News
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- Space
Better view of the Milky Way
New studies revise the structure of the Milky Way, exchanging the old map of a four-armed spiral galaxy for a two-arm version. The makeover also includes the discovery of a smaller, short, gaseous arm that is a long-sought counterpart to a similar arm near the galaxy’s center.
- Planetary Science
Small exoplanet discovered
Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet known that is beyond the solar system and orbits an ordinary parent body.
- Space
Making an impression
In its seventh day after successfully landing on the Red Planet, the Phoenix Lander digs its first trench and is ready to start its ice-hunting.
- Health & Medicine
Microbes clean up mercury
Researchers think a microbe could clean up mercury-laced Native American artifacts.
- Life
Replaying evolution
By watching bacteria evolve in the lab for 20 years, researchers show that evolution may be rather capricious.
- Humans
Fostering gains
New studies indicate that abused and neglected kids benefit from living with relatives and from high-quality foster care services.
- Earth
Natural heat
Heat from the decay of radioactive elements deep within the planet could meet Earth’s energy needs almost three times over — if we could harness all of it.
- Planetary Science
Dispatch from Mars, Sol 4
The good news is a tentative sighting of ice by the Mars Phoenix Lander. The bad news is the discovery of a glitch in the system that will analyze soil samples.
- Earth
Virtual seismometer
A new supercomputer simulation of the large quake that struck central China earlier this month could help researchers estimate the size of the ground motions experienced in areas that didn’t have seismic instruments.
- Earth
Death downwind
Pollutants generated by human activity in Europe significantly boost ozone concentrations downwind, harming people’s health and causing thousands of premature deaths in North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East.
- Health & Medicine
High doses
Emergency room patients are exposed to high doses of radiation from CT scans and other nuclear medicine.
