News
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Drugs lengthen worm’s life span
A class of antiseizure drugs significantly extends the life span of roundworms, a finding that could lead to better understanding of factors that influence aging in people.
- Earth
Ice age hit Missouri 2.4 million years ago
Analyses of a soil sample from central Missouri suggest the date of onset of North America's most recent spate of ice ages.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Ozone saps toads’ immune systems
In amphibians, ozone damages immune function in the lungs, suggesting a possible new contributor to worldwide amphibian declines.
By Janet Raloff - Math
Hospitals motivated to skimp on infection control
A new mathematical model suggests that the presence of nearby hospitals may give a hospital an economic incentive to relax its infection-control efforts.
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A new test for Alzheimer’s risk?
Failure in visual short-term memory of objects, called iconic memory, could be a warning sign of Alzheimer's disease.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Hubble views bar in galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
A drink a day might keep fuzzy thinking away
One alcoholic drink per day can stave off mental decline in elderly women.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
The Heights of School Science: Select student research rises to the top
Forty high school students have each earned a slot in the final round of the 2005 Intel Science Talent Search.
By Ben Harder - Chemistry
Hungry for Hydrogen: Microbes in hot springs feed on unlikely source
Microbes dwelling in Yellowstone National Park's hot springs draw their energy not from sulfur but from hydrogen.
- Plants
In a Snap: Leaf geometry drives Venus flytrap’s bite
Behind a Venus flytrap's rapid snap lies an extraordinary shape-changing mechanism.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Good Exposure: Contact with babies might lessen MS risk
People who grow up with younger siblings close to them in age are less likely to develop multiple sclerosis later in life than are people without such siblings.
By Nathan Seppa - Math
Sizing Up Complex Webs: Close or far, many networks look the same
Complex networks, including the World Wide Web, have a common architecture with snowflakes and trees.