News
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From Mind to Matter: Data analysis challenges psychokinesis
Numerous experiments in which volunteers mentally attempt to influence the output of computers that generate random sequences of 1s and 0s have failed to show that individuals can use their minds to manipulate the physical world.
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Deadly Disorder: Imagined-ugliness illness yields high suicide rate
The suicide rate among people with a psychiatric disorder that causes them to perceive themselves as ugly is higher than that among people with major depression.
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Gender Divide: Gene expression differs in males and females
The two sexes vary in the amounts of proteins produced by thousands of genes.
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Bee Concerned: Big study—Selective pollinators are declining
A new study provides evidence of a decline among some of Europe's insect pollinators and the wild plants that need them.
- Physics
Terrific Timekeeper: Optical atomic clock beats world standard
An innovative atomic clock is more precise than the breed of clocks that's been the best for 50 years.
- Earth
Global warming heats up nursery of hurricanes
Sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean reached record highs last year.
- Earth
Alaskan coral beds get new protection
To protect cold-water corals, huge areas of Alaskan waters will be off limits to trawls and other fishing gear that typically scrape the seafloor.
- Health & Medicine
Ingredient might prevent sexually transmitted disease
A seaweed derivative that's commonly added to many consumer products as a thickening agent can inhibit the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts.
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Mammoths: Blondes and brunettes?
The wool of woolly mammoths may have come in at least two shades.
- Plants
Orchid bends around to insert pollen
An orchid species in China has set a new record for acrobatics in self-pollination, twisting its male organs around and inserting them into the cavity where the female organ lies.
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Why people punish
When punishing criminals, people tend to seek retribution, not deterrence.
- Animals
Stilts for ants make case for pedometer
Changing the leg length of desert ants upsets their ability to judge distance, providing the first evidence in any animal of a built-in odometer based on stride.
