News
- Materials Science
Slick Surfaces: Pressure builds to make better motor oils
Motor oil's protection against the wear and tear of steel engine parts takes effect only at high pressures.
- Health & Medicine
Anoint Them with Oil: Cheap-and-easy treatment cuts infection rates in premature infants
Massaging premature babies with sunflower-seed oil can cut bloodborne infection rates.
- Astronomy
Weighing In on a Star: A stellar size limit
A new study suggests that no star in our galaxy can weigh more than 150 times the mass of the sun.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Slowpoke: Atmosphere put brakes on meteorite that formed famed crater
The extraterrestrial object that gouged out Arizona's Meteor Crater about 50,000 years ago struck at a speed much slower than most scientists had previously proposed.
By Sid Perkins -
Monkey See, Monkey Think: Grape thefts instigate debate on primate’s mind
Rhesus monkeys treat a competitor's averted eyes as a license to steal his or her food.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Blindness Hazard: Gene variant tied to macular degeneration
People who make a particular form of an immune system protein have a heightened risk of developing old-age blindness.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Injections cut need for HIV drugs
An experimental vaccine, when given to people infected with HIV, appears to reduce their dependence on antiviral drugs.
By Ben Harder - Humans
Death can outdo ABCs of prevention
Abstinence and monogamy may deserve little, if any, credit for the recent drop in the proportion of Ugandans who are infected with HIV.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Inner-brain electrode may curb depression
Deep-brain electrical stimulation has shown promise in treating severe depression.
- Astronomy
Radiation from a baby star
X-ray telescopes have captured the earliest and clearest view of the core of a gas cloud about to transform into a star.
By Ron Cowen -
Master gene found for insect smell
A single gene may oversee the sense of smell in a variety of insect species.
- Anthropology
Inside view of our wee, ancient cousins
A tiny, humanlike species that inhabited an Indonesian island more than 20,000 years ago possessed a brain that shared some organizational features with Homo erectus, a large-brained human ancestor that thought in complex ways.
By Bruce Bower