News
- Physics
Tiny particles baffle physicists, again
An experiment failed to confirm the existence of a new elementary particle called the sterile neutrino, but its results could still point to some new physics.
- Earth
On the rocks
New research explains why a cancer-causing form of chromium has been turning up in ground and surface waters far from industrial sources.
- Physics
Toward imaging single biomolecules
Experiments have given additional evidence that a future generation of X-ray sources called free-electron lasers may be able to image single biomolecules.
- Physics
This is your brain on a chip
Biophysicists have put neurons on a chip and induced them to form multiple patterns of synchronized firing, the mechanism at the basis of memory.
- Astronomy
Eclipsing a black hole
A chance eclipse has enabled astronomers for the first time to measure the width of a disk of swirling, hot matter around a supermassive black hole.
- Earth
Increase in chemical disposals
Industrial facilities in the United States released more than 4 billion pounds of chemicals into the environment in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory.
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Psychotherapy aids bipolar treatment
Any of three forms of psychotherapy enhances emotional stability in people with bipolar disorder who already receive standard medications for that severe psychiatric ailment.
- Anthropology
Disinherited Ancestor: Lucy’s kind may occupy evolutionary side branch
A controversial analysis of a recently discovered jaw from a 3-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis puts Lucy's species on an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out.
- Health & Medicine
Agents of Metastasis: Four proteins conspire in breast cancer spread
Four proteins work together to assist cancer growth and metastasis, and drugs against them inhibit both processes, tests in mice suggest.
- Physics
Quantum Capture: Photosynthesis tries many paths at once
The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy.
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Female Stem Cells Flourish: Sex difference could affect therapies
Certain adult stem cells from female mice regenerate better than those from males, indicating that not all stem cells are created equal.
- Paleontology
Ancient Extract: T. rex fossil yields recognizable protein
New analyses of a Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone reveal substantial remnants of proteins that strengthen the link between modern birds and dinosaurs.
