News
- Astronomy
Proton storm erupts from the sun
A storm of high-speed protons, triggered by a Jan. 20 solar eruption, bombarded spacecraft and was the most energetic such squall recorded in 15 years.
-
Anxieties stoke bipolar unrest
Insomnia and other serious sleep difficulties plague many people with bipolar disorder, even after medications have eased their extreme mood swings.
- Humans
NIH tightens its ethics rules
The National Institutes of Health issued new ethics rules to keep its employees from engaging in potentially questionable relationships with organizations that might have a financial interest in NIH activities or policies.
- Tech
Outsmarting the Electronic Gatekeeper: Code breakers beat security scheme of car locks, gas pumps
Because designers flouted a well-known rule for making cryptographic systems impenetrable, automakers and other businesses have embraced a wireless security technology that's vulnerable to attack.
- Animals
Bad Breath: Insects zip air holes to cut oxygen risks
The need to avoid overdosing on oxygen may drive certain insects to shut down their breathing holes periodically.
- Materials Science
Petrified wood: Quick and easy
Materials scientists have turned wood into stone in a matter of days, mimicking a natural process that takes millions of years.
- Health & Medicine
There’s the Rub: Football abrasions can lead to nasty infections
U.S. football players who get scrapes and cuts from playing on artificial turf sometimes develop bacterial infections that are resistant to some antibiotics.
-
A Bug’s Life: E. coli can’t escape old age
Bacteria that divide symmetrically, once thought to be functionally immortal, may age and die just like other organisms do.
- Health & Medicine
When Ebola Looms: Human outbreaks follow animal infections
A network of organizations in an African region prone to Ebola epidemics has identified the virus in wild-animal remains prior to two recent human outbreaks, suggesting that animal carcasses may provide timely clues that could prevent the disease from spreading to people.
- Astronomy
Puny Parent? Planets may form around tiny orbs
Barely more massive than a planet itself, a tiny failed star 500 light-years from Earth is nonetheless cloaked in a disk of gas and dust from which planets may coalesce.
- Health & Medicine
Disease Detector: Chemical test may spot Alzheimer’s
A new test that detects very low levels of protein clumps associated with Alzheimer's may provide an early warning for the disease.
- Tech
Detecting life on Mars
A new device could look for life on Mars by analyzing the geometric traits of amino acids in soil.
