News
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
Defenses Down: Mutation boosts West Nile risk
A genetic mutation has been identified that increases a person's susceptibility to West Nile virus.
- Astronomy
Images reveal possible origin of young stars
Astronomers say they have solved the riddle of how young, massive stars can reside so close to the monster black hole at the Milky Way's center.
- Planetary Science
One star better than two?
Rather than disrupting the planet-forming process around another star, a nearby companion may sometimes enhance it, new computer simulations suggest.
- Astronomy
Hubble spots North Star companion
Astronomers have obtained an image of a close companion star to Polaris, the North Star.
