Uncategorized
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Space
Panel says planned NASA rocket won’t do the job
The Ares 1 set to replace the space shuttle is too expensive and won’t be ready soon enough, the Augustine Committee concludes.
By Ron Cowen -
Animals
Ancient giant beavers did not chow on trees
The now-extinct animals had a hippo-like diet
By Sid Perkins -
Chemistry
How leaves could monitor pollution
Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.
By Sid Perkins -
Life
Estrogen helps ward off belly fat
Hormone is one reason that men and women carry weight differently
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Life
Fossil find sparks debate on primate origins
A 37-million-year-old jaw suggests the famous fossil Darwinius does not, as had been suggested, fill a gap in human evolution.
By Bruce Bower -
Animals
Junk food turns rats into addicts
Bacon, cheesecake and Ho Hos elicit addictive behavior in rats similar to the behavior of rats addicted to heroin.
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Earth
Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River
A modern survey of terrain determines flow rate of the 1889 flood that was one of America's deadliest disasters.
By Sid Perkins -
Life
People can control their Halle Berry neurons
Researchers pinpoint individual brain cells that respond to particular people and objects.
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Health & Medicine
Exercise helps brains bounce back
Study of rhesus monkeys shows running protects dopamine neurons from death.
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Space
SuperEarths common for other stars
A mother lode of 32 newly discovered planets brings the number of known extrasolar planets to more than 400 and suggests that lightweight planets are common around sunlike stars.
By Ron Cowen -
Sperm whales as a carbon sink
New estimates suggest the mammals’ feeding habits help take in carbon.
By Susan Milius -
Space
Images show puny plume from moon crash
Data from another craft suggest iron and mercury, not frozen water, were kicked up when a spent rocket plunged into a lunar crater
By Ron Cowen