News
- Astronomy
One star, five planets
With the discovery of a fifth planet circling the nearby star 55 Cancri, astronomers have found the most abundant—and heaviest—planetary system beyond the sun's.
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Eastern farms have native-bee insurance
If honeybees somehow vanished, the pockets of wild land in the Delaware Valley still harbor enough native bees to fill in and do the tough job of pollinating watermelon farms.
- Tech
A smaller magnetometer
A novel sensor the size of a rice grain can detect magnetic fields as small as those produced by brain or heart waves.
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Flawed Stem Cells Yield Fragile X Clues: Researchers study genetic disorder via discarded embryos
The most common inherited cause of mental retardation arises when a mutated gene is shut down early in embryonic development.
- Health & Medicine
Bone Builder: Drug may offer steroid users new protection against fractures
A bone-growth medication called teriparatide outperforms the standard bone-preserving drug alendronate in people with steroid-induced osteoporosis.
- Astronomy
Flare-Up: Comet Holmes’ surprise bloom
Comet 17P/Holmes abruptly brightened last month, blossoming into a naked eye object.
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Crime Growth: Early mental ills fuel young-adult offending
Mental disorders in children can lead to criminal behavior in adulthood.
- Paleontology
Huge, yet not quite life-size
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh will unveil the world's largest dinosaur mural on Nov. 21, when its dinosaur halls reopen after a 30-month, $36 million renovation.
- Plants
Tough Frills: Ferns’ wimp stage aces survival test
A supposedly fragile stage in the life of ferns shows surprising toughness.
- Health & Medicine
Superbug: What makes one bacterium so deadly
A molecule that pierces immune cells gives some aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria their fearsome virulence.
- Earth
New climate sensor: Swiss grapes
Records of grape harvests reveal the summer climate in parts of Switzerland as far back as the 1400s.
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