News
- Astronomy
Recipe for a Heavyweight: Making a massive star
New findings strongly support the notion that at least some massive stars form much as their lighter-weight siblings do, by packing on material from a surrounding disk of gas and dust.
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Olives Alive: Extra-virgin oil has anti-inflammatory properties
A molecule isolated from extra-virgin olive oil has anti-inflammatory properties similar to those of ibuprofen.
- Anthropology
Chimps to People: Apes show contrasts in genetic makeup
The first comparison of the chimpanzee genome to that of people has revealed new DNA disparities between ourselves and the primate species most closely related to us.
- Humans
Movies put smoking in a bad light
Smokers in American films are more likely to be villains than heroes, a review of movies from the 1990s shows.
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Chimps ape others to learn tool use
Chimpanzees appear to develop traditions of tool use by copying one another's behavior and conforming to a successful approach.
- Earth
Can polluted air cause birth defects?
For the second time, scientists have found evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to air pollution may cause certain birth defects.
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People with malaria attract more mosquitoes
The protozoan causing malaria may facilitate its own spread by making people more alluring to mosquitoes.
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Placebo reins in pain in brain
Pain relief provided by inert medications may reflect increased transmission of a brain chemical involved in regulating stress and suppressing pain.
- Astronomy
Hidden black holes
A new study has added to existing evidence that most of the monster black holes at the cores of galaxies are shrouded by dust.
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Rice, revealed
Researchers have finished a 6-year-long effort to sequence the genome of rice.
- Animals
What’s That Knocking? Sound evidence offered for long-lost woodpecker
Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology has released recordings from the woods of eastern Arkansas that researchers say could be the distinctive drumming and calls of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
- Chemistry
Presto, Change-o: New solutions could clean up chemistry
Scientists have developed a simple technique to switch an oil-like solvent into a waterlike one.
