Uncategorized
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Space
Moon crash reveals crater held water
Plume of lunar material contained roughly 25 gallons of vapor and ice.
By Ron Cowen -
Physics
New device can use noise to store one bit
Data storage system employs a resonance effect to do work.
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Anthropology
For Hadza, build and brawn don’t matter for choosing mates
Study of hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania shows that, across human groups, mating criteria vary.
By Bruce Bower -
Unsticking Spirit
Efforts to extract the Mars rover from a sandpit will start November 16, but success is uncertain.
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Ecosystems
Impatiens plants are more patient with siblings
Streamside wildflower holds back on leaf competition when roots meet close kin
By Susan Milius -
Life
Newborn cells clear space in brain’s memory-maker
Rodent study offers first evidence that neurogenesis clears old memories in key part of the brain to make way for new ones.
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Life
Genetic effects suggest FOXP2 role in language evolution
Human version of the protein alters activity of 116 genes compared with the chimp version.
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Space
Chemical fingerprint found for planet hunting
The amount of lithium in the atmosphere of sunlike stars is a powerful indicator of whether such stars have planets, a new study reveals.
By Ron Cowen -
Paleontology
Small ancestor of giant sauropods unearthed
Fossils suggest that the bipedal dinosaur occasionally walked on all fours and could open its mouth wide to gather foliage.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & Medicine
The childhood nerve cancer neuroblastoma shows weakness
A compound that unshackles a tumor-suppressing protein called p53 can slow the growth of the malignancy in mice, a new study finds.
By Nathan Seppa -
Space
The Milky Way, aglow with activity
Combining infrared and X-ray images from three orbiting observatories, NASA has unveiled a never-before-seen composite portrait of the Milky Way’s bustling center.
By Ron Cowen -
Earth
Asteroid impact could have stirred the ocean
Model offers one explanation for sudden change in deep-ocean chemistry almost 2 billion years ago.
By Sid Perkins