News
- Humans
Indy’s Best: Young scientists cross the finish line
High school students from 47 countries gathered in Indianapolis last week to compete for scholarships and other prizes in the 2006 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
By Emily Sohn -
Eye for Growth: New protein prompts optic nerve regrowth
A protein recently isolated from white blood cells could offer a new way to repair nerve cells damaged by injury or disease.
- Animals
Jay Watch: Birds get sneakier when spies lurk
A scrub jay storing food takes note of any other jay that watches it and later defends the hoard accordingly.
By Susan Milius - Anthropology
Hybrid-Driven Evolution: Genomes show complexity of human-chimp split
A controversial new genetic comparison suggests that human and chimpanzee ancestors interbred for several million years before evolving into reproductively separate species no more than 6.3 million years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Materials Science
Feeling cagey
Researchers have discovered that gold can take the shape of nanoscale, hollow cages.
- Astronomy
Safe from a Heavenly Doom: Gamma-ray bursts not a threat to Earth
Gamma-ray bursts are likely to occur in the Milky Way.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Bug Zapper: Novel drug kills resistant bacteria
A newly recognized compound can wipe out some of the most troublesome antibiotic-resistant bacteria, lab tests show.
By Nathan Seppa - Paleontology
Remains may be an evolutionary relic
Fossils recently found in southwestern China may be of a lineage that originated long before the Cambrian explosion of biodiversity, when most major groups of animals first appeared in the fossil record.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Three Gorges Dam is affecting ocean life
Oceanographic surveys suggest that China's Three Gorges Dam is already influencing biological productivity in the East China Sea, even though the structure is still under construction.
By Sid Perkins -
Cancer gene is also important for growth
A certain tumor-suppressing gene appears to also control development in immature animals.
- Tech
Rounding out an insect-eye view
A new humanmade version of an insect's compound eye could perform like the real thing.
By Peter Weiss - Humans
Roads pose growing danger in poor countries
Although roads are getting safer in many developed countries, traffic accidents are a rising and underestimated killer worldwide.
By Ben Harder