News
- Tech
Corralling Brownian motion
A new microscope system uses electrically controlled fluid motions to counteract Brownian motion, preventing those random jitters from driving proteins, viruses, and other tiny objects out of the field of view.
- Physics
Tiny wires trigger electric reversal
Ultrathin zinc nanowires exhibit a puzzling conductivity reversal that flies in the face of known wire behavior.
- Earth
Shafts of snow sculpted by sun
Physicists have created miniature, laboratory versions of towering snow spikes found high in the Andes Mountains.
- Animals
Wary male spiders woo lifelessly
When trying to court a cannibalistic female spider, males of a certain species play dead.
- Tech
Device rids homes of sounds of rap
Woodpeckers cause millions of dollars of damage to homes and buildings each year, but a battery-operated, sound-activated, spider-shaped device installed beneath a home's eaves can help prevent this avian scourge.
- Health & Medicine
On a dare, teen advances medical science
A 16-year-old daredevil inadvertently demonstrated the incubation period of a common roundworm after she swallowed an earthworm that harbored larvae of the parasite.
- Animals
Hairy crab lounges deep in the Pacific
A newly discovered deep-sea creature has the body of a crab, but with long, fluffy, blonde hair covering its legs.
- Astronomy
Comet Sampler: Fire meets ice
The first study of comet dust brought to Earth by a spacecraft has revealed several minerals that could have formed only at the fiery temperatures close to the sun or another star.
- Physics
Tipsy Superfluids: Glimpsing off-kilter quantum clouds
A new type of superfluid atom cloud that's been thrown off-balance by having more atoms with their quantum spins pointing up than down, or vice versa, seems to defy theoretical expectations.
- Earth
Still Standing: Tsunamis won’t wash away Maldives atolls
The December 2004 tsunami had little geological impact on the seemingly fragile coral-reef islands of the Maldives archipelago.
- Health & Medicine
Defect Detector: Plugging holes in a breast cancer–gene screen
A genetic test not available in the United States catches many potentially cancer-causing BRCA-gene mutations not detected by the sole U.S. test.
- Plants
Reality Botany: Data ease doubts about plant species
Despite the doubts of some botanists, plant species aren't just some arbitrary human classification scheme, says a team of evolutionary biologists.
