News

  1. Computing

    Check on Checkers: In perfect game, there’s no winner

    Thanks to an immense calculation that worked out every possible game position, computers can now play a flawless game of checkers and force a draw every time.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  2. Health & Medicine

    Persistent Prions: Soilbound agents are more potent

    Prions, deformed proteins that cause brain-destroying diseases such as chronic wasting disease or mad cow disease, are more infectious when bound to soil particles.

    By Carolyn Barry
  3. Earth

    Birth of an Island: Megaflood severed Europe from Britain

    Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the spillover from an immense glacial lake carved a chasm that in a matter of weeks separated what is now Britain from continental Europe.

    By Sid Perkins
  4. Health & Medicine

    AIDS Abated: Genome scans illuminate immune control of HIV

    Three genetic variations picked out by powerful whole-genome scans help explain why some people develop AIDS quickly while others keep it at bay.

    By Brian Vastag
  5. Health & Medicine

    fryPod: Lightning strikes iPod users

    A jogger wearing an iPod music player suffered second-degree ear and neck burns, burst eardrums, and jaw fractures after lightning struck a nearby tree.

    By Brian Vastag
  6. Materials Science

    Crystal matchmaker

    Nonperiodic structures called quasicrystals can act as interfaces between different crystal structures that would ordinarily not stick to each other.

    By Davide Castelvecchi
  7. Tech

    Double-decker solar cell

    A two-layer, polymer-based solar cell has good efficiency and could be cheap to mass-produce.

    By Davide Castelvecchi
  8. Planetary Science

    Hyperion’s hydrocarbons

    New observations by the Cassini spacecraft indicate the presence of ice and solid carbon dioxide on Saturn's moon Hyperion, and suggest an explanation for the orb's spongelike appearance.

    By Ron Cowen

  9. Alcohol problems hit nearly 1 in 3 adults

    Nearly one in three recently surveyed U.S. adults reports having had serious alcohol problems at some time in their lives.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Health & Medicine

    Brain stem cells help Parkinson’s monkeys

    Transplants of human-brain stem cells triggered signs of improvement in monkeys with a Parkinson's disease–like disorder.

    By Brian Vastag
  11. Physics

    Pulling Strings: Stretching proteins can reveal how they fold

    Unfolding a single protein by pulling on its ends reveals the molecular forces that make it fold up.

    By Davide Castelvecchi

  12. Forget About It: How the brain suppresses unwanted memories

    Two newly discovered neural processes give people the ability to intentionally forget upsetting memories.

    By Bruce Bower