News
- Astronomy
Ring around the Pulsar: Planets may form in a harsh environment
Astronomers have found a disk that has the potential to make planets in the harsh environment surrounding the ultradense remains of an exploded star.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
See Blind Mice: Algae gene makes sightless eyes sense light
Scientists have prompted mouse-eye cells that aren't normally light sensitive to respond to light.
- Earth
Volcanic mineral caused rare cancer in Turkey
In two Turkish villages, nearly half of all deaths since 1980 have resulted from a form of cancer caused by inhaling erionite, a brittle and fibrous volcanic mineral that looks similar to wool.
By Ben Harder - Planetary Science
Another red spot, by Jove
Jupiter has developed a second red spot, which is now visible in the predawn sky with a telescope 10 inches or larger.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Twin history
The Milky Way and its nearest large galactic neighbor, Andromeda, are more alike than earlier evidence had indicated.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Experimental drug targets Alzheimer’s
A novel drug reverses some Alzheimer's-type symptoms in mice.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Two-fifths of Amazonian forest is at risk
The Amazon basin's forest may lose 2.1 million square kilometers by 2050 if current development trends go unabated.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
Chimps scratch out grooming requests
Pairs of adult males in a community of wild African chimps often communicate with gestures.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Sharpshooter threatens Tahiti by inedibility
A North American insect is menacing Tahitian ecosystems by getting itself killed and proving surprisingly toxic to its predators.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Parasite can’t survive without its tail
The protozoan that causes African sleeping sickness can't survive in the mammalian bloodstream without its long, whiplike tail.
- Planetary Science
Propelling Evidence: Cassini finds clues to source of Saturn’s rings
Four propeller-shaped gaps in one of Saturn's main rings are the latest evidence that a shattered moon produced the planet's dazzling hoops.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
Coral Clues: Rise and fall of reefs record quakes’ effects
Shallow coral reefs around islands west of Sumatra chronicled the uplift and subsidence that resulted from the massive quakes that struck that region in 2004 and 2005.
By Sid Perkins