News
- Earth
Dim View: Darkening skies a regional phenomenon
The decline in the solar radiation reaching Earth's surface in the latter half of the 20th century turns out to have been mostly a regional phenomenon.
By Sid Perkins - Planetary Science
Fresh Mars: Craft views new gullies, craters, and landslides
A comparison of images taken just a few years apart by a Mars orbiting spacecraft reveals recent landslides, freshly carved gullies, and a 20-meter-wide crater gouged in the planet's surface no earlier than 25 years ago.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
Steep Degrade Ahead: Road salt threatens waters in Northeast
Using road salt to clear icy highways in the northeastern United States is increasingly tainting streams throughout the region.
By Sid Perkins -
Meds Alert: Old schizophrenia drug stands up to new ones
A new, much-touted generation of antipsychotic drugs generally yields no more improvement in people with schizophrenia than an older, cheaper antipsychotic medication does.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
Docs shy away from telling kids they’re heavy
A major study has found that doctors don't routinely discuss a child's weight problems with the family, and that the younger the child the less likely the topic will come up.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Liquid-detergent packets threaten children’s eyes
Sealed bags containing liquid detergent for single loads of laundry may be convenient, but if squeezed, they're liable to burst and spray their caustic contents into people's eyes.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
Genes tied to recent brain evolution
Two genes already known to influence brain size have undergone relatively recent, survival-enhancing modifications in people and appear to be still evolving.
By Bruce Bower - Planetary Science
Icy world found inside asteroid
New observations of Ceres, the largest known asteroid, hint that frozen water may account for as much as 25 percent of its interior.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Deaths in early 1918 heralded flu pandemic
An examination of New York City death records from early last century suggests that the world's deadliest flu virus was on the loose in New York several months before it exploded into the 1918-1919 global pandemic.
By Ben Harder - Earth
Sow what? Climate reviews help farmers choose
African subsistence farmers are far likelier to leverage rainfall forecasts into better crop yields after attending workshops explaining the basis for the rain predictions.
By Janet Raloff - Ecosystems
West Nile virus fells endangered condor
A 3-month-old California condor chick, one of only four of this highly endangered species born in the wild this year, succumbed to a West Nile virus infection.
By Janet Raloff - Astronomy
Keeping Hubble from being hobbled
NASA late last month shut down one of the aging Hubble Space Telescope's three gyros in an effort to extend its life.
By Ron Cowen