News
- Humans
New law to limit politicized science
A new law prohibits three federal agencies from knowingly disseminating bad data and bans application of any political litmus test to experts under consideration as advisers.
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Enzyme measures RNA using natural ruler
An enzyme that chops RNA into identically sized pieces uses itself to measure those lengths.
- Chemistry
Reactions on the spot
Researchers report that they have engineered a miniature pipette that can dispense solutions at volumes of a billionth of a billionth of a liter.
- Materials Science
Engineering membranes from cellular parts
Chemists have for the first time spun the molecules that make up cellular membranes into fibrous networks.
- Anthropology
India cultivated homegrown farmers
A new analysis of Y chromosome structure supports the view that around 10,000 years ago, people living in what's now India took up farming rather than giving way to foreigners who brought agriculture into South Asia.
- Earth
Sinking Mercury: Light-based reactions destroy toxic chemical in Arctic lakes
Sunlight triggers the entry of poisonous mercury into polar lakes, but it also removes most of the toxic compound before fish can consume it.
- Physics
Thermonuclear Squeeze: Altered method extends bubble-fusion claim
A technique that some scientists claim generates thermonuclear fusion in a benchtop apparatus apparently works even without its controversial neutron trigger.
- Astronomy
Pay Dirt: Cometary dust collector comes home
A capsule containing dust collected from the comet Wild-2 safely landed in the Utah desert.
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Intrinsic Remedies for Pain: Placebo effect may take various paths in brain
The brain draws on a range of pain-fighting options when people receive sham treatments for pain.
- Earth
Diabetes from a Plastic? Estrogen mimic provokes insulin resistance
Exposure to trace amounts of an estrogenlike ingredient of polycarbonate plastic may increase the risk of diabetes, experiments in mice show.
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Dieting to Save a Species: Mother parrots that eat less avoid excess of sons
New Zealand's endangered, flightless parrot population is recovering from a shortage of daughters now that conservationists are counting calories for the mothers.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Push: Finding pieces of a dark puzzle
A controversial new study, the first to use gamma-ray bursts to measure the expansion of the universe far back in time, hints that dark energy may not be constant in time.
