
- Ecosystems
Slave ants rebel
Species vulnerable to enslavement may evolve ways to fight their captors.
- Ecosystems
Coastal dead zones expanding
The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new tally reports more than 400 of the oxygen starved regions worldwide.
- Life
Bacteria use poison to make food
Bacteria from Mono Lake conduct photosynthesis with arsenic, a form of the process that may be a relic of life on Earth before the advent of an oxygen atmosphere.
- Health & Medicine
Heart to heart
Successful heart transplant experiment in infants draws attention to debate on defining death of organ donors.
- Physics
Invisible hand, and a quick one at that
God doesn’t play dice, Einstein said in his critique of quantum theory. But any alternative theory to quantum mechanics would require certain quantum events to influence each other 10,000 times faster than the speed of light, physicists have shown.
- Earth
Firm evidence that Earth’s core is solid
Faint yet distinct ground motions recorded by a large network of seismic instruments in Japan in early 2006 are the strongest, most direct evidence that Earth’s inner core is solid.
- Health & Medicine
Finding the golden genes
Advances in gene therapy could tempt some athletes to enhance their genetic makeup, leading some researchers to work on detection methods just in case.
- Earth
Carbon sequestration frustration
Cradle-to-grave analysis of emissions from power plants suggests that capturing and burying CO2 could have environmental costs.
- Life
H9N2 avian flu strain has pandemic potential
Just one change in a strain of avian flu virus makes it transmissible by direct contact in ferrets, but the virus still lacks the ability to spread by airborne particles.
