News
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Astronomy
Making waves
Locked in a deadly embrace, two white dwarf stars may be the strongest source of gravitational waves now flooding our galaxy.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
The supernova that wasn’t
A brilliant stellar outburst once thought to be a supernova explosion actually left the star intact.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Andromeda gets bigger
A new study reveals that the diameter of the Andromeda galaxy's disk spans some 220,000 light-years, three times as big as had been estimated.
By Ron Cowen -
Paleontology
Newfound dinosaur wasn’t sticking its neck out
Fossils of a new, 10-meter-long sauropod species excavated in South America suggest that, unlike most of its massive kin, the creature had a relatively short neck.
By Sid Perkins -
Tech
Slick trick snags catalyst
A costly type of catalyst sticks to Teflon, suggesting a new way to recover these chemicals from solutions.
By Peter Weiss -
Anthropology
Climate shift shaped Aussie extinctions
Stone Age people lived virtually side-by-side with now-extinct animals in western Australia for 6,000 years.
By Bruce Bower -
Earth
Farmers without Fungus: How to store peanuts to reduce toxins
African peanut farmers can more than halve their exposure to a class of harmful fungal toxins called aflatoxins by adopting several simple measures after harvest.
By Ben Harder -
Materials Science
Micropower Heats Up: Propane fuel cell packs a lot of punch
Portable electronic devices such as laptops and MP3 players could soon run on miniature fuel cells that consume propane.
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Earth
Icy Heat: Satellites look at heat flow through Antarctica’s crust
Using satellite observations of Earth's magnetic field, scientists can estimate the amount of heat flowing upward through Earth's surface under kilometers-thick ice.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
Back to Genetics: DNA variant may code for lumbar pain
An inheritable gene variation may increase susceptibility to lumbar-disk disease.
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Astronomy
Peering into a disrupted stellar nursery
A new infrared portrait of the Carina nebula star-forming region shows a clutch of baby stars tucked inside pillars of thick dust.
By Ron Cowen